| Message |
found on waterfordhills.com
"Hey all, here are the pics of my crash at mid-o this wknd. Data said I was going about 95mph when I went off the back straight before 7. Some kind of brake failure. Had brakes for a split second then nothing. Slowed from 130 down to 95. Someone said I flipped about 9 times. Cartwheeled over the gravel trap and catapulted over the tire barrier and then over/through a 18 foot fence and ended up in the spectator area. Officials said they have never seen a car go that far out or seen a crash like that at mid-ohio. I’m completely fine though, just a small bump on head. Can't say the same about the Z. Thanks to everyone out there that helped me out especially cat killer, ralphy and ed.""Yes, i had a hans on. That's what probably gave me the bruise on my forehead. Hans stopped my helmet but my head smashed into the inside of my helmet. I had a racetech seat with wings and head bolsters. Did not have a net on the right. Had a 5 point harness (2 groin belts combine into one buckle). Car never really had a hard impact. Just kept on doing cartwheels over a long distance dissipating the energy. Looking at the in car video looks like instinct took over and i tried turning at the end of the straight so i started flipping almost before i left the concrete. Should of gone off straight into china beach and hopefully had the gravel slow me down b/f hitting tire wall. Thing that bothers me the most is not knowing what happened to the brakes. Childs is conducting a csi investigation. My data showed a 1.2 G slowdown at the 400 mark just like always but only for a split second. Pedal felt good. Then my G's gradually dropped to 0. I remember lifting and pushing in the pedal again and the data showed my G's came back up to .7 then quickly dropped back down to 0 before i turned the car and flipped. I don't ever remember the pedal just hitting the floor. Brake fluid reservoir was still filled after the crash. Looking at the in car video, the car really shimmied at initial braking, almost looking like the rear brakes were working but not the front. Only evidence we have so far is on the front left wheel, the rotor had a weird discoloration and was completely scoured and gouged as if the caliper was stuck. I don't see how this happend though b/f the crash though b/c the car was pretty dead on straight, not drifting to the left as you would expect so maybe it somehow got scoured after the crash. Car does have ABS but I don't think it ever activated. Braking was totally fine going down the keyhole just prior." "Just wanted to thank everyone for their concern and encouragement. Waterford was an unbelievable experience this year. I've met some of the best people i've ever known through Waterford. It was amazing to me how people here give so freely of their time, knowledge, and skill. Wanted to also give a special thanks to the volunteers at Waterford. The corner worker's professionalism and skills were FAR superior to any other event i have attended. As for me I'll try to be back but I honestly don't know if i will be able to race again and stay married. One other thing I wanted to throw out there that most of you probably know but I never really though of as a rookie....one of the first things you should do when learning a new track is to evaluate every medium and high speed corner and study the terrain and features of the run off area and ask yourself...what should i do at this corner if i can't stop, either from complete brake failure or just coming in a bit to hot? I would think more times than not the answer would be to run off in a straight line. Maybe consciously studying these run off areas would counteract your instinct to try to make the turn. As for me, I vaguely knew that a sand trap called china beach was down there (run off area is down hill so hard to see much of it) but never payed attention to how massive it was or what layed beyond it (big tire wall). I think in the heat of the moment i was subconsciously thinking a concrete wall was lurking someone down there so my instinct told me to turn or die which initiated the infamous cartwheel effect."
 |
 |
