TeamDI.com Pro IT Race - Lime Rock - May 15

[gran racing]

Any mid pack Pro-IT in car?

Not pro-it, but from the regional. Still a bit unsure what lead to all of this. A friend of mine is in the blue Miata that got wacked pretty hard on the front right.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k0cg88alAY[/ame]

[mossaidis]

tried to post a few videos of the restricted regional start, but apparently i don't post here enough to put links in. check out specmiata . com for the two videos I guess.

Apparently we gave the folks in timing and scoring a scare as well as the flaggers.

http://www.youtube.com/v/YkxSOaIsP9s

[JLawton]

From an arm chair quarter back point of view......

it looks like the dark VW and the yellow Miata were "leaning" on each other and it got a little out of control (and then a LOT out of control). It also looks like the dark Miata that shot across the track may not have locked up his brakes..........


(referencing to the first video)

[cchandler]

From an arm chair quarter back point of view......

It also looks like the dark Miata that shot across the track may not have locked up his brakes..........


(referencing to the first video)

I've seen alot of this in Club racing. Arrghh. That vid shows how close to a solid T-bone that could have been - at pretty good speed too. Richie's accident just prior to the bridge from 2 years ago comes to mind. He rolled from the left side of the track to the right side, and into traffic, and then got a very solid hit (that snapped the door bars).

Is there not enough emphasis on "2 feet in?" Do drivers not understand why?

That crash looked like NASCAR!!

[BruceG]

I've seen alot of this in Club racing. Arrghh. That vid shows how close to a solid T-bone that could have been - at pretty good speed too. Richie's accident just prior to the bridge from 2 years ago comes to mind. He rolled from the left side of the track to the right side, and into traffic, and then got a very solid hit (that snapped the door bars).

Is there not enough emphasis on "2 feet in?" Do drivers not understand why?

That crash looked like NASCAR!!

"two feet in" is the first thing they taught us at the Skippy racing school and I've heard them say it at all their classes(even 3 hr ones). Thanks Bruce MacInnes, Bob Green and Rick Pocock for some valuable lessons!

[lateapex911]

I've seen alot of this in Club racing. Arrghh. That vid shows how close to a solid T-bone that could have been - at pretty good speed too. Richie's accident just prior to the bridge from 2 years ago comes to mind. He rolled from the left side of the track to the right side, and into traffic, and then got a very solid hit (that snapped the door bars).

Is there not enough emphasis on "2 feet in?" Do drivers not understand why?

That crash looked like NASCAR!!

I bet Richie still SWEARS he had two feet in, was locked down, wasn't moving, etc etc.

And in the first vid, what's with that black Golf flying through after the rubbin' turned to wreckin'? I'll take whatever HE'S got under the hood, man!

[BruceG]

I bet Richie still SWEARS he had two feet in, was locked down, wasn't moving, etc etc.

And in the first vid, what's with that black Golf flying through after the rubbin' turned to wreckin'? I'll take whatever HE'S got under the hood, man!

Good point,Jake.....at least nitrous in that Golf.....LOL

[gran racing]

Which Golf is that?

Not Mullens from what I can tell.

[BruceG]

Which Golf is that?

Not Mullens from what I can tell.

Dave.....Black with an orange stripe up the side. The one who made contact with the yellow spec pinata(or vice versa) in your video before Mustapha(black jelly bean) spun into Steph(#6 blue jelly bean). I think his last name is Blizzard. Jake and I were joking about how fast he took off down the track after the pace car went in and what type power he was making.

[Jeremy Billiel]

The golf was Brian Blizzards.

[THawkbh]

Here is the unfortunate incident that Greg had in the Integra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE7aL_dGEGs

The one thing I tell people about the differences since the repave is that the curbs are a significant disruption.

I did the same thing in the june school last year. I'm not big on the big curbs.

[benspeed]

Hey Fred Fox - shame on the damage - hate to hear that sweet car got hurt - glad you're OK - the downhill is an expensive place to go off...hope that proves wrong.

Greg Amy - that explicative is a visceral soundbite bro! Got to capture that one in an mpeg audio file.

On the spec Miata crash - wish I could see the in-car video from the blue Miata that HAMMERED the black Miata, then goes from track edge left all the way right. Had to be a scary ride. Next in-car I'd want to see is the black one that did the multi 360 spin.

[JLawton]

And in the first vid, what's with that black Golf flying through after the rubbin' turned to wreckin'? I'll take whatever HE'S got under the hood, man!

Don't forget, Brian's car is an ITA car

[gran racing]

Don't forget, Brian's car is an ITA car

Ah! That makes more sense.

[Andy Bettencourt]

Ah! That makes more sense.

I disagree. Both black VW's in the vid are ITB cars. Blizzards ITA is already headed toward the wall when the second one shoots up the center. I don't write that stuff off to power, I figure he got a huge run by actually having a radio and knowing when the green flies.

Car next to video car that gets a solid start is Tim Mullen and the second car that looks like he got shot out of a cannon looks like a GTI - so that would have been maybe Gleason or Miller? Just a great run from the back when everyone else was slower me thinks.

[BruceG]

Hey Fred Fox - shame on the damage - hate to hear that sweet car got hurt - glad you're OK - the downhill is an expensive place to go off...hope that proves wrong.

Greg Amy - that explicative is a visceral soundbite bro! Got to capture that one in an mpeg audio file.

On the spec Miata crash - wish I could see the in-car video from the blue Miata that HAMMERED the black Miata, then goes from track edge left all the way right. Had to be a scary ride. Next in-car I'd want to see is the black one that did the multi 360 spin.

Ben....when she(Steph, blue # 6 spec pinata)got hit, her tie rod broke, so she had no steering all the way across the track into the barrier!

[CRallo]

Wow, Greg threatened that wall a few times before he chose his spot. I expected to hear the throttle open during that whole 'event', but I'm clueless as to what to do with a semi out of control FWD car. I do think I heard a dirty word, though, Greg.

Well, this is easy for us because "hindsight is 20/20" and we can rewind it and watch the vid 15 times... lol

That said, opening the throttle would have put weight on the back of the car and settled it down, so it would not have had to have been chased all over the place...

In addition, it appears as though being light on the throttle attributed to the incident in the first place. The up hill is a fast corner and therefore a fair amount of power must be added early in the corner to properly balance the car... this was not done and you can actually see the car yaw or rotate a bit mid corner and this is what actually caused the contact with the curb...

I had a very simialr instance my self once as I was trying to clip closer to the curbing and moved a bit to far in! The pucker factor was high, but I managed to fight natural instict and follow my training... I kept the hammer down, settled the car down, used every bit of the extra pavement, but was even able to angle the car back to the right before unloading the car and straightening my hands over the top so that I never even touched the grass on top of the hill!

once again, hindsight is 20/20 and stuff happens, but the best thing is to be able to learn from it. One of my favorite things about working at Skip Barber was learning from other peoples incidents...

[Greg Amy]

You're note even close, Roger Staubach...^^^

[Andy Bettencourt]

You're note even close, Roger Staubach...^^^

Let me try!!!

We all know that some throttle can settle the car down but when you are pointed at a wall, it's a tough requirement to fill. This looked like a simple case of the following:

Fast corner > curb > unsettled car > headed toward wall > lift > oversteer > crest of hill adding to all issues > grass/dirt > overcorrection > hands lose wheel > overcorrection > overcorrection > both feet in > cursing > Matt swearing on pit road when Jeremy reports radio contact

Damn curb. The bottom line is that sometimes there is no room to apply throttle given angle and proximity to immovable objects.

[Greg Amy]

Very close.

Unfamiliar diff, too much front compression, coupled to broken rear swaybar = unpredictable car. Driver pounds curb he shouldn't = flying car. Flying car lands nose-first and bounces. Tail comes out.

Follow Andy from there.

Planting the throttle would have resulted in a lot faster, louder crash.