Sean Edwards killed (Update)
“Sean was family to us," said MOMO principal and co-driver Henrique Cisneros. “Our entire MOMO NGT Motorsport team is family and Sean was very much a part of that and a great friend. We are all at a loss of words that this happened and Sean won’t be coming into the transporter again to tell us a joke or give us racing advice, both of which he did so well. We have had an incredible season and he has been a big part of that. It looked like he was going to win the Porsche SuperCup championship in a few weeks and he was excited he was having such an amazing race season.
“We thought VIR was going to be the last race of the season with us because he had a German Carrera Cup commitment with his sponsors and could not join us for Petit Le Mans. Sean was a truly impressive driver and we will all miss him immensely. We send our condolences to his family, his girlfriend, Laura, and for all of us in his racing family that will miss his smile, his stories, his zest for life and his talent."
Others in the racing community shared their kind words as well, including Jens Walther, president of Porsche Motorsport North America.
“Sean Edwards was the perfect combination of great teammate and skilled sports car driver, making him a very popular choice to join any team that hired him," said Jens Walther, president of Porsche Motorsport North America. “At Porsche, I knew Sean very well from his first steps in the Porsche world both in Porsche Supercup and Carrera Cup in Europe as well as the American Le Mans Series in the United States. This terrible information about the accident is the worst news we could receive. He has made a lasting impression on our Porsche Motorsport family, and we will never forget him. Our prayers go out to his family, his NGT Motorsport and Project 1 teammates, his friends, and all the fans who came to appreciate Sean on and off the track."
The sports car racing community will honor Sean this week at Road Atlanta during the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) finale, Petit Le Mans. In tribute to Edwards’ memory, a memorial decal has been created for all cars competing in the ALMS season finale at Petit Le Mans. The decal design was created from an illustration of Edwards’ helmet by renowned motorsports artist Andy Blackmore.
10/15/13 The British driver Sean Edwards has been killed in an accident during a private test at Queensland Raceway in Australia. The 26-year-old was in a Porsche 996 as a passenger when it hit the barriers at the circuit on Tuesday. He had been leading the drivers' championship of the Porsche Supercup series, all of the races for which take place at Formula One events.
Edwards is understood to have been killed instantly when the car left the track and impacted with tire wall on the outside of turn six at the track in Ipswich, 25 miles west of Brisbane. The driver was extracted from the wreckage, which caught fire, by emergency services and was taken to intensive care with life-threatening injuries.
It is understood it took three hours to remove the driver from the car. Inspector Dave Preston of Queensland police said it had been a difficult operation to get the man out of the mangled wreckage: "The fire and rescue had to do extensive work in relation to extracting and opening the vehicle up sufficiently to remove him. He was trapped for some time."
The driver, who has yet to be named, was a 20-year-old Brisbane man. His family were understood to be trackside at the time and were distraught. He was pinned from the waist down in the wreckage for three hours after the crash took place at 11.30am, after which he was airlifted to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.
Edwards was the son of Guy Edwards who competed in Formula One and the 24 Hours of Le Mans during the 1970s and 1980s and was one of the drivers who helped remove Niki Lauda from his burning car at the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.
Edwards himself had won the European GT3 Championship in 2006 and gone on to race in the FIA GT Championship, the American Le Mans Series, the Le Mans 24 hours and the Porsche Supercup and Porsche Supercup Germany series. He finished third in a Porsche in the GT2 class at his very first 24 hour race, at Spa in 2007.
Having won the Dubai 24 Hours last year he did so again in 2013 and was also a winner for the Black Falcon team at the Nürburgring 24 this year and took the Long Beach round of the American Le Mans series in the GTC class.
Racing for the Allyouneed by Project 1 team in this year's Porsche Supercup, he had victories in Spain, Monaco and Hungary and was leading the championship by 18 points with two races at Yas Marina due to have taken place on 2-3 November.
He had also recently taken part in the making of the film Rush, recounting the 1976 F1 battle between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, advising on the racing scenes and in some parts portraying his father.
The crash comes just five months after another death at Queensland Raceway. In June a 23-year-old motorbike rider was killed when he hit the back wheel of another rider. The Guardian