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Gonzalo Rodríguez (racing driver)
Uruguayan racing driver (1971–1999) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Gonzalo "Gonchi" Rodríguez Bongoll (January 22, 1971 – September 11, 1999)[1] was a Uruguayan racing driver. He was killed in a crash at Laguna Seca Raceway during practice for a CART race which would have been his second start in the series.
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Career
He showed promise in Formula 3000 for three seasons, taking two wins in 1998 at Spa-Francorchamps and Nürburgring, winning the following season in Monaco and finishing third in both championships. Following a rotation of drivers as team mates to Al Unser Jr. in CART Penske Racing's second car, he was given his opportunity at the Detroit Grand Prix in 1999 and scored a point in his only race.
Death
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At the Laguna Seca Raceway during a practice session for his second CART race, he was fatally injured in a crash. A stuck throttle was initially thought to be the cause for his car overshooting the braking point, leaving the track, striking a tire barrier and slamming into a concrete wall behind the barrier at the entry of the Corkscrew corner. Review of the in-car telemetry refuted this supposition.[2] The impact caused his car to flip over the barrier and land upside down on the other side of the wall. Rodríguez was killed instantly by a basilar skull fracture caused by the impact with the wall, which was lined by only a thin layer of tires. Because of the incident, an additional tire wall was installed at the end of the straight.[3]
In 2021, teammate Al Unser, Jr. released his biography Al Unser, Jr.: A Checkered Past, written by motorsport author Jade Gurss. Unser noted the nuances of the incident, basing information on what happened to him during various testing and practice sessions during the season. Both he and Rodríguez were driving the Lola B99/00 chassis and not the Penske PC-27 chassis for the weekend, and he specifically noted a mechanical nuance with the Hewland gearbox in the Lola versus the Xtrac used by the Penske and Reynard chassis.
"The Lola would jam into neutral if you tried to downshift too fast. It did it to me a couple of times in testing, which is why I preferred the Penske. Going up the hill (before the Corkscrew), there is a point before you get to the top where you need to get out (of the throttle) to downshift and get the thing stopped. I think he was taking it to the top of the hill like (drivers driving Reynard 99I chassis vehicles that season). There was a limit on how fast you could downshift the Lola.
Unser believed the Hewland gearbox downshifted to neutral in the crash while Rodríguez was making a shift.[4]
Rodríguez had a contract in place to compete in the 2000 CART championship with Patrick Racing, and there were rumours that Minardi could hire him for the 2001 Formula One season.
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Legacy
In 2014, a Spanish-language documentary of his life, Gonchi, was released.[5]
Racing record
Complete International Formula 3000 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete American Open Wheel results
(key)
CART
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Gallery
1999 Penske and Astromega firesuits
1999 Penske helmet
Monument at the Autódromo Víctor Borrat Fabini
References
External links
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