Boosted Falcon

V8 SUPERCAR driver and father of two Ashley Cooper has died from injuries received in a crash in Adelaide at the weekend.
The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport today confirmed Cooper had died in Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Cooper, 27, of Ulladulla in NSW, died following a crash in last Saturday's Fujitsu development series race at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.

An experienced motor racing competitor, Cooper was critically injured when his vehicle impacted with a safety barrier at the exit of a corner at speeds of more than 200kph.

Cooper was quickly attended to trackside by the event's senior medical personnel and subsequently transported to the Royal Adelaide Hospital by ambulance.

CAMS President, Colin Osborne, said Cooper's death was something that would be felt by the entire Australian motor sport community.

"Firstly our thoughts and sympathies go to Ashley's family and friends, particularly his wife Casey and two children and parents Alan and Maree," said Osborne. "It is always a very sad day when any member of the motor sport community is taken from us.

"The motor racing community involves a close knit group of competitors and officials and I know that everyone will be feeling the loss of Ashley.

"CAMS will conduct its own full independent investigation to determine the circumstances leading to the incident."

CAMS chief executive Graham Fountain said the family had been offered counselling and support services.

Bummer. Was a fair hit but one i actually thought you could walk away from. ? Guess i was way wrong

mgiht be time to do something about that corner.

Damn

The triple ute smash looked nastier, yet all 3 drivers were fine-ish

EFFalcon wrote:mgiht be time to do something about that corner.

True that, its just a shame that it take death to create action...

R.I.P Cooper

Was a hit just like any other at Turn 8, maybe his body just wasnt up to the task. Shame to see these things happening, especially with the amount of safety gear the cars have.
Im with Dave, I thought there may have been a serious injury in the ute race, that was HUGE!

RIP Ashley.

WOW - it's always a shame when a driver is killed on the track.

Condolences to his friends and family.

Wow.

Didn't expect that at all.
RIP Ashley Cooper.

No good - I feared the worse after talking to people who witnessed him being freed from the car.

My thoughts are with his family, particularly wife and 2 young children..

Ute race crash was a whopper! Can't believe nobody got fuct up there, and I equally can't believe that Cooper died as a result of his acco!

It did look like a big hit, but I was expecting maybe neck/spinal/internal injuries rather than him dying Why couldn't it have been David Besnard?

I feel very very sorry for Ashley and his family - I hope they pull through ok

I'd rather die in a 200km/h slide of death than getting cleaned up by a drunk driver at a set of lights though!

^^I agree with that.

RIP Ashley. Definately was a shock considering all the safety gear and precautions they take.

^^I agree with that.

RIP Ashley. Definately was a shock considering all the safety gear and precautions they take.

speaking of which, i saw some commo driver in a wreck last night, looks light he just lost it, rescuse services and shit were everywhere, the car was almost round, not sure about the driver though, anyway

respect to ashley

RIP Ashley, quite a shock really.

There was mention that the car may have clipped the inside of the corner, which would have sent it almost head-on into the outer wall. Imagine a head-on at 200+km/h into an immovable object

RIP

EFFalcon wrote:mgiht be time to do something about that corner.

the corner has been changed before, thats like saying the corner at bathurst should be changed, wont happen, unless next year the adelaide circuit goes back to the full length F1 circuit coz they need more room for spectators i was at the clipsal 500 and apart from that accident it was an awesome weekend!! i dont know if any of you guys would know about murray walkers extreme machines that were there.. which included the Bugatti Veyron and other really expensive and awesome cars... they drove them around the track on sunday and some dickhead spun a koenigsegg into the senna chicane wall, then proceeded to destroy some part of the engine by driving like a dickhead.. was rather funny.. but nontheless was a good weekend... RIP Ashley

nommic wrote:There was mention that the car may have clipped the inside of the corner, which would have sent it almost head-on into the outer wall. Imagine a head-on at 200+km/h into an immovable object

was close to being head on but for hitting an "immovable" object he certainly moved it a long way. as for clipping the inside of the corner.. didnt look like he did, he just slammed straight into the wall.

apperently his seat may have broken off its mounts on impact

RIP to ashley cooper

It was, however a ex Paul Morris Motorsports car, and was bound to have plenty of prior crash damage. It'd be like buying a ex taxi EA with 450 on the odo for the second time, tarted up with some slick paint and 600hp

Always sad to see a race driver die its a damn shame just goes to show how dangerous the sport is

Was sad to hear Ashley died. Was a fair hit but as others said Im suprised no one was more injured in the utes. Poor family and friends.

Apparently it was the rollcage that may have caused his injuries, due to it breaking or coming loose. There's an investigation into it, would love to know the results

its like what some of the V8 main series drivers said, the V8 development series cars are just shithouse compared to the main V8's, they just dont have the same level of safety which then gives more value to dick johnsons comments that maybe the development series shouldnt race at Adelaide because they are mostly the learners of the sport and that corner is too challenging or some crap. At least if Adelaide go back to the old F1 Circuit which could be happening for next year due to popularity then that corner wont be there anymore. it certainly wasnt the hardest hit going into that corner, cars have rolled there before after hitting that wall

Fairmont888 wrote:its like what some of the V8 main series drivers said, the V8 development series cars are just shithouse compared to the main V8's, they just dont have the same level of safety which then gives more value to dick johnsons comments that maybe the development series shouldnt race at Adelaide because they are mostly the learners of the sport and that corner is too challenging or some crap. At least if Adelaide go back to the old F1 Circuit which could be happening for next year due to popularity then that corner wont be there anymore. it certainly wasnt the hardest hit going into that corner, cars have rolled there before after hitting that wall

All the development series car are ALL ex-v8supercars, so how can the safety be any different? They have the same roll cage, the same seat, the same hans device, the same harness, so what is diffrent in the safety level in the cars?
Yes the F1 circuit would be a lot better in terms of safety, but lets on forget Mika Hakkenin spent 4 months in Adelaide hospital and had to learn to walk again after smaking the tires at 200km/h

the point is, they cars are older, they have already been put through a fair beating, and the standards are not as high. we were quite heavly involved with Redant racing aka dexion car, they had one of the best cars for the dev series ( average drivers though ) as you may remember they ended up racing in one of the races last year in the main series

Gunns wrote:All the development series car are ALL ex-v8supercars, so how can the safety be any different? They have the same roll cage, the same seat, the same hans device, the same harness, so what is diffrent in the safety level in the cars?
Yes the F1 circuit would be a lot better in terms of safety, but lets on forget Mika Hakkenin spent 4 months in Adelaide hospital and had to learn to walk again after smaking the tires at 200km/h

the thing i said about the safety was from comments made from V8 main series drivers not my personal opinion most notably James Courtney who incidentally shouldnt be speaking about safety after he decided he would put lowndes into a wall but thats not the point. in regards to the track i dont view it as being an "unsafe" track it complies with all safety standards that it needs to and is checked by all relevant motorsport authorities. that corner used to be alot worse, at the end of the day i guess he was just unlucky

he died doin what he loved, RIP ashley cooper

yeah thats true he dies doing wat he loved.
i was very suprised to hear he died as i remember i think it was seton on the au hit that at i dont no wat speed and rolled it and walked away from it.
RIP ashley cooper.
cheers josh.