Three race marshals were killed by the out of control car of Osvaldo Duarte, that run off the track and hit them. It happened on Sunday, 07 July 1991, during the XII Vuelta de Los Hornos, a Turismo Carretera race at La Plata, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The race was held at the "19 de Noviembre" 9.200-kilometer semi-permanent track in La Plata, in which five years before occurred a very similar accident, also claiming the lives of three race marshals, killed by Miguel Ángel Atauri's car. It was a shortened version of the original 13.600-kilometer course. To reduce the high speed of the cars, two artificial chicanes made by tyre wall were arranged along the Ruta 36. But during the development of the event in which 84 cars were entered, divided in three heats and a final race, the second artificial chicane before the Camino Costa Azul bend was destroyed.
Early in the final race, Carlos Luaces' Dodge and Carlos Boni's Chevrolet had mechanical trouble, being abandoned just nearly the second chicane. The cars reached a speed of over 250 km/h along the Ruta 36, the faster stretch of the track. Due to the parked cars, a number of competitors failed to enter the second chicane and hit the tyre wall, many others passed at low speed as they could, and even a few drivers went straight without entering the chicane. In the general confusion that followed the marshal decided to move away the tyre wall and allowed direct passage on the Ruta 36, without a great loss of speed.
On 9th lap of the 15-lap final race, while dicing for the 5th place with Oscar Castellano's Ford Falcon, Osvaldo Duarte missed the braking point at the chicane and lost control of his car. It happened at 13h50, the Chevrolet Super 250 Coupé #24 swerved to the inside of the circuit and after hitting a tree, struck three race marshals.
Two of them died instantly, Juan Carlos Morales and Oscar Rospini - or according to different sources, Rospine, this has not yet been clarified. The third person who was run over, Ignacio Zubeldía 17-year-old, died several hours later at La Plata hospital. He was the son of Horacio Zubeldía, chief medical officer of the ACTC-Asociación Corredores Turismo Carretera.
After the accident, the event was immediately suspended and the final classification was taken by the previous lap. Winner of the race was declared Osvaldo Morresi at an average speed of 163.954 km/h, followed by Roberto Caparello, both in Chevrolets. Johnny De Benedictis, which real name is Juan Antonio De Benedictis, finished third in a Ford Falcon. Ironically, Osvaldo Duarte was classified in 5th place.
Less than three years later, Morresi himself lost his life in the same track in La Plata, with his acompañante Jorge R. Marceca. It happened on 27 March 1994. The double fatality forced the authorities of the ACTC to stop definitively the traditional public roads courses and to organize races only in closed automobile circuits.
R.I.P
