No one told me I couldn't lift or brake in the middle of a transition!

http://www.fvscc.com/Blade1.mpg

 

Was somone screaming when you passed by?

 

No! hahaha They edited that in there to make me look like a girl, on top of already looking like a bad driver.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ConeDodgerBlade &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">No one told me I couldn't lift or brake in the middle of a transition!

http://www.fvscc.com/Blade1.mpg</TD></TR></TABLE>

looked like a little to much speed too.. lol.. hope you did do any damage to your car

 

Uhh - is it just me or does that corner go left? What track is that?

K

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Uhh - is it just me or does that corner go left? What track is that?

K</TD></TR></TABLE>

That's what it looks like to me too. Also, I wasn't aware that black plastic trash bags were effective barriers...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Uhh - is it just me or does that corner go left? What track is that?

K</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes the track goes left. The track is a 1mile go-kart track in Northren Wisconsin. The width is 30ft wide so there is plenty of room to race cars there, well....lapping anyways.

Those trash bags had hail bails in them. I though that they would break open if any body would hit them but I proved my self wrong. There there with karts in mind also not cars.

There is a lot of elevation at this track. Coming into the corner that goes left your coming out of a right hand corner and going downhill with two slight dips in elevation. I was going a little two fast and was off line. I braked to slow up for the left before I had the car settled and what you see is the end result.

Heres a in car video of my friends Escort around the track chasing me, in my Escort I had and then a NSX at a event last year. My escort was more stable going through the turns I messed up in my CRX, but no where as fast or fun! Also the NSX was inbetween first and second though most of the track.

[right click please] http://sharkpork.com/video/superscort.avi [right click please]



The configuration we race....

 

You were going too fast - period. I'm an old fart but this looks like a case of "Hey, y'all watch this!" rather than a sanctioned performance driving activity. Put the video camera away - this isn't Jackass - slow down, and learn the lines. You got off lucky, I think, and we'd WAY rather have you do this a little more seriously so you can stick around to play with us more in the future.

K

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You were going too fast - period. I'm an old fart but this looks like a case of "Hey, y'all watch this!" rather than a sanctioned performance driving activity. Put the video camera away - this isn't Jackass - slow down, and learn the lines. You got off lucky, I think, and we'd WAY rather have you do this a little more seriously so you can stick around to play with us more in the future.

K</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sigh...does it even bear mentioning that he wasn't the one filming the incident? I suppose those little details aren't important when we've got a chance to take someone down a peg, though.

 

I can vouch for Blade, and I was at this event with him. This was a mistake on a track. Simple as that. I can assure you all that he was paying no regard to the fact that it was being filmed, if he knew the camera was there.

I was the next car through there and I didn't know at the time that it was being filmed.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ConeDodgerBlade &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">No one told me I couldn't lift or brake in the middle of a transition!

http://www.fvscc.com/Blade1.mpg</TD></TR></TABLE>

Coulda asked anyone of us. But I figure you already knew that, and this is just sarcasm. If not, now you know.

 

It wasn't about "taking someone down a peg." It was about being concerned about a fellow car enthusiast who shows evidence of going about things in a less-than-entirely-safe manner.

I also worry about people who time laps at HPDEs, those who start learning high-performance driving in high-performance cars, and people who spend more money on power than tires. That's just how I am.

I'm more than two Blades old, and have been on road courses for longer than he's been alive, so I've earned the right to worry about stuff like this by watching people fark it up by making bad decisions.

K

 

ahaha nice!

 

yep that corner go left to me, why did you go right?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It wasn't about "taking someone down a peg." It was about being concerned about a fellow car enthusiast who shows evidence of going about things in a less-than-entirely-safe manner.

I also worry about people who time laps at HPDEs, those who start learning high-performance driving in high-performance cars, and people who spend more money on power than tires. That's just how I am.

I'm more than two Blades old, and have been on road courses for longer than he's been alive, so I've earned the right to worry about stuff like this by watching people fark it up by making bad decisions.

K</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm not looking for an argument here, beleive me, but for one, age has nothing to do with earning the right to worry, everyone with an internet connection has that. If it is just worry then that's great, really. But your original post seemed like a case of 'oh yeah here comes another jackass!'.

As far as going about this in a less-than-entirely-safe manner. I would argue that participating in any motorsports is less than entirely safe, and as far as 'farking it up due to making bad decisions'. I would argue that Blade made one of the best decisions of the many many people that fark it up by showing up at a track and seeing how far he could go there rather than on the street like the VAST majority of people who get it wrong. In my opinion, that is what tracks are for! So we driving enthusiasts can go out, have fun, and know that if we make a mistake at the limit we have a pretty good chance of getting out of it with nothing more than a bruised ego. If we never made mistakes, we wouldn't need tracks, because we could all do it on the street.

Again, to reiterate, this was not Blade showing off for the camera. This was Blade being caught on camera making a mistake on track, then people like me getting it edited to be more embarrasing than it should be for use as ammo when predictions are made about the next autocross results.

At the very start of the video, what you see is Blade exiting a highspeed right hand kink over a crest, he misjudged it, lifted, and the car wouldn't stop turning right.

 

Also this was a private event. We limited entrants to 35, and speifically did not invite the known 'jackasses'.

I would estimate that between us we ran 1300 laps that day and this was one of 2 off track excursions (the other was at the same corner with a different car and as far as I know not on camera). I would say that's pretty good.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You were going too fast - period. I'm an old fart but this looks like a case of ... so you can stick around to play with us more in the future.
K</TD></TR></TABLE>

Just when you thought you were away from the parental figures...

I forget which racecar driver it was, maybe someone here can tell me, but basically the idea was, there is no need to go over the limit to find the limit. The racecar driver apparently had little or no crashes in his career. Might have been Jackie Steward, but I'm not really sure.

And another phrase that was spoken to me by a one-armed, kick-***, Formula Ford driver about braking. Instead of going in deeper next time by a foot, try an inch at a time.

I've been reading some stuff on becoming and instructor for HPDEs/trackdays/... and one of the pieces of advice was about figuring out where on a track you can get away with pushing it a bit harder and where it's best not to try it. Sorry you had to find out the hard way about the hay bails. That just sucks.

Yes, tis true you can learn from your mistakes, but if you can avoid the mistake to begin with...

Again just to point out the quote above. "... to play with us more in the future." That my friends is a welcoming, concerned phrase.

 

On another note, can you say TIRE MURDERER?

I almost got sick watching turn after turn after turn...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by the-moss &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm not looking for an argument here...</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm flattered that you would use 2 of your 3 HT posts ever to defend Mr. Blade's actions and your event from little ol' me.

The "good decision, bad decision" question is contextual. You are right that I should have expressed that I was glad that this was on a track. (You would REALLY have seen "knocking down" if it had been a homemade touge vid.) Once you are AT the track, I have greater expectations though: The bar is set higher in terms of judgement and skill because you are now on a scale that I respect.

I think that it's fair to have inferred from only the evidence provided - piece of road that looks too narrow to be a race track, no corner workers, no other cars evident, videographer handy to catch the action - that there was some doubt as to the legitimacy of the situation, but that seems not to have been an issue.

If I saw that error from a student I was instructing, I would have had a serious sit-down with him or her because, while the driver gets an A for judgement, just for showing up at the event, that is only the passing grade to get into the next class in the series.

I do NOT know the details of your event but I reserve the right to wonder about it, not knowing what kind of format, instruction, safety provisions, and expectations of entrants were in place. "Private" track days range from "great!" to "Dude - 34 of us are splitting the cost to rent the track for a day so we can make vids of each other hauling ***. You in?"

Again - high expectations on my part but motivated by a desire to have people play this game in the safest, most professional way possible.

K