tragedy at Buttonwillow

#1

During one of the races at Buttonwillow on Saturday afternoon, two Factory Five Racers got together coming out of the esses. The contact caused one of the cars to spin off track and barrel-roll down the following straight.

Dan Lawson, the driver of the car that rolled, was pronounced dead shortly after the incident. I don’t know the specifics of the accident nor the cause of death.

I’ve seen Dan around the paddocks many times, but never introduced myself to him. Info on his background can be found on the factory five website (link below). Also, links to threads about him on the factory five message board and bimmerforums are below as well.

http://www.factoryfive.com/table/whatsnew/danlawson.html

http://www.ffcobra.com/cgi-bin/ultim...1;t=071674;p=1

The BMW CR racers in attendance are donating to St. Jude’s Hospital, the charity recommended by Dan’s daughter. Maury Gentile has offered to collect donations and forward them on in Dan’s name. I wanted to forward this on in case any of the spec racers would like to participate. I will be. Maury’s email regarding this follows:

[i]Guys,

Since I was the first one to the scene of the accident I feel it is my
obligation to coordinate this effort. I will be sending in a $500
donation
in the name of our group to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
and
flowers to the memorial service on Saturday. If you want to
participate
please forward a check to my contact address below. Any additional
funds
will be forwarded to St. Jude. Thanks, Maury

Maury Gentile
Senior Vice President
Tenant Advisory Group
Grubb & Ellis Company
19191 S. Vermont Avenue, Suite 900
Torrance, CA 90502
310-491-2090 (direct line)
310-491-2060 (fax)
maury.gentile@grubb-ellis.com
-----Original Message-----
From: pacific-racers-owner@bmwccaclubracing.com
[mailto:pacific-racers-owner@bmwccaclubracing.com] On Behalf Of Marco
Romani
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 7:58 PM
To: 'Pacific BMWCCA’
Subject: RE: [PA BMW CCA CR] Memorial services for Dan Lawson

from the FFR page

"If you would like to make a donation, Kelly Lawson (Dan’s Daughter)
said
the family has selected a charity in Dan’s honor. Please send
donations to
the St Jude Children’s Hospital on behalf of Dan Lawson at
http://www.stjude.org/"[/i]

I’ve never been at the track when anything like this has happened. I’m still having trouble knowing what to say. I had some minor car troubles which prevented me from driving on Sunday, but that seems pretty trivial right now.

Steve

#2

That’s terrible. My thoughts, prayers and condolences to his family.

Maybe it’s just the fact that I’m much more aware of fatal incidents since I started pursuing my license, but it seems like there’s been a high number of fatal incidents of late (PCA @ Watkins Glenn, BMWCCA @ NHIS, NASA @ MSR, BW)…

#3

[quote=“sharkd” post=3063]That’s terrible. My thoughts, prayers and condolences to his family.

Maybe it’s just the fact that I’m much more aware of fatal incidents since I started pursuing my license, but it seems like there’s been a high number of fatal incidents of late (PCA @ Watkins Glenn, BMWCCA @ NHIS, NASA @ MSR, BW)…[/quote]

NASA has an unusual amount of deaths, which is very odd.

#4

My thoughts & prayers go out to Dans family & this terrible loss.
Dan RIP,Godspeed…

#5

You dug up a 6+ year old topic for that comment? Why?

#6

It was a spammer that brought the thread back. I deleted the spam email so now it looks like Foglight brought the thread back.

#7

Jesus, I should have looked at the date…

#8

How about we just delete all this new stuff?

#9

Sounds good

#10

Didn’t notice the date of post but wondered about a NASA event there last weekend…Thought next event was mid October.