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Man dies when truck hits wall at Sebring racetrack

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By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: October 17, 2009

SEBRING - The 63-year-old Bonita Springs man who died about 11 p.m. Friday when his 2002 GMC pickup truck crashed into a closed portion of Sebring International Raceway was a trespasser, track authorities said.

Florida Highway Patrol officers reported the truck "was traveling at a high rate of speed as he entered Turn 17." The truck was unable to negotiate the right turn and skidded into a tire barrier wall. It crashed into the wall and caught fire.

A track worker tried to get Douglas K. Martin out of the truck after the crash, said Robert Hayward, the safety steward. Martin looked at his rescuer, then turned away, Hayward said.

Martin was a big man, and the worker alone was unable to remove him.

Martin was wearing a seat belt, according to the report by Trooper Jesse DeBoom and Cpl. Albert Middleton.

"We don't know who he was," Hayward said. "I have done nothing since 7 this morning but try to find out."

The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) had rented one side of the track, said raceway President and CEO Tres Stephenson. Hayward said SCCA events are not for spectators, but Martin got in.

"He's not one of our guys, really," Hayward said. "We don't know who he was, or who he was with. We can't find where signed in. I don't think he was with anybody."

Witnesses told Hayward that Martin was observed drinking beer before the event closed at 5 p.m. "He was not talking in sentences, didn't answer questions, and he was rubbing his head."

Martin was also showing a photo of a racing car he told others he had owned 10 years ago, an Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite.

After the others left, Hayward said, Martin got in his GMC pickup truck, which was not allowed on the track. He drove around barriers, Stephenson said, and entered the unrented side of the track.

"We've … determined the man was trespassing," Hayward said. "He circumvented locked gates, he was on a racing facility where he had no business being, and he was in some way impaired."

Turn 17 is one of the most difficult, Stephenson said: after a long straightaway, the driver must slow the vehicle, make a 180-degree right turn, and then accelerate again for another long straightaway.

In the raceway's history, several professional drivers, in cars designed to take such turns, have crashed at Turn 17.

Martin's body was taken by the state medical examiner.

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