WSBK 1998 Laguna Seca - Race 1 - Akira Yanagawa Crash

[motoman6k]

his bars broke as soon his he touched his front brake

[slowpoke387]

I remember that crash clearly, was watching it live. Akira got the worst of it for sure. I ended up with Doug Chandler's helmet from that crash. Still have it now, dirt embedded in it and all.

[675raptor]

@slowpoke387 I remember that crash clearly myself. I was standing with my brother and a friend right near the top of the hill overlooking the corkscrew and even got some aftermath snapshots of the wreck. That weekend was my bachelor party, they told me to choose between a "normal" bacholer party and the '98 WSBK race in Laguna Seca... EASY CHOICE!

[kimnorkim]

Akira yanagawa..one of the bravest and charismatic racer..long live akira!

[gs1100ed]

The clip-on handlebar came loose on Chandler's bike. mechanical malfunction. Nothing Chandler could do.

[gs1100ed]

The clip-on handlebar sanpped loose on Chandler's bike. Mechanical failure. Nothing he could do.

[Archermahly]

That was Doug Chandler...his clip-on (handlebar) broke causing the crash.

[yokogeri81]

What happened was Chandlers handle bar broke off.

[ItWentChunkaCHUNK]

I take a little offense at the announcers' critiques of the marshals' here, talking about the marshals "waving their hands when they should be waving flags". The camera was only showing the responders, who don't carry flags and were giving proper hand signals (rider injured/roll ambulance/request red flag) to the communicator to relay to Race Control. I was flagging the top of The Corkscrew (turn 8) at the time of the incident and I had a yellow flag out (0:08) and was waving it like a madman.

[SBOWsteffan]

goodwilltubing the guy who slid into Akira was Doug Chandler he had a bike malfunction at the worst place on the track to have one

[WSBArchives]

I'm trying to remember what the official reason given for Chandler's crash was. It was either his front brake lever snapped off in his hand (using only the back brake would have caused the bike to slew sideways like that) or the engine seized up and locked the rear wheel.

Either way, Rob Muzzy (his team manager at the time) didn't want to say that it was a malfunction of one of his bikes that caused the accident and instead insisted that Doug had hit the kerb and caused himself to crash.

[rapid13]

@WSBArchives his right clip-on actually broke when Doug grabbed the brakes.

[daletheguvnor]

@WSBArchives R/H Clip on snapped, hence no front brake, chandler stamped on the rear to try and slow it, but with one bar, he was never gonna save it! thankully yanagawa was ok, he is actually wildcarding at silverstone this weekend for pb motorsport kawasaki.

[dss199]

@SBOWsteffan Was a malfunction as comment below, the Marshalling was terrible in my opinion, way too late to black flag the race

[goodwilltubing]

Holy shite!

That is quite a hell of a crash.

The one who slid into Akira had a lot of luck to not get overrun by Akira.

One of the hardest non-fatal crash I've seen.

[MADLYeverAFTER]

eek

[eaglestrikeman194]

was someone hurt?

[andydale78]

you're a cock.

[die996]

I just try to make fun out of this... man, I wasn't writing seriously

I DO know it could be a very harmful crash

[scallie2]

I remember watching this live and i actually thought Akira had been killed, one of the worst crashes i've seen. Check out the slow mo replays of him bouncing off the rumble strip, he could'nt have landed on a worst spot if he tried.

[eejot14]

Likewise. I watched live and thought it was pretty serious for Yanagawa. Biggest respect to Akira for bouncing back and not only riding again - but taking 4th on his return and finishing the season.