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Originally Posted by Sonar Chief
You don't ever want to hear about a death on a race track ... safety is paramount is these street cars! My heart goes out to their families!!!
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It is a really unfortunate occurrence for sure. Some interesting threads spawned by this accident that really makes you think twice about how you approach these events.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GregWeld
The Buttonwillow death (let's call it what it was rather than downplaying it to an "incident" or "accident") is something ALL of us should be thinking about when deciding whether or not our cars are truly track worthy.
We've already seen cars on fire on a couple cars that hang around here.... These drivers were only lucky that they were okay and could get out of the cars. I'm always reminded of the "what if" that fire came after a bad crash where I couldn't help myself to get out - or if the door was jammed etc....
The horsepower and tires that are being built into ordinary street cars gives them the ability to carry some serious speed.... in most cases - far exceeding the drivers ability and the safety equipment required in many of these events. The speeds we're able to obtain at the end of some of the longer straights is astounding! Therefore - the likelihood of an "off" - or a brake failure - or a spin etc go up accordingly.
Some "incident" might have absolutely nothing to do with our own equipment - preparation - or skills. They might simply be because someone in front of us had an engine let go - or spilled the guts of their radiator....
Like I always told my kids -- "it's all a lot of fun.... right up 'til the time you get hurt". While that was more about football and soccer, and jumping bikes, etc.... it still rings true in our adult activities.
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Those are good points Greg. The level of safety preparation on this car was higher than my own (currently not hard to do) and higher than 90% of the cars I see on road course tracks at these types of events but it still wasn't enough.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomswheels
After reading about what happened, it seems the passenger side of the vehicle impacted, but the Passenger survived and the Driver did not. Makes me reconsider choice of seat, and HANS device usage on ANY track larger than Autocross...
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I've been researching seats and hans devices again myself.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CurtiSS 69
Hello Chad,
Thanks for sharing the footage: ) It seems like the car and the driver have out grown standard HPDE events... Go on to NASA TT as you were talking about before. I think you will really like it. It's easier to grow and have fun when you have the carrot in front of you rather than being held up by traffic.
Regards
CurtiSS 69
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Thanks Curtiss. I've done more research on the Nasa TT events. Looks like a fun time but I'd never be competitive in most of the classes. I still think it might be worth trying and I've got my eye on the 2016 schedule.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spiffav8
Chad that was a great post on the event and I really enjoyed the video! That looks like so much fun and really motivates me to get my car finished.
The death at the track is a serious bummer. As Greg and others have stated...No One our ranks Major Safety.
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Too true. Glad you enjoyed the video.