Well ever since I started racing people have told me there are two kinds of racers...those who have crashed hard and those who are going to. Well this weekend at Moroso I switched sides. My Honda sprung a radiator leak late friday night while loading so I left it at home in the garage. I went to the race anyway but couldn't bear to just watch so I rented a ride in an E36 M3. Thank god I took the insurance! 43 minutes into my shift with only 2 to go I pushed too hard and got off into the grass. I was trying to straighten her out when she crested a small hill and got airbourne...after that I was just along for the ride. Ended up hammering an embankment front left leading at 80 mph plus...HANS worked, car spun 180 and plowed the embankment again on the right rear, then it climed the embankment towards the canal, hit a tree, flipped, then slid back down the embankment on the roof. All in all a wild ride indeed!! I'm sharing this experince to pass-on the lessons I learned.
1. if you rent a seat always take the insurance!!
2. check every piece of saftey gear you own every time you go on track cause you'd be amazed how fast a normal situation becomes anything but normal.
3. After your next race buy a corner worker a beer! You never realize how important they are till you need them.
4. Most importantly...Sparco's don't get you laid anymore when they are covered in mud, broken glass and shattered ego....
aaron (now aka..bethoven, flipper, crunch, Bimmer-killler, ect.)

 

Just curious - how much was the insurance and what was the arrangement? I assume you are out some $$$

 

Really sorry to hear about this, but glad you survived. Safety Equipment rocks!

 

Wow, you sure do sound like nothing happened! La la la I just wrecked the hell out of an E36 M3! Anyway, glad everything is ok and you bought the insurance.
I'm going to Moroso at the end of June, uhhhh

 

Yikes Glad you're still around to tell the story.

 

under normal circumsantes I wouldn't discuss the $$$, but for the benifit of H-T racers here's what you could get into....the insurance was $100 per day on top of the rental fee (in my case only one day). The way it works is that you pay the $100 and are liable for any damage up to $5K. My damage was much more and I'm on the hook for the whole 5k, sucks bad, but it is much better than paying for the entire car, prob. $35-40K. All said and done it's the best $100 I've ever spent.

 

Holy Smokes! Glad to hear you are ok physically and financially! (though $5k must still hurt)

Thank you for passing on very valuable information. Learning stuff like this is one of the many excellent reasons to pay attention to H-T...

 

Glad to hear you're ok.

Was the insurance through the car's owner, or an external insurance company? I'm curious, as the cars I race aren't worth much, so nobody does the insurance thing.

 

Wild ride indeed. Glad you are okay... man, that's quite a description of the wreck. I can't imagine what it looks like. Not to be a vulture, but you sound fairly upbeat - are there any pictures of the aftermath?

 

Welcome to the club! I had a little run in with a tire wall at about 60mph two years back. Rolled and completely destroyed my first ITC car. Luckily all my go fast parts were still good and I just needed to swap tubs .

 

sorry vultures....no photos yet, some on the way. There was a video camera in the car, but it ran out of tape minutes before the wreck...too bad, could have submited it to "racers gone wild"

 

Glad you are OK. I am also glad you invested in good safety gear.

 

Where exactly did this happen? Had a friend that did a few endos right before they changed T8.

 

at the exit of turn 6, heading onto the back straight

 

First off, i'm glad you made it through to race another day

Second, can you tell a little about your experience with the HANS device? How difficult was it to drive with, which impact do you think it made the most difference with, etc?

Thnx

 

Wooow...
You just convinced me to get a rollbar for my car.
'Glad you're OK.
George

 

I agree, this is clearly the most important lesson of all. Thank God for OxyClean!

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4. Most importantly...Sparco's don't get you laid anymore when they are covered in mud, broken glass and shattered ego....
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Really glad to hear you're okay.