So... Stop Complaining About Concrete Barriers...
10-21-2005, 05:55 PM
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So... Stop Complaining About Concrete Barriers...
Road Atlanta could use wooden fences instead.
Apparently this driver is OK. Just a broken shoulder (2nd hand info).
While at first glance it doesn't seem so, this was actually this guys lucky day. That could have been... Bad. Very bad.
Scott, who thinks all that concrete at Road Atlanta, Daytona and Lowes suddenly doesn't look like such a bad idea.
10-21-2005, 06:28 PM
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Re: (94accordsedan)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94accordsedan »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Repost fo shizzle. </TD></TR></TABLE>
YEP...........
YEP...........
10-22-2005, 05:36 AM
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Re: (CRX Toad)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Toad »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Wow....that is one scary thing to look at.</TD></TR></TABLE>
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10-22-2005, 06:42 AM
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Re: So... Stop Complaining About Concrete Barriers... (SMSP)
While concrete's not great, a large surface area is a lot better to hit than a small one (i.e., a tree or a fence post). Even a car with a cage doesn't do too well if you hit a tree.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SMSP »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well I liked RA better in the early 90s before all the damn concrete. </TD></TR></TABLE>
I've raced there since 1995. I don't seem to remember many fewer destroyed cars in the pre-concrete days. The clay embankment's weren't much more forgiving, and the old gravel traps down-sloped (so you just sailed over them before slamming the tire wall). And while I really miss the old turn 11 I can remember some huge wrecks there as well.
The main difference with "old" Road Atlanta was how much clay and grass was in your destroyed car. (Well, that and the fact that the old dip and turn 11 were an awesome roller coaster ride).
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SMSP »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well I liked RA better in the early 90s before all the damn concrete. </TD></TR></TABLE>
I've raced there since 1995. I don't seem to remember many fewer destroyed cars in the pre-concrete days. The clay embankment's weren't much more forgiving, and the old gravel traps down-sloped (so you just sailed over them before slamming the tire wall). And while I really miss the old turn 11 I can remember some huge wrecks there as well.
The main difference with "old" Road Atlanta was how much clay and grass was in your destroyed car. (Well, that and the fact that the old dip and turn 11 were an awesome roller coaster ride).
10-22-2005, 07:12 AM
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Re: So... Stop Complaining About Concrete Barriers... (Catch 22)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Catch 22 »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Road Atlanta could use wooden fences instead.
Scott, who thinks all that concrete at Road Atlanta, Daytona and Lowes suddenly doesn't look like such a bad idea.</TD></TR></TABLE>
I was at Putnam that weekend and paddocked about 20 feet from this Corvette. I watched him pull that very nice car out of the trailer and thinking how much fun it looked like (I've been having some level of C5 Z06 lust lately). Within an hour after I watched him back it out of the trailer, the fun and the car were gone and he had a broken scapula. I'd never before been to a driver's meeting where we had a moment of silence for a fellow driver.
Regarding the incident, the wooden fence post that he hit was never meant to fend off racecars, it was meant to keep people and animals from having access to the racing surface. I think you will find that every single racetrack has perimeter fencing to keep the outside world out and that is what the Corvette hit at Putnam Park. That piece of wood is technically not a fencepost (they are much larger) but a stretcher used to pull tension on the metal wire fencing system between the fenceposts. It is actually very nice fencing system in very good condition until now.
He went off at a place where no one has ever gone off in the 14 year history of Putnam within about 30 feet of the beginning of the barrier system that starts the protection of Turn 1 with guardrails, tires and a gravel trap. I am sure that other tracks have had crash incidents where cars have gotten to places where no one had ever envisioned them getting to and that was exactly the case here after all these years. Now that they have learned this lesson, I am sure that barriers will be placed there soon if they are not already erected now.
I have attended events at Putnam since the very first car outing there in Spring 1992 (they had a few kart events there in Fall '91) and have hosted my own events there for the last 13 years. I consider it a very safe place and one of the best places I know of for learning and honing your skills because it is so safe. However we all learn things as time progresses and we racers and the track owners and designers learned a scary lesson that weekend. We are all the wiser from this and the track will be made safer too. Thankfully it was a lesson that the driver will recover from and the car did a pretty good job in fending off potentially worse injury. I look forward to scheduling my Spring 2006 event at Putnam and bet that when we drive onto the property we will be seeing the barriers reach farther up the side of the front straight.
Scott, who thinks all that concrete at Road Atlanta, Daytona and Lowes suddenly doesn't look like such a bad idea.</TD></TR></TABLE>
I was at Putnam that weekend and paddocked about 20 feet from this Corvette. I watched him pull that very nice car out of the trailer and thinking how much fun it looked like (I've been having some level of C5 Z06 lust lately). Within an hour after I watched him back it out of the trailer, the fun and the car were gone and he had a broken scapula. I'd never before been to a driver's meeting where we had a moment of silence for a fellow driver.
Regarding the incident, the wooden fence post that he hit was never meant to fend off racecars, it was meant to keep people and animals from having access to the racing surface. I think you will find that every single racetrack has perimeter fencing to keep the outside world out and that is what the Corvette hit at Putnam Park. That piece of wood is technically not a fencepost (they are much larger) but a stretcher used to pull tension on the metal wire fencing system between the fenceposts. It is actually very nice fencing system in very good condition until now.
He went off at a place where no one has ever gone off in the 14 year history of Putnam within about 30 feet of the beginning of the barrier system that starts the protection of Turn 1 with guardrails, tires and a gravel trap. I am sure that other tracks have had crash incidents where cars have gotten to places where no one had ever envisioned them getting to and that was exactly the case here after all these years. Now that they have learned this lesson, I am sure that barriers will be placed there soon if they are not already erected now.
I have attended events at Putnam since the very first car outing there in Spring 1992 (they had a few kart events there in Fall '91) and have hosted my own events there for the last 13 years. I consider it a very safe place and one of the best places I know of for learning and honing your skills because it is so safe. However we all learn things as time progresses and we racers and the track owners and designers learned a scary lesson that weekend. We are all the wiser from this and the track will be made safer too. Thankfully it was a lesson that the driver will recover from and the car did a pretty good job in fending off potentially worse injury. I look forward to scheduling my Spring 2006 event at Putnam and bet that when we drive onto the property we will be seeing the barriers reach farther up the side of the front straight.
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