Video from the event doesn’t seem to show anything out of the ordinary for what is typically a very safe type of racing
1 hour ago
Two people died at the Sports Car Club of America’s ProSolo event this past weekend in Packwood, Washington. The SCCA President called the two people, Amber Dawn Jorgensen and Des Toups, pillars of the local Solo communities. The community is mourning their loss while organizers try to figure out how the accident happened.
Autocross is notable for many reasons but typically one of its foremost is safety. Not only are the cars involved usually pushed well beneath their mechanical limits but it’s extremely rare for participants to be in any sort of serious danger. Most autocross courses see speeds that never crest above 60 mph and videos from this event indicate that to be true here too.
According to the SCCA, on Sunday, July 16th, a vehicle in the competition continued past the finish line and hit both another member and a solid structure. The association didn’t say what position either Jorgensen or Toups was in or what injuries they sustained. Air support as well as EMTs assisted on scene but both injured participants lost their lives. The video below shows just one run from the weekend.
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“It’s with an extremely heavy heart that we announce the passing of Amber and Des,” said SCCA President and CEO Mike Cobb. “These two were pillars of their local Solo communities.” Others who attended the event that have also posted on social media about it haven’t as yet provided more details about how the accident happened.
“As the SCCA community begins to process this tragic loss, we are focused on finding a way to provide grief counseling to those who need it,” noted a somber Cobb. “We’re sending our deepest condolences to the families, friends, competitors, and fellow Region members who will surely feel the effects of this loss.”
Notably, one participant told Carscoops that “Left and right courses were the same for both days. Overall It was basically the same as last year’s ProSolo at Packwood,” so the runs you see in both videos here show the end of the course as it was when the accident happened. We’ll update this post as we learn more about the situation.