Hey all,

Saturday at Mid-Ohio I had a bit of a wreck. No injuries, it could have been a LOT worse though!

Out of car, wife videoing: (Caution: Language)
http://video.google.com/videop...hl=en

Here's a link to the in-car, straight to the crash (the video has the whole 6 minutes of race, you can rewind to get there.
http://video.google.com/videop...5m10s
The red S2000 is the 3rd place H1 car of Kelsey Smith. Chris D's red hatch and John Oldt's white S2000 are ahead of him.

We're making our way through lapped traffic and I had a good run on Kelsey, but it didn't exactly work out. He pinched me down a little in order to set himself up to get around the Miata in front of him, and the Neon was sitting in the middle of the track unaware that we were about to go 4-wide. It looked like there was plenty of room for me until the last minute, and I didn't give it up. The Neon's front tire hit me right in front of my passenger rear tire which sent me out of control.

I just barely miss a red Miata that's going through the keyhole (turn 2). I met up with him after the race and he said he thought he heard some gravel hit his car but he didn't know what happened behind him.

The PTF Neon driver and I didn't see eye to eye on the incident. I wished he would have been looking in his mirrors as he's getting lapped, and he's the only car in his class. He thought my move was a banzai move (and if he didn't see me coming, I could see how he'd think that). He also said he was already at the edge of the track when he clearly had another two car widths.

The whole incident is quite a bit more sobering since a GTS car crashed Sunday and the driver ended up passing away at the hospital. It's unrelated, but related at the same time (rest in peace John Engle)

 

DAMN...............DAMN...............DAMN........ .......DAMN...............DAMN...............DAMN. ..............DAMN...............DAMN............. ..DAMN...............DAMN...............

Man luck was on your side. It didnt flip Plus u didnt take anyone out on the last turn. That sucks must be very carful when lapping slow cars. Hope you are ok the car is ok and your wife is ok.

Edo

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chris F &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">(rest in peace John Engle)</TD></TR></TABLE>

And my condolonces goes to John and his family.


Edo

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EdoMoto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Man luck was on your side. It didnt flip Plus u didnt take anyone out on the last turn. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Understatement right there!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EdoMoto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">DAMN...............DAMN............. ..DAMN...............DAMN...............DAMN...... .........DAMN...............DAMN...............DAM N...............DAMN...............DAMN........... ....

Man luck was on your side. It didnt flip Plus u didnt take anyone out on the last turn. That sucks must be very carful when lapping slow cars. Hope you are ok the car is ok and your wife is ok.

Edo</TD></TR></TABLE>

My sentiments exactly. I actually held my breath as I watched you fly back across the track. I thought your wife took it quite well.

Personally, I understand why you made that move, but I think in doing so you caused the incident. Even though the Neon wasn't all the way over, he was at least being predictable and holding station, which is all you really ask of lapped cars. As Kelsey moved over, you probably should have given up the pass attempt instead of force the issue in traffic IMO. Glad to see you weren't hurt though. I liked the very sincere "wooooo" when you came to a stop. I've had a few of those moments myself.

Edit: BTW - I watched the whole vid and that looked like a really fun race. I haven't been in the car for 3 months and watching something like that makes me want to explode at this point. I still have one month to go before I'll see action again.

 

Glad to hear you're ok.

Sorry to hear John Engle was not

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FlyZlow &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Personally, I understand why you made that move, but I think in doing so you caused the incident.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, fair assessment. I keep looking back for where I should have backed out... my closing speed on Kelsey was so high it surprised me.

Here's Chris D's video of my flight across the Keyhole... priceless!
http://video.google.com/videop...hl=en

(thanks)

 

holy crap! glad your ok chris (F)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chris F &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Yeah, fair assessment. I keep looking back for where I should have backed out... my closing speed on Kelsey was so high it surprised me.

Here's Chris D's video of my flight across the Keyhole... priceless!
http://video.google.com/videop...hl=en

(thanks)</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm fine with the link but I just wanted to add my disclaimer.

From our private H-C board.
"I didn't make the video public and I'll only post this version here because were all friends. Your fine now so we can joke about it but like you said earlier, it's a eye opener how quickly things like this can happen and how our hobby can be very dangerous at times. "

And my deepest condolences to the friends and family of John Engle.

 

Holy crap!! I'm glad to hear you're okay. How's the car? Did the wife take it okay?

Sorry to hear about John Engle. It always sucks to hear about something like that happening. A Formula Mazda racer was killed locally a couple years ago. Very sad.

 

Wow Chris! Glad you're ok...I had no idea about John Engle's death...very sad...

 

Glad to see you're okay Chris.

Our thoughts & prayers go out to John Engle & family.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chris F &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The PTF Neon driver and I didn't see eye to eye on the incident. I wished he would have been looking in his mirrors as he's getting lapped, and he's the only car in his class. He thought my move was a banzai move (and if he didn't see me coming, I could see how he'd think that). He also said he was already at the edge of the track when he clearly had another two car widths.</TD></TR></TABLE>

He didn't check his mirrors (or over his left sholder) and moved over on you. Yeah, you were hauling. But he had a bevy of cars going by him and he started the move before he looked.

What'd the race director say?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thawley &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
He didn't check his mirrors (or over his left sholder) and moved over on you. Yeah, you were hauling. But he had a bevy of cars going by him and he started the move before he looked.

What'd the race director say?</TD></TR></TABLE>
I filed the body contact form before I talked to the guy in the Neon. I checked around once for a race director but had no luck. After that I was busy with body work to get back to 50/50. The BCF had my cell phone number and I never got a call.

Honestly, I don't know what the race director said, but I wasn't DQ'ed and the Neon was gone on Sunday. Official results aren't up on mylaps yet. I have to guess they'd call it a "racing incident?" This is my first real body contact, not sure about the other guy's history.

Look at Tina's video again... the Neon wasn't moving over fast, I was moving towards him at the same time to avoid Kelsey's path. He took away that last 10 inches of track width that I needed as my hole closed up.

 

Wow, you hit that wall hard! Luckily you didn't hit it noes 1st, or even upside down! I'm really Glad your OK. Any damage to the car other than body work? You have several weeks to fix it before the big show.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thawley &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

He didn't check his mirrors (or over his left sholder) and moved over on you. Yeah, you were hauling. But he had a bevy of cars going by him and he started the move before he looked.

What'd the race director say?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I was watching the videos over and over trying to find where he moved over and it didn't look to me anyhow like the neon moved over.. looked like he was holding his line.. more that it was kelsey moving over that closed the gap.. if he had seen chris, I'd think he might've gotten further out of the way but...

I wouldn't be surprised that he may not have seen chris.. I've been lapped a lot of times by faster traffic (GTS cars a lot of times) and if they're single file coming up on you like kelsey and chris were and you're also worried about traffic diving in front of you, it's pretty easy to miss that 2nd car being there.. can't look everywhere at once..

can't criticize that you went for it at all.. just glad you were ok chris!

 

I'm sorry for the incident man....
I think this is why I will never be at the very top when racing, as I would have been concerned about making that move, and would have followed the other H1 car in front of you untul there was more racing room....but I was not there, and you thought you had a good chance to shoot that gap...it's a game of inches at times, and the best pros have made the same "error" if you want to call it that. None of us are in the position to judge, but it's all unfortunate. good luck.

 

Glad your ok mang

 

Now that we've established that you're OK (and I'm glad you are) its pretty cool that you cleared the track completely on the way into the kitty litter.

My condolences also go out to the Engle family.


Modified by Jaker at 12:19 AM 8/22/2007

 

gald your ok man... wow that last vid. crazy....

 

That WAS ugly. Glad your ok.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jaker &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Now that we've established that you're OK (and I'm glad you are) its pretty cool that you cleared the track completely on the way into the kitty litter. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Yes, for sure.

Wai took a couple pics, I'll steal his bandwitdh (thanks Wai)

Note, super-JDM 17"/15" wheel stagger and uni-blade wiper goes on for Sunday's race!

 

If that's not a new door, you did a damn good job getting that DENT out!!!

BTW, are those 17x8s or 17x8.5s?

 

Chris,

you should work in the body shop!

BTW, those Rota wheels can take a beating, eh?

Your wheels shipped out today.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Andrie Hartanto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">BTW, those Rota wheels can take a beating, eh?</TD></TR></TABLE>

LOL! Yeah, you can see the top of the rear one has a 8" chunk of rim missing. I was amazed it held air. The rest all had gravel jammed around the tire bead. None were bent, even the one missing some pieces!

Thanks again for the awesome prices on the new ones.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 117 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If that's not a new door, you did a damn good job getting that DENT out!!!

BTW, are those 17x8s or 17x8.5s?</TD></TR></TABLE>
They're 17x8.

It's almost like I've done this a few times before... I still have to play with the "headlight" area and get a new front lip. Front bumper is on its last legs too.