Big Turnout for Turkey this weekend

[titanium]

Here is the breakdown for Sebring this weekend:
305 total entries.
8 IT7
32 ITA
20 ITB
7 ITC
8 ITR
20 ITS
and
47 Wreck Me Otters

Group 3, (H1, H2, H3, H4, IT7, ITA, ITR, ITS) has 73 cars.
Good thing were on the long course.

[gran racing]

73 cars? Damn! Will they actually run with that many cars on track? Sounds like a total blast.

[titanium]

73 cars? Damn! Will they actually run with that many cars on track? Sounds like a total blast.

Yes,
The long course is 3.7 miles.
If I remember correctly, the SCCA approved max is 25 cars per mile.
So we can run about 90 cars without special permission from Topeka.

I have participated in enduro races at Sebring with over 100 cars entered

[DoubleXL240Z]

don't forget lots of car sharing happening!! Shows as 2 entries!

[Mike Guenther]

Chris, I don't see Dodge Neon in your signature line.

Let's all be polite and wave to Andrew Charbonneau as he laps us in that ISC Racing, Mike VanSteenburg ITS Miata. Damn that car is fast with AC behind the wheel. It will be very interesting to see if the Irishman has anything for AC. He blew Kip away on the short track last month. Maybe he won't get so far ahead on the long course.

See you in Sebring. Saturday night "Social". Code word for turkey & beer.

[JLawton]

You guys in the south all SUCK!!!

We've got another four months of freezing our asses off.......<_<

[DoubleXL240Z]

Mike, The Neon is not mine, I'm just the hired "shoe"hahaha!!

[Rabbit07]

I had so much fun running Sebring last Jan that I wanted to come back this weekend. With the wife Nine Months pregnant and a 1200 mile tow, I had to put the brakes on those plans....

Have fun!

[quadzjr]

Interesting weekend. I am glad everybody came out safe

[raceit]

Turn 1 incident that ended the weekend

[tnord]

that doesn't look good.

everyone come out ok?

[ozal92]

Wtf?

[raceit]

1 car, totally crisp. 2 other cars, heavy damage, but probably repairable. 4th car minimal damage, drove off.

Best part..................ALL Drivers OK

Caused by sudden, heavy downpour.

[tnord]

since all drivers are ok;

what was the car that started the fire? fuel cell?

[raceit]

Sudden heavy downpour, made the front straight like ice. THe first car, #85 ITA slid head on into the tire wall, became buried in the tires. The second car, #44 ITA, also slide head on into the tire wall, came to rest just to the right of the first car. All was well, until the third car, ITA #121 lost control and slammed straight into the back of the 85 car. Fire trucks and ambulances were responding to the scene, when #27 ITS started to slide, came close to the ambulance and tagged the tire wall, this car was not badly damaged and drove away from the scene. The fire started immediately after 121 hit 85, believe the fuel cell/tank??? possibly ruptured. There was nothing but a shell left of the 85 car. 44 and 121 sustained heavy damage from the impact, but may be repairable.

All drivers were OK, although we believe one suffered from minor smoke inhalation. Due to the extreme heat of the fire, the concrete walls actually caught fire and started to blow apart. It took over an hour to get the fire under control. Sebring staff indicated it would take a few days to replace the damaged wall, fencing and tires. Subsequently, all remaining sessions were cancelled.

[mattbatson4570]

Holy cow!
That means groups 4 thru 7 never got to race even once (there were two races scheduled that weekend for each group)!?
Sat. was practice and qualifying for all groups, and then group 1 (my group of ITB, ITC, GTL, etc) and group 2 had time for their first race before end of day.
So, group 3 race would have been the first race of the day!

Unless this was the second Group 3 race?

goodness I hope so, or there would be some angry racers

I went home sat. so missed the accident...

[dickita15]

Holy cow is right. Do you know what kind of car the 85 was that was the one that apparently burned.

[Mazmarc63]

Sudden heavy downpour, made the front straight like ice. THe first car, #85 ITA slid head on into the tire wall, became buried in the tires. The second car, #44 ITA, also slide head on into the tire wall, came to rest just to the right of the first car. All was well, until the third car, ITA #121 lost control and slammed straight into the back of the 85 car. Fire trucks and ambulances were responding to the scene, when #27 ITS started to slide, came close to the ambulance and tagged the tire wall, this car was not badly damaged and drove away from the scene. The fire started immediately after 121 hit 85, believe the fuel cell/tank??? possibly ruptured. There was nothing but a shell left of the 85 car. 44 and 121 sustained heavy damage from the impact, but may be repairable.

All drivers were OK, although we believe one suffered from minor smoke inhalation. Due to the extreme heat of the fire, the concrete walls actually caught fire and started to blow apart. It took over an hour to get the fire under control. Sebring staff indicated it would take a few days to replace the damaged wall, fencing and tires. Subsequently, all remaining sessions were cancelled.

Raceit has it right. The race was a multitude of conditions. Dry from T5 to T14 but damp at first in T15, T16, T1 and T3. A dry line began to appear and all was good. I was running 2nd in ITS 4th OA when it started to rain again. I backed way off and let Paul Ronie (#44 ITA Integra) and John Jackson (#85 ITA BMW 325E) go by. They were having a great race and I wasn't interested in throwing it off the track to stay in front of them. It began to dump buckets at T13. The whiteout down the backstraight was insane. The front stretch was worse. I lifted across the paint (start finish) and got back on it. Just then our crew (thanks again Julia) got on the radio that there was a huge crash in T1. I lifted and touched the brakes. Nothing. ZERO grip!! Again...nothing. I started to try to turn left but the car kept going straight. I was heading toward the cars in the wall and somehow I got enough grip to move the car left. It swapped ends and I locked up. I barely nudged the wall (no damage), grabbed a gear and drove off. As I turned toward T3, I saw Wayne Yetto (#121 ITA Nissan Sentra) go straight in at a high rate of speed. He contacted the BMW in the rear and the car exploded. There was a 30 ft ball of flame. Then Steve Goldin (#29 ITS Mazda Rx-7) lost control under braking at the bridge and slid into it all. It was an immediate red flag. The tire wall was on fire and seemingly out of control. It burned for at least an hour in a driving rain before it was under control.

How no one, including the corner workers and fire personal were not injured is a miracle. I saw Pauls car afterwards. It's pretty bad. LF pushed back, right side crushed from the fender to the back of the door.

It is unfortunate that we had such a terrible incident to end an otherwise fantastic weekend of racing.

I am just glad everyone is okay.

[JeffYoung]

Holy crap. Glad everyone is ok. Marc, thanks for the writeup. Good reminder to all of us about what can happen, even in "just" an IT race.

[mattbatson4570]

Raceit has it right. The race was a multitude of conditions. Dry from T5 to T14 but damp at first in T15, T16, T1 and T3. A dry line began to appear and all was good. I was running 2nd in ITS 4th OA when it started to rain again. I backed way off and let Paul Ronie (#44 ITA Integra) and John Jackson (#85 ITA BMW 325E) go by. They were having a great race and I wasn't interested in throwing it off the track to stay in front of them. It began to dump buckets at T13. The whiteout down the backstraight was insane. The front stretch was worse. I lifted across the paint (start finish) and got back on it. Just then our crew (thanks again Julia) got on the radio that there was a huge crash in T1. I lifted and touched the brakes. Nothing. ZERO grip!! Again...nothing. I started to try to turn left but the car kept going straight. I was heading toward the cars in the wall and somehow I got enough grip to move the car left. It swapped ends and I locked up. I barely nudged the wall (no damage), grabbed a gear and drove off. As I turned toward T3, I saw Wayne Yetto (#121 ITA Nissan Sentra) go straight in at a high rate of speed. He contacted the BMW in the rear and the car exploded. There was a 30 ft ball of flame. Then Steve Goldin (#29 ITS Mazda Rx-7) lost control under braking at the bridge and slid into it all. It was an immediate red flag. The tire wall was on fire and seemingly out of control. It burned for at least an hour in a driving rain before it was under control.

How no one, including the corner workers and fire personal were not injured is a miracle. I saw Pauls car afterwards. It's pretty bad. LF pushed back, right side crushed from the fender to the back of the door.

It is unfortunate that we had such a terrible incident to end an otherwise fantastic weekend of racing.

I am just glad everyone is okay.

my god, I've never heard anything like that. I guess it is the concrete...
If this is a known condition at sebring (it was my first time there), then why wouldnt they black flag the race as soon as the front straight got wet?
Thank goodness everyone got out safe.