Date: Mon, 3 May 1999 17:34:49 -0400
From: Benjamin D Thatcher <bthatch@juno.com>
<< Here we go again, people who weren't at the event jumping to huge
conclusions about the safety of an event they know nothing about. >>
I was there, but not when the car flipped, I was towing mine home due to over
rev damage. ;-( I retuyrned to the event so the owner of the trailer could
get his car home, only to hear about the roll, another over revved motor, and
the vette that hit the wall.
<< Sorry, folks. In spite of the relative safety of our sport, pucky does
happen. We've been believing our own press about this being a totally
safe sport. I'll say it again, if it was that safe we wouldn't need to
wear helmets and safety belts. >>
True to a point, I had no trouble staying on the asphault, the VERY fast
section was not a course exit concern, but it did end in a chicago box on the
way out and the two run I got I missed the braking zone hitting one cone the
first run, and two cones my second run. It was such a serious maneuver that
at least one driver decided to not lift, nick the box cones and take the 4
second penalty. That run was 4 seconds faster????? And since the following
section was another run to 80 or so, he just kept flying.
Course design was not very good, but I never expected what happened to the
other drivers. I mentioned my concern about the speed being too high to event
officials during the walk time before any runs. AND I was in the first run
group, about the tenth car out, and talked to an official again, but my
concern was having to be in third gear so much, (A bit selfish since I know I
have a problem with it poping out) When they pointed out the fast sections
had goos runnoff, I did agree and took my second run, where I rode my rev
limiter in second for the last offsets and slalom, exploded my power steering
belt, broke the dampener, and sheared some flywheel bolts. It was my choice
to rev like mad and not use third, I don't blame the course.
<< Let's not assume that an event is unsafe because of one or two incidents.
I'm a lot more concerned about personal injury than property damage. A
crunched fender or a munched wheel and suspension from a curb are not
causes for alarm. >>
I would rather have no damage at all, but cars can be fixed alot easier than
people. When my car is back together I am fixing my shifter so it will stay
in third, I would have used it for the whole return road. The other over
revved car was a missed shift to 3rd, so once again driver error. I chose my
rear end gear so I can do 70 in second, in this case it just wasn't enough.
<<Oh, and the old saw about speed kills seems to have seeped into autocross
thinking. I guess we've heard if for so long that we just assume it's
true. A relatively high speed straight with a straight braking zone
leading into a solid corner isn't nearly as dangerous as some who think
putting offsets and quick kinks before a slow corner will "slow things
down." Often the autocross "cure" is worse than the disease.>>
The worst thing about the course was the attempts to slow it down. Braking
from about 90 mph into a Chicago box was nearly impossible to gauge. It was
an interesting excersize to learn hw your brakes work though. Had then been
carrs stopping on an expressway, it could have been a disaster, but hear it
was one cone flying (many many times ;-) So this was far safer then doing it
on the street.
I also agree with where the other car went off was one of the slower
portions. It was where alot of cars downshifted from 3rd to 2nd, and the car
that lost it was an auto trans. The manual cars had to think and shift, he
just mashed it, and probably got first and a ton of wheel spin since it was a
slow section. Did this contribute? I was not there to see it. When I ran an
auto trans car, it shifted in some not so nice places.
My conclusion,
Course was fast, I wanted it slowed down, but for selfish reasons, and the
official I spoke with caught on to that and made a good case for not changing
it.
I blew it and have a lot of work to do before the next event, I am almost
ready to pull the motor to fix the flywheel.
Events on the roads at route 66 need special attention to ensure safe runoff.
The designers did try, they had several very narrow gates for the sole
purpose of making the offsetts more drastic to keep speeds down, BUT during
the walk, several drivers complained that they were under the 14 foot SCCA
limit, so the gates were widened to 14 foot making the MAX offset distance
about 12 feet!! This greatly added to the max speed available.
One thing that may have worked was the trick I saw at a divisional was
turning the gates a bit sideways so the cones are 14 foot apart, but the
straight through width is just 10 feet or less. That could very well have
brought this event into more fun, less white knuckle.
JMHO
Gary M.
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