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This past weekend, Chin Motorsports staged the first DE at Road Atlanta since the unfortunate death of a student driver earlier this month at a NASA HPDE event.
Chin General Manager Mark Hicks took a moment of silence during Saturday's driver meeting to honor 56-year-old Glenn Dick, Jr., who died when his Mustang hit an oil slick at the end of the long back straight approaching Turn 10a, slid off the track, and impacted a concrete wall.
There was an extended discussion during the Chin driver meeting about making sure everyone's car was mechanically prepared. In a separate instructor's meeting, we were reminded that "**** happens" and were urged to make sure student cars were carefully inspected.
Later that morning, in two separate run groups, in EXACTLY THE SAME PLACE as Dick's unfortunate encounter, two cars dropped fluid, ending sessions for extensive track cleanup.
In one case, a Mustang blew a hose and spewed coolant all the way down the hill into Turn 10a before spinning in his own fluid into the gravel trap. A second incident, a short while later, shut down the track for nearly 30-minutes while bags of Oil-Dri were applied to an extensive spill in the braking zone to Turn 10a.
Why has Road Atlanta's Turn 10a become the Bermuda Triangle of oil spills? Probably because cars are fully stressed at the end of the 130-140 mph back stretch, and are braking hard (downhill) in preparation for an off-camber 80-degree left-hander. The corner has always been a trouble magnet.
No one was injured in either incident Saturday. Flaggers quickly made drivers aware of the spills and they were able to successfully negotiate through and around them. But the irony was unavoidable. Despite the best efforts of everyone involved, **** still happens.
But I always thought the last turn ( the downhill right just before S/F) was the extra dangerous one, especially in the rain. Of course in the rain, a number of the turns there become treacherous.
Why has Road Atlanta's Turn 10a become the Bermuda Triangle of oil spills? Probably because cars are fully stressed at the end of the 130-140 mph back stretch, and are braking hard (downhill) in preparation for an off-camber 80-degree left-hander. The corner has always been a trouble magnet.
Just curious, is this turn worse in those attributes than Turn 5 at Road America, where people reach similar speeds going into a slower, though flatter, turn?
08-25-2015, 10:01 AM
OILY IRONY AT ROAD ATLANTA
