John,
When Ed got through towing the Burkland's 4 wheel drive van and the 'liner
on the dolly out of the mud/crud/west of Floating Island, he had pulled them
for about a mile until we got to solid salt. He GPS'd our location there
and it was eleven miles from the end of the access road. There had been a
drag out to that area at some time last summer because there were some small
berms and the dragged areas were softer in some areas than others. The mud
around the wheels and the drag on the bottom of the 'liner were really
pretty good brakes.
When the catch net was set up that first year it was set up on a shallow
angle to take the car away from the dike. The idea was that it would go in
a large circle, away from the track to the left. On the long course it
would need to be on the right at the same angle to direct the car in a large
circle that way. There's not much down there in the way of open salt, it
turns to mud and ditches and telephone poles and dikes pretty fast. The net
has to be a very last resort measure because it is so drastic. All the
potential problems that have been mentioned are valuable considerations but
it is kind of like the runaway truck run-out areas on the freeways in
canyons, a very last resort to prevent additional damage. If you're going
fast enough it is going to hurt you too.
Wes
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