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View Full Version : what NOT to do at next track event!



Benman
September 14th, 2004, 06:00
Sorry if this has been shared before.

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/rollover.mpg

Funny how the driver is quite confident till this happens. Oh and I apologize for his choice of words (but it's understandable:D ).
Ben:addict:

Erik
September 16th, 2004, 16:55
That hurts. What car is it? Subaru Impreza? (in that case it feels better) ;)

Erik
September 16th, 2004, 17:13
Apparently a quote from the driver:

OK, here's the story. First of all, as efoo mentioned in his post, I'm absolutely fine (other than a severely bruised ego and a HUGE feeling of disbelief). This is my first *real* accident, and as I'm sure happens with any accident (on the street or on the track), I've been second guessing myself all day - what should I have done? What did I do? Could I have saved it? blah blah blah

Anyway, on to the story. First session (which makes it suck even more - I only got about 10min of track time!), things are going pretty well so far, feeling pretty smooth. I already had a Porsche 911 spin two cars ahead of me on the very first lap under green, but he didn't hit anything and was fine. No biggie. I was following another older 911 down the No Name straight, in 4th gear probably doing about 85mph, maybe 90mph. At the end of No Name straight is a pretty tight right hander that goes up a rather steep incline. You clip the apex on the inside right, then drift out allllll the way to the left side of the track at the top of the hill. On the inside of the turn is all dirt, on the outside of the turn is a guardrail probably no more than 3-5' from the edge of the track.

On the first 5 or 6 laps we had been taking that turn really slow, I was downshifting to 3rd and taking the corner at probably only 60-65mph (compared to about 75-80mph the last time I was at Lime Rock). So, this time around the 911 and I have a little bit of freedom from slower cars, and are able to carry more speed into the Uphill turn. Basically, I came into the turn way too hot - I don't think I braked at all, and I didn't let off the gas on the straight soon enough. As stupid as it seems, I think I just remembered wrong from the last time I was at the track - I was thinking I was able to enter the turn in 4th without really letting off.

Now, here's where I can't remember what exactly happened. I quickly decided, "OK, I'm coming into this too fast" (this is after I've already started to turn in). I can't remember if I tapped the brakes, or if I just let off the gas some. Either way, the car started to oversteer. My first thought was that if I wasn't REALLY careful in trying to catch the slide, I'd hit the guardrail on the edge of the track because there is NO runoff room to the outside of the turn. I tried to countersteer some, but I didn't get on the gas at all to power out of the oversteer situation. I'll admit I pretty much froze. I know everyone likes to say, "If the car oversteers, just floor it!" but that was definitely NOT my first instinct. I honestly don't know if getting on the gas would've helped or not - I kinda wonder if I would've just understeered off the outside of the turn. I guess I'll never know.

OK, so the tails starting to come around, I'm countersteering, at some point (I think when the car was just about sideways) I put the clutch in, I never touched the brakes. As I burned off speed, the car started to slide somewhat in the direction I was pointing, that being towards the inside of the turn. I went over the edge of the pavement on the inside of the turn pretty much perpedicular to the curb, and still sliding uphill (sideways now). Once the front driver's side wheel got off the pavement, it dug right into the dirt. I think that caused the tail to swing the rest of the way around, and the rear driver's side wheel also dug into the dirt, and the car flipped rather slowly onto the roof. I would guess I was doing maybe 30-40mph at that point, since I had burned off quite a bit of speed. The car ended up on the roof, facing the wrong direction, about 15-20' off the inside edge of the track.

The roof of the car was perfectly fine (or so it seemed) until the car actually came to rest, at which point the weight was fully on the front of the roof, smooshing in the roof and the top of the windshield. The area above my head was basically OK - without a helmet I could have sat up straight I think. With the added height of the helmet I had to duck down a bit. The driver's door is dented from where the sideview mirror folded down and was smashed against the side of the car. The rest of the driver's side seems to be in good shape, couple dents and plenty of scrapes. The passenger's side is also pretty much unscathed, with the exception of the front fender - the car must've rolled enough to dent that panel before it settled back on the roof. Windshield, rear window, driver's side rear quarter window, and sunroof are toast, all other side glass is fine. The roof, hood, and trunk lid took the brunt of it.

As for the trunk, I think it was unlatched. I popped it for tech inspection, and I don't think it ever got latched by anyone. I just assumed that someone shut it once they OK'd my car, and I didn't even think to check it myself. My group was the first to run, so I went almost directly from tech to staging. I'm surprised I didn't notice it was unlatched - normally I would notice it bouncing a bit in the rearview mirror, or hear it bounce. But, I guess with the helmet on I wouldn't notice the noise, and I wasn't watching the rearview mirror too much. Anyway, when the car went over, the trunk lid flopped down and got smashed into the back window. Pretty frickin' stoopid, eh?

I think what ticks me off is that I PURPOSELY get the car to oversteer, and then catch it no problem. But when the sh#! hit the fan and the car oversteered unintentionally, I didn't know what to do. The instinct just wasn't there. Like I said above, I'm not sure more gas would've solved the problem. As it was I was taking that corner on the absolute verge of a 4 wheel drift, and that was taking me all the way to the left edge of the track. This time I was going too fast, so adding more gas may have pushed me over the limit from 4 wheel drift to 4 wheel slide, right off the outside edge of the track. I dunno.

As for the car, I'm waiting until Monday to find out from USAA whether I'll be covered or not. They're investigating. I just pulled out my policy and it says "We will not pay for....10. Loss to any vehicle while it is being operated in, or in practice for, any speed contest." That sounds pretty promising, since I was not in a speed contest, and I was not signed up for the time trials to be held later in the day - I was just on the track for fun. I need to do some more reading to see if there are any other clauses of concern.

That's all for now, thanks in advance for all the kind words about how sorry you all are.

Pat Olsen
'99 Legacy 2.5GT 5speed sedan

PS - I have it all on in car video. More to follow.

Erik
September 16th, 2004, 21:07
This is not so good either.

And it's by an F1 driver.

Useage of a helmet is recommended as well :rolleyes:

http://www.yonkis.com/media/pizzonia.wmv

Jaguar vs. ARMCO

0 - 1

Klint
September 17th, 2004, 17:43
Originally posted by Erik
This is not so good either.

And it's by an F1 driver.

Useage of a helmet is recommended as well :rolleyes:

http://www.yonkis.com/media/pizzonia.wmv

Jaguar vs. ARMCO

0 - 1

hahaha, yeah! I remember reading an article about that accident, It may have been for the ITV coverage of the F1 where Pizzonia took a journalist around the track...:hihi: