The wall in this case can be seen in the views below. As it turned out (no pun intended) it was turn 8 that did me in. I simply had too much power, for the prior several laps, on the wet and slippery turn 8. My rear end just would not hook up well at all there. So, I found myself coming out wide from 8 in order to avoid sliding out there... as had happend on the lap in question as well. As a result, I found myself trying to swing back left, to set up back on line for turn 9, knowing it was always slick there (sometimes even on a dry day).
The lap before I felt some slipping entering T9 also. So I thought I was hip to that snake already. But this time the snake just snapped and struck from out of nowhere! Next thing I know I'm doing a 100 degree slide right (nose right and tail left anyway) and I can see a small tire stack and pit wall out my driver side window. SHIT!! I'm going to take that F-ing wall... So I locked them up, figuring the slower I'm going when I hit the better. What else could I do? I may as well have been sliding on ice.
Hummmmm. Now that I think of it, the next time this happens I'm going to yank on the parking brake and just lock up the rear end for a second while cocking my front wheels half way to the right. That should slow the rear end while allowing the front tires to roll back on around and maybe even straighten the car back out. I wonder...
Once the brakes were on and locked up the rear came around an extra 80 degrees (front BAER brakes work better than rear stock brakes I guess) and THUMP!! First the tire bundle goes flying (I can't see them of course) and then the rear end climbs up the wedge section of the wall, a little grinding action and KER-PLUNK, I'm back down on the ground, about 5 full concrete sections of retaining wall down the track, and backwards. How I managed to travel on top of the wall that far I'll never know? Maybe my left rear and front tires were riding the wall and my right tires landed on the pavement first until the left tires finally came down too?
When I landed, anyway, the white wall was right by my driver door. The car would not re-light so that I could get off the track and into the hot pits. So I bailed out the window, before someone else came around and decided to take me out altogether. Sure glad for yellow flags and good turn workers. (More below - keep reading)
Click here to see a real view of SIR.
The tow truck dragged the car off track with the rear up and the nose down. So the driver managed to rip my brake ducts to shreds and figured out how to scoop up a ton of gravel into the front ground effects (which luckily was not destroyed in the process). And the real mystery is that the pulley belt had been knocked off of the lower main/crank pulley. I'm pretty sure the tow driver figured out how to cause all the front underside damage. I also noticed a new crack in the front nose bumber section. It's getting pretty beat up with age anyway.
Good news is, with a little bailing wire and some help from a friend name BobR, I actually got the car started and drove it home; SLOWLY. So now it's time to figure out what I can repair or replace and what a body shop will have to deal with. But it is a long winter, so time is on my side. Just lucky I won't need any front end or engine work this time. Not much anyway.
View some before and after shots of the damages here.
One kid came up and asked me for a damaged part off my car. "Why do you want a damaged part?" I asked. "Because I have a collection of wrecked race car parts..." Well maybe someday a chunk of my rear fiberglass ground effects will be a collector's item. Who knows? Guess I shoulda gave him my bent exhaust pipe tip instead.
What really kills me though, is that every last witness claims it was the best wreck they've ever seen and that all four wheels were definitely up in the air as the car literally slid up onto and along the top of the wall and then fell back down without damaging or adjusting the wall at all in the process. So, I hereby now defy anybody who road races to top that... without landing on your own top.
Kirk was taking the lead, and making it very tough for me to even keep up with him, as we carved several laps around the track, slip sliding away in the process. In fact he was driving so well that the only way I could keep up with him was to late brake a bit more than I wanted too coming into turn one at the end of the main straight and turn seven just before the hair pin S turns at the south end of the track.
After several laps of chasing Kirk around, we were coming down the main straight at full throttle. I was finding that my breaking point was at the 105 mph mark on my speedo. Kirk had mentioned that he would break when he reached 105 mph as well. The thing is, though, that his car was reaching 105 a lot sooner down the pike than mine was. So I was breaking quite a bit harder. As it turned out this was NOT a good thing, even though this break point for me was perhaps 30-40 yards earlier than where I would normally toss out the anchor had the track been bone dry.
Well, to make a long story short I got on the brakes and suddenly the car went hard right. NOT cool, as I was already very close to the right edge setting up for the turn one sweeper to the left. Before I could even react the right front was in the grass and weeds. I countered to the left by instinct and next thing I knew I was sliding at perhaps a 30 degree angle to the left. The sight out my passenger side window was HORRIFYING to say the least. The car was quickly closing (we're talking maybe 95 mph at this point) down on a concrete barrier set up in an L shape behind which a lone corner worker stood. It may as well have been a bridge abbutment or any other solid object. All I remember thinking was SSHHIITT!! as I saw the corner worker cut and run for it. I hung on tight and then all of a sudden the car crossed a short patch of asphault right before the corner of the wall and the right rear tire hooked up as the car shot to the left. Then KER-BANG!! The tail hit the wall and scraped along the section of concrete that ran parallel to the track.
I was still alive! But the car was now racing left across the track at maybe 75-80 mph with all four wheels in full stop mode. The rear then swung around to the left, after the tail had bounced off the wall. It was a carnival ride that would not stop! I just wanted to live. My heart was throbbing! The adrenaline rush was massive. And so were the G forces, as the car wipped around in a 360, slashed through the infield grass, went back onto the asphault (where turn one merges with the main run way that forms the back straight) and I found myself finally coming to a stop off course and heading due south about 100 yards from where the nightmare had all started.
What could I do? I fired it up, stuck the car in gear and slowly drove back towards the pits to avoid walking a 1/2 mile in the rain. The car creeked a little but seemed to be driving straight. I stopped at a turn station and had the workers give me a quick look over. They said my bumper was scraped pretty bad but no tires rubbing or anything. Kirk flew by and waved to me as I gave him a thumbs up. Then I continued on back to my parking spot where half of SCCA decended upon me to see if I was OK. "Sure I'm OK, but I don't want to even look at the car..."
Well, as it turned out the car was still drivable, even though the hatch refused to open and the right rear was pretty banged up. The worst part was my beautiful, black spoiler had the right tip broken off. Kirk and I found that piece the next day, when the sun came out, though. I'll just glue it back on I guess.
The body work will probably run $3,500 at least though. But I went ahead and did my timed laps later that day, clocked the best times between Kirk and I (from what we could tell) and figured I locked in my championship and had gotten back on the horse. So I'm still good to go... next season that is.
View some more shots of the latest dents here.
Anybody know a good body shop?