mark kibort

I will be racing in my first V8 Supercar series race at the end of May.

Unfortunately, the latest version of the monster camaro will not be there, due to his monster crash at Thunderhill in the first inagural race last month.
Randy was pretty badly injured and the car destroyed when he and the Viper were running pretty hard and a slow lapped, TransAm racer pulled too far left passing a disabled car (Kip in the turbo NSX), clipping the rear of Randy's Camaro as it passed, sending it into a slide. He nailed Kip in the rear to the right, and then proceeded to go off track, dig in and flip near 7 times, completely destroying the camaro, and sustaining searious injuries. 2 broken ribs, broken wrist, clavicle, and concussion. UGLY! crash! one of the worst in many years! Randy is healing up, and im sure he will be building another car sometime soon.

Common Brian!! are you going to run????

This weekend willl be a little different as far as schedule. 2 races on sunday. 11am and 1:30pm will be the race times on May 29th.

Mark


Mark

mark kibort

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/vid...=2036938243822

I dont know if you can see this, but here is the crash of Randy's camaro.
I hate unaware slow cars!

svp928

When Laguna was a REAL track (original 9-turn config), I saw several cars get destroyed like that between 2 and 3...
That is a scary ride, for sure...glad he will recover. Perfect illustration of why you need full gear to go flat-out on any track...

IcemanG17

DAMMM.....that was brutal.....its amazing how fast things can go BAD on track....WOW....makes me glad my bucket is so "low" powered..... I'd guess the NSX is seriously damaged too....

I can't make the race.....I am racing with NCRC at Thunderhill on Sat the 28th....

Bill Ball

Yikes! Wonder what "Bob" had to say for himself?

I'll should be able to get a contingent of Norcal'ers down there on the 29th.

SeanR

Man that crash looked nasty. Glad he lived.

atb

Man, that was just painful to watch. A testament that Randy knows how to build a car if he came out of that with his life.

Mark, explain what "should've happened" here with the Firebird.
When they crest the hill it looks like the NSX owner is hard over to the right. As they approach, the NSX tends to move to the middle of the track, (why didn't he stay to the right?) Then, look at the speed delta of both cars to the NSX, I don't think it was that unreasonable for the Firechicken to give the NSX such a wide berth, since the NSX appears to be wandering to the left. Don't both cars approaching the NSX need to exercise caution, or does the Firebird automatically have to yield to the Camaro and if so why? They both had a huge closing speed. With 20/20 vision after the fact, I think the Camaro should've waited to make the pass till both cars were beyond the crippled car instead of passing as they were approaching it.

I don't get why there seems to be a tendency to blame the first car to come up on slow traffic and make a move to get around, for a collision with an even faster car coming from behind trying to do the same thing? Both cars are trying to capitalize on the same opportunity.

Is the rule then "Before you pass, make sure you're not being passed?"

Please explain to us not-yet racer types.

finger lock

We were all very glad that Randy came out of that crash as well as he did.

Here is a photo of the NSX. Kip and his car builder didn't see any major structural damage that would make the car unrepairable.

Before-



After-




Mark, I look forward to seeing you at Laguna...

Guy

mark kibort

They made it sound like randy just tapped Kip in the NSX. Man, i woudnt even know WHERE to start repairing that car. its pretty bad, but they are right, the main structure is ok, just pannels and pulling out steel.

Randy is so very very lucky. I hear it took 20 mins to cut him out of the car, as he was hanging out the window area, after the net failed too. had he ended up , upside down , it could have been a lot worse, or god forbid fire!

think about all the wrecks we have all seen, always usually around some unaware slower car. makes me think a little more when appoaching one!
I lost my car to one, randy lost his front clip to one 2 years ago, its a scary thing, unprictability, and differential of speed!

As far as the review, and I always like to look real carefully at these kind of incidents, but Bob, certainly was off the pace , and should have been watching his mirrors, but in his defence, they were coming up on him hard, and it was probably the worst turn, straight, combo that they all could have met at.
kip was far right.
bob was drifting toward the middle of the track, and then made a pretty distinct move to the left for which randy had no where to go. personally, i now expect that kind of move and might have run way to the left in my pass of Bob. I didnt think kip was drifting left, as he shouldnt have been. he should have stayed on line and been watching the mirrors until that turn where then he would go off line going wide apex , letting cars go underneath.

anyway, you can see it happened pretty quick. just not enough room for an injured car, a slower transAm car with someone not knowing lapping cars were coming, and then some bad luck to boot! UGLY!

But, we are all glad randy had the car he did and is going to recover!

mark kibort

Personally, i think you are right. I would have been very cautious about that pass, given that my competition, Connie in the Viper, was pretty far back, so that i could easily take the narrow line into the next turn, and lead out of the next turn segments without worring about the viper getting an advantage. in fact, Bob, is not that slow, so i would have paused a little and expected him to move more than I would have moved over and probably then put 2 wheels in the dirt. Ive done that many times before aroud that section of track when a miata or something didnt see me coming as we were lapping. But, you are right, 2020 hidesight! thats why we review this stuff and put in the data banks of yet another dangerous situation to try and avoid with a different tact.

hopefully the LS7 vet motor survived as well as that new gear box and rear end they finally found to take the power and torque of their motors! its really sad, because the just got the car to another level and this is what happened!

IcemanG17

WOW...glad to hear the car will be repaired.....I also noticed the damage appears limited to fenders + suspension....which is good....its also a testament to Driving Ambition (& Acura) building a safe car.....

Randy's car also is very sturdy....I saw it years ago and it has an extensive cage......

atb

Thanks for the comments Mark. I know its a very different situation being able to watch a video after the fact rather than being in the moment, so no judgment call being made here. Randy was doing what racer's do, passing cars to win. I'm just looking at this as someone who is looking to be racing next year, and I totally see myself being in the position of the "TransAm car" (sorry I referred to it as a firebird in my prior post) having faster traffic come up from behind, and wondering generally as the faster car in back, what is the expected course of action of the slower car that you are closing in on, when they are coming up on a hazard or traffic themselves.
Very glad everyone made it out in relative safety, and that hopefully everyone will be back on the track soon.

mark kibort

good questions Adam and I think everyone tends to think about what they would or would have done in this situation. As they say, descretion.......
anyway, im sure, Bob was wondering what is up with Kip. Kip might have been rocking back and forth to figure out what is wrong, and that could have pushed bob to give more room than usual. Randy saw a hole that closed up in a fraction of a second. I prefer to always be a little more careful, in fact, a nice brake check before this kind of situation can actually back off a tail gating competitor.
as far as being slower traffic and what to do. its all about predictability. generally, drive the line and dont run to the middle of the track also dont make fast moves left or right, because sometimes passing cars just expect you to drive the line and might split you (if two cars are passing), so quick moves to get on line to help, might not help at all. (in fact couldd cause a big crash too) of course, point bys are awesome and make passing at high speed much more safe!

mark kibort

packing up for the laguna event! 2 races on sunday, one at 11:20 and the other is at 1:30

If you are around, come on out and say hello! there will even be a Aston Marton out there with us!

Bill Ball

I was planning on coming down, but son moving Sunday will probably interfere. Be fast but safe.