Driver Kubo Kordisch succumbs to injuries during event

From the American Rally Association:

The American Rally Association has a heavy heart in announcing the death of competitor and driver Kubo Kordisch, who passed away yesterday, Saturday, November 4th, during competition at the Show Me Rally in central Missouri.

An incident occurred at the end of stage 9 of competition Saturday just outside Potosi, Missouri. The 42-year-old Kordisch was …

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RIP

Damn, I almost went down to that event. So sad. 

RIP, prayers to family and friends

Man, I hate hearing this stuff. RIP, and my condolences to his loved ones.

I met him very briefly, in Tulsa.

not really many words here

too many too often it seems

I did not know him but many I do; did.

RIP

An update from the codriver- I'm sharing this here because it's being shared elsewhere, and it helped me immensely to read it:

Drew Carlson said:

A lot of people have been asking ‘how’? They already knew how incredibly talented Kubo is, and that even when he’s hungry to win, and driving at 10/10ths he leaves room for error or an exit strategy. With the blessing from some of Kubo’s friends and family, I’d like to share what we went through as best as I can describe it, supplemented by findings after-the-fact. I hope this will help provide closure for some, and be informative for others.

This is frankly the toughest thing I’ve ever had to endure, and there was no way to shake the thought that as his co-driver/navigator, I may have inadvertently killed not just one of my best friends but everyone’s best friend. When competing at this level things happen fast, and they can be devastating. We all know and understand there’s risk but we all expect to come home after the race.

The last thing I remember was absolutely flying through a fast section of SS9, I knew we had less than 2 miles left, I think I was on my 2nd to last page of pace notes. Then I woke up. We were both being assisted, I couldn’t understand anything. Why were we stopped? How long had we been there? I’m sure I asked that over and over again. Then it hit me. We had left the roadway and went through the trees. Still it didn’t make sense. It was a fast downhill ‘Left 5’ I believe, maybe ‘L5-’ somewhere in the realm of 80-90mph, but even if I somehow missed a note, visibility was fine and it’s not like missing a blind ‘Left 2’ or ‘3’. Simply shedding some speed and rotating the car would put you in the ditch- not 40ft into the trees backwards.

After begging for answers, Kris, the emergency coordinator for the event was able to see first-hand some footage from a GoPro that was remotely mounted at the entry of the turn. He could see that our suspension/steering had failed, and while trying to negotiate the fast left, our front/right wheel was pitched 90* to the right and veered the car away from the road. We ended up taking down a large tree and hitting some others before coming to a stop with my door pushed up against a sharp branch. I keep asking myself how I ended up walking away and my dear friend Kubo is just gone, but the universe isn’t fair. Another couple feet and that branch would have pierced my door, maybe me.

It’s being suggested that our suspension took a hit from a minor ‘off’ into a ditch earlier in that stage, the sort that we would power through and inspect later, maybe it fatigued the metal in the control arms or tie rods to the point that on the next significant weight-transfer it let loose. Rally cars make all sorts of ungodly noises, I don’t recall if we heard anything unusual but when you do it’s easy to assume the skid plate is scraping or similar, and Kubo couldn’t have known what was in store. Neither of us could.

It should be noted that while the car is mangled, the cage kept our compartment intact and the safety equipment was in place. It was simply a tragic event that nobody could predict or prepare for.

There was tremendous effort from fellow racers, volunteers, and medical professionals to save Kubo, I can’t help but think he did his best to save me.

I’m not going to entertain any strangers that want to see pictures of the scene or car, and I am not going to speculate on his cause of death. Sometimes tragedies are just tragic. I hope his girls will find peace and be proud of the beautiful person he was.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Thank you for sharing that.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

I  could not imagine going through that.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Thanks for sharing as well. Thoughts are with the family. 

Sometimes racing is not fair.  :-(. 

RIP