Steph- Glad Ed's going to be ok in the medium run. I know the ribs can be annoying. I broke a couple at the Glen a few years ago, (and had to the the Swim Across the Sound two weeks later, LOL)...but I think your experience with the corner worker was atypical of SCCA workers nationwide, and certainly here. I'm guessing Ed's response was in such an "even strain" as the figher pilots like to say, that he figured all was ok. We've become accustomed to seeing cars hit hard and watching drivers pop out and wave at the stands, and it's probably desensitized us.
I'd drop a private email to Todd, who's an ace flagger himself, just as an FYI. Sometimes you have to ask twice with race car drivers and be a bit in your face, and that doesn't always match everyone's personality. A reminder to flaggers to really question a driver after a hard impact couldn't hurt.
Jake Gulick
CarriageHouse Motorsports
for sale: 2003 Audi A4 Quattro, clean, serviced, dark green, auto, sunroof, tan leather with 75K miles.
IT-7 #57 RX-7 race car
Porsche 1973 911E street/fun car
BMW 2003 M3 cab, sun car.
GMC Sierra Tow Vehicle
New England Region
lateapex911(at)gmail(dot)com
Actually, if the flagger thinks the driver should see medical, they either call for medical or they request that the driver been seen at medical. We don't usually leave it up to the driver (sorry). Too often drivers are injured but they don't realize it until the adrenaline wears off, so even if a driver says they're OK at the scene, they still may need to be evaluated. The driver of any car that has a hard impact should be seen by medical. They shouldn't have to ask for it. As disturbing here is that the driver was left in the car in an impact zone after a hard impact. And then asked to drive his own car in? What were they thinking?
Leigh
Leigh McBride
National F & C
Mo-Hud Region
As someone who flags pretty regularly and has for 6 or 7 years, I am dismayed at the report of this accident. I NEVER let the driver decide much of anything after an impact. (If you saw Scott Sharp's wreck at the Petit last year at T11, I'm the fat guy trying to get him to come to the wall.) It is my SOP to ask name, date, location, what just happened, how it happened, etc. I also ask about numbness, tingling, pain, and get them to wiggle fingers, toes, etc. if it is a severe impact. I've always been taught that if the car is stalled, you go to the downstream side of the car so you can watch the driver AND on-coming traffic at the same time. As far as leaving the driver in the car, that's an incident-to-incident call. I don't think I would have in this case, but I wasn't there. Remember that sometimes the safest place for you to be is in the car, strapped-in, with all of your safety gear. In regard to going to medical, it is a given at Road Atlanta, CMP, Roebling, etc. in the SEDiv. Race control always tells us, but they don't have to because we know. If you refuse treatment, I expect that you're going to get a great deal of push-back from the stewards. I don't think having your license suspended and having to go through a physical again before racing is too much, but I'm not a steward. Lastly, if the car was leaking ANYTHING, it goes on a tiltbed around here. I just wonder what would've happened to the poor souls at China Beach should he have dumped a bunch of oil in T4 during his drive-in.
Unfortunate incident. We are all amateurs and I hope that F&C, Race Control, EV, the Stewards, etc. will all learn from this and make appropriate adjustments.
Racing make heroin addiction look like a vague longing for something salty - Peter Egan
ITA/IT7 Rx7
SPU Baby Grand "clown car(s)" 1 stock, 1 with Hayabusa
CCR BoD
SWC of CCR Road Racing Liaison
F&C
As someone who actually has Mid Ohio as his home track and is quite familiar with the Lake Erie Communications folks, I too thought the whole thing was a little odd. I didn't see the car go in, but it looked stuffed in there pretty well, and was obviously in a pretty blatant impact zone. I too was rather surprised it wasn't moved. And if someone told me I had to drive the car back in after that, I would've slapped them upside the head.
Steph and Ed, it was nice meeting you. Sorry the ITA car got banged up, but I hope you enjoyed the weekend otherwise. Also, FWIW, I raced in a Figure-8 School Bus race last Saturday night with my Isaac's on. By Monday about everything else was sore, but my neck felt great!
Kevin
2010 FP Runoffs & Super Sweep Champion
2010 ITB ARRC Champion
2008 & 2009 ITA ARRC Champion
'90 FP Acura Integra RS
'92 ITA Acura Integra RS
'92 ITB Honda Civic DX
Stephanie Funk
<Couple of NARRC and NERRC bragging things here>
HP Honda CRX in progress, ITB Honda Civic, ITA Honda CRX, ITC Honda CRX
"Green Booger Racing"
Bookmarks