Marcelo Núñez's Fatal Crash @ Apodaca 2004
- 7 months ago
The fourth round of the Desafío Corona Stock Car Series, held at Monterrey oval course on 01 August, was marred by several major accidents: in six occasions the yellow flag was brought out by the officials, and the event would be concluded “under yellow” as well. The most severe crash of the day happened on lap thirty-eight when Núñez lost control of his car and, to avoid a frontal impact against the outer wall of Curva Uno, braked and spun over the gravel at the inside of the turn. This created a large cloud of dust and earth that blocked the view of incoming drivers. Núñez’s car then hit the outer wall with its rear and slid to the lower part of the track, stopping near the middle of the road center amidst a haze of dust. At the same time Rafael Vallina of Dream Team, who was making his very first race in that series, and Héctor Sánchez Alemán, nicknamed El Rocket, got to that point of the circuit side by side, with the first in the inside of the track. Vallina could not see the stranded Pontiac and hit it on its right side at estimated 180 km/h; the impact was such that the roll cage and the chassis were extensively deformed, and Núñez received a direct blow.
The tragic accident that cost the life of Marcelo Núñez served as cataliser to a number of complaints and denunciations by his fellow drivers and by members of the specialised media. The cloud of dust generated by Núnez’s spinning car played a central role in the crash, and in several instances before that fatidic race competitors had made requests to track officials for a better upkeeping of the road verges. In fact, ten years before Núnez’s death, driver Marco Magaña was killed in the same Apodaca circuit during a Fórmula Dos race when a stone was thrown by another car racing in front of his, hitting his helmet; the journalist Alfonso García Martínez was also killed in the ensuing accident, and another man was seriously injured. A reenactment of such issues, as the dynamics of Núñez’s crash came to be, was completely unacceptable. Additionally, several witnesses reported that there were no flag marshals in the sector of the track where Vallina hit Núñez’s Pontiac.
R.I.P
The tragic accident that cost the life of Marcelo Núñez served as cataliser to a number of complaints and denunciations by his fellow drivers and by members of the specialised media. The cloud of dust generated by Núnez’s spinning car played a central role in the crash, and in several instances before that fatidic race competitors had made requests to track officials for a better upkeeping of the road verges. In fact, ten years before Núnez’s death, driver Marco Magaña was killed in the same Apodaca circuit during a Fórmula Dos race when a stone was thrown by another car racing in front of his, hitting his helmet; the journalist Alfonso García Martínez was also killed in the ensuing accident, and another man was seriously injured. A reenactment of such issues, as the dynamics of Núñez’s crash came to be, was completely unacceptable. Additionally, several witnesses reported that there were no flag marshals in the sector of the track where Vallina hit Núñez’s Pontiac.
R.I.P