black944 turbo

Man, so sorry about your accident. You did such a great job on your car.

Chris White

The Hans device will help in side impacts – get it hooked up!!!
The car in front had a nice twitch on the corner just before, based on the puffs of smoke (out the exhaust) I would say that there is a very good chance he was coughing up some fluids too. Not a good guy to follow – but I know how the brain works where you are out on the track, you just want to go fast. It easy to look at a video and think that you should have let him go, but that’s not how racers think!

BTW – what’s with the down shift in the gravel trap? Its amazing what the brain will do when its on autopilot!

Good luck with fixing it up – hopefully its not too bad. Add some more safety stuff. Over on this side of the pond the small triangular net fitting in between the driver / passenger is getting more popular. Cheap too! Definitely look at a good containment seat!

David Floyd

Ouch ! wish you a quick recovery and a Happy Birthday

I was at a DE yesterday and saw 3 cars damaged badly, drivers all ok, we all know it's a risk taken every time on the track, part of the game we hope never happens.

Fluidplay

Patrick, very glad to hear you're ok. That was a solid hit. Definetly get the x-ray, very hard tell if you have just severely bruised or cracked ribs. Either way they're painful, especially with a cough.
Hope you get the car back in action soon.

Bri Bro

I would agree with Chris, that car was putting out a lot of smoke when he went off throttle. I had a car dump antifreeze in a corner in front of me and it was like I had four flats all at the same time. Looks like you hit the shifter with your side, which side hurts?

Getting an Xray is really important since a crack rib can break and acts like a knife inside of you. I would wrap my chest with bruised ribs to limit motion, can't imagine the pain involved in couching all night. Beat wishes for a speedy recovery.

95ONE

Good god Patrick. I want to throw up. We all know the risks, but certainly hope we can at least get a few damn good years in before it does. NOT the first few times out.

I watched it over and over again. It was letting go very early in the turn. min. 4:22 You appeared to regain grip, but it reared its head again. It definitely seems as though something slippery. My own blown headgasket did that to me once.

is your torque tube flopping around that much? That seems like a lot of movement. (stick shift)


I'm just so sorry Patrick. We all have over corrected at some point, but they just don't have to end this way. Such a hard hit from the side. Thank god they were tires and not a concrete wall. It does seem the cage did a great job though.

I will hope for a speedy recovery and your car back in race ready condition soon.

Thanks to this video, I am certainly going to install a side net. Internet searching now.

Julian Allen

Sorry to hear about this, Patrick. Hoping for a quick recovery and rebuild!

Tom M'Guinn

Patrick, so sorry this happened after all that work, but glad you are ok and able to joke about it. That shifter was moving back and forth quite a bit, but my bet is on whatever was smoking off the back of the car ahead of you.

Duke

Oh no Patrick... I feel so sorry for you mate! After all your troubles and effort you definitely had earned your right to lots of worry-free fun. Life's a battle..
But as has been said - most important thing is that you are alright! Good thing you were in a safe car. A Halo seat, Hans and maybe a safety net seems like things every track car should have after watching that. Some impact! Very, very glad you seem to be a pretty good shape all things considered!

I bet the talented guys you've worked with so far can fix the car in decent time. Hang in there!!

lart951

Patrick, damn if you were in SoCal I have a bunch of turbo body parts I would gladly share them with you, you have always been one of my favorite Aussies besides cocodrile Dundee. What kind of Alfasud? when I was back in El Salvador many many years ago I did race a Spring Veloce GTV 2000 dual overhead cam.

Charles Parkinson

Hi Pat,
Really glad you are ok and that your car is caged these days...that is an awful quick part of the track and quite a smack into the tyres. I would bet my shorts that rotary powered alfa was squirting oil on the down changes from worn tip seals after seeing the video (and owning rotary race cars decades ago). A thorough post mortem of your car will be required to see if anything broke or came loose to cause the sudden breakaway, or whether it was just Exxon Valdez syndrome.
Go to the Doctor Charles

333pg333

Thanks for all the wishes guys. Very much appreciated. They present somewhat of a salve to the pains I'm currently experiencing.

A few things to take out of this. If I get this all back together it won't be without net, hans and halo seat. I count myself lucky to have only sustained the injuries that I have. Going to get them checked out this morning.

My recollections of the moment were that I felt an uncertainty of traction. The correction 'seemed' pretty mild and I felt as if on edge. Sort of tip toeing through the corner. There are a series of bumps through that corner that can also assist in unsettling the car. We also noted that the rear right hand bushing that holds the banana arm to the torsion tube carrier had a little fore/aft movement but couldn't replace it in time. We felt that under compression it would be ok. Perhaps it was a combination of a few things but I have to say that loss of traction seems the main culprit. Not to assuage my ego, merely examining the event. The car in front seemed to have stuff billowing out so much so that I thought I was behind some Dragon car on a Japanese kid's show. I also noticed the shifter moving sideways. Not sure quite why that is the case? The car has all new mounts in it. Have to check into this as well.

As Chris notes, I did downshift. This was a deliberate attempt to scrub off more speed. Sitting on the sidelines as a Monday Quarterback, it is doubtful that this did much to slow the car...but I didn't have many options at my disposal. Wonder if yanking on the handbrake or just jerking the wheel suddenly sideways would have helped? Rotate or Rollover??

333pg333

Lart, I may still buy some parts from you. I need to check quite a few things out first.

lart951

what's your suspension setup front and rear?

95ONE

Patrick, I'm a bit of a bad timing straight forward guy that comes out harsh many times and there may not be an excuse for it, but in this case it is meant as friendly advice that can be taken with concern for an internet friend.

Your first few quick corrections were perfect and well played. It was that large initial hand over hand counter steer correction that was way too much. It is so difficult to keep from doing (instinct). ...I'm thinking you know this and were just more on edge in this case because of all the quick corrections you just had to do for almost no visible reason, (knew something was wrong) and were expecting more of a tire release than what you got, so the large correction ensued. In that case, I certainly think I might have made the same mistake. But if that was not the case, and the over correction was instinct, try to hold back (easier said than done there) less is more.
I do understand how easy it is to say from a comfy computer while just watching the video sipping on some tea. I am also not sayin that I am immune to such mistakes. But, from this nice calm comfy armchair, I would have probably only gone 90-180 deg turn (of the steering wheel) of correction for that slip. I actually try to under correct as much as possible, it usually ends up in a slow steady spin if you do not throw enough in there, which is not too bad in many cases.
As for the down shift. Don't worry about that. It was a "can't hurt at this point" sort of thing and no criticism can really be given. I think it showed you kept some sort of cool and were trying to think. Definitely a race car driver in that helmet.