Racing legend Brock killed in car crash

Nine-times Bathurst 1000 winner and Australian motor racing legend Peter Brock has been killed while competing in the Targa West Tarmac Rally in Western Australia.

Brock was competing on the second day of the Targa West Rally when his Daytona Coupe hit a tree on a country road near the small community of Gidgegannup, about 40 kilometres east of Perth.

Brock, 61, was killed and his co-driver Mick Hone was injured. Hone was later taken to Swan Districts Hospital where he was reported to be in a stable condition. The Confederation of Australian Motorsport said the crash happened at about midday local time. No other cars are believed to have been involved. The road had been closed to traffic and spectators and road rules had been suspended for the race.

WA police spokesman Graham Clifford said the Major Crash Unit from Perth was at the scene and was investigating the accident. "We believe that a vehicle is approaching a sweeping bend and for whatever reason lost control, left the road and collided with a tree," he said. He said it was unclear how fast the car was travelling when it crashed into the tree. "At the time it was a speed section, so it would have been travelling fairly quickly at that location," he said.

It was the first time Brock had competed in the rally. Event organisers will hold a meeting tonight to decide whether the race will continue.

Prime Minister John Howard said Peter would be remembered as a legend. "I was shocked and saddened to hear of Peter Brock's death," Mr Howard said.

"The removal of Brockie takes away a legend of motor racing in Australia."

'Peter Perfect'

Known as 'Peter Perfect' and the 'King of the Mountain', Brock won the Bathurst 1000 nine times in the 1970s and 80s.

In 1969 the Holden Dealer Team gave Brock his first break to drive at the Bathurst 1000 - he placed third.

He became the team's lead driver and won his first Bathurst 1000 in 1972, going on to win the 1979 race by a record six laps.

In 1980 he became the first driver to win the trifecta of Bathurst, Sandown and the Australian Touring Car title in the same year.

Brock's Bathurst reign was marked by a long-running rivalry with Ford driver Allan Moffat, and the pair were so intensely competitive that they never flew on the same airline together.

In 1997, Brock retired from full-time V8 Supercars racing and launched the Peter Brock Foundation, which provides support to a wide range of community programs. But returned to Bathurst to win the 24-hour race in 2003.

Peter Geoffrey Brock

26 February, 1945 - 8 September, 2006

Taken from here and here

~*Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin Dies*~

'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin has been killed in a stingray attack near Cairns on Australia's far north coast today - Monday September 4th, 2006.

Irwin had been filming a segment for his daughter Bindi's upcoming television series. Irwin was in the area filming his own documentary, to be called Ocean's Deadliest, but weather had stalled filming. Irwin decided to take the opportunity to film some shallow water shots for his daughter's television program.

"It is understood he was killed by a stingray barb that went through his chest," and put a whole into his heart.

Crew members aboard the boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later.

Stingray attacks are extremely rare. There have only been two similar deaths reported in Australia.

Irwin is famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchcry "Crikey!" in his television program "Crocodile Hunter," which was first broadcast in Australia in 1992 and has aired around the world on the Discovery channel.

He rode his image into a feature film, 2002's "The Crocodile Hunters: Collision Course" and developed the Australia Zoo as a tourist attraction.

Prime Minister John Howard, among many other politicians, expressed his "shock and distress" at the death, saying that "Australia has lost a wonderful and colourful son.

” Steve Irwin's body was flown to a morgue in Cairns, where stunned family and friends were gathering on Monday night. His wife Terri was informed of her husband's death while on a walking tour in Tasmania, and returned to the Sunshine Coast with their two children Bindi and Robert.

"He died doing what he loved best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. He would have said, "Crocs Rule!"


Steve Irwin
1962 - 2006