rm21

There have been a few references in recent posts to an incident at the last CHIN Road Atlanta weekend, so I thought I'd fill in the details, since I was the driver. I appreciate the folks who were there not sharing any pics or videos and allowing me to be the one to tell my story. There are clearly some lessons to be learned, which is the main reason I'm sharing my experience. Many of those have been mentioned repeatedly on RL, but there is nothing like a real-world event to bring them home.

Sunday was one of the strangest and most unfortunate track days I can recall. It started with some of worst fog any of us had ever seen at Road Atlanta. Nearly the entire morning was black flagged due to limited visibility. By the noon session, the fog was gone and the temps looked like they would be ideal for the rest of the day, so everyone in our group was excited to get back on track. I took a passenger out in the noon session and had a blast. I ran some 1:32 laps driving around 8/10ths. The car felt great.

For the next session, I had a pro coach sitting in the right seat with me. I was trying to find the half second that would allow me to break into the 1:29s. There was a good bit of traffic but it looked like we were going to be able to find some clean air going into lap 4. I was pushing the car, but only enough to get constructive feedback - I knew it didn’t make sense to be going for a record time with a passenger. I thought I knew the spots where you needed to give Road Atlanta the respect it deserved, particularly with a passenger in the right seat. So I was pretty shocked when I came out of turn 4 a little too hot and didn't open the wheel quite enough as I approached the top of the esses - the rear came around and we went hurtling towards the wall on the left side of the track. My first reaction was one of shock because I didn't perceive that I had made a large enough mistake to go off track. Then it seemed like there was a sickeningly long amount of time to ponder the fact that we were about to have a very hard impact as we were sliding through the grass and clay. The rear of the car was the first to make contact, at 62mph, followed by a few lesser impacts. One of my driving buddies was right behind me in his GT3 and saw the entire crash. Worst of all, my wife happened to be at a viewing spot where she also saw the entire sequence of events.

The really good news is that despite the high-speed nature of the impact, neither my coach nor I were harmed in any way - no scratches and no pain, including once the adrenaline wore off! I had a BBi half-cage and a HANS setup and I’m sure the safety gear was the largest factor in the positive outcome, combined with the angle of the impact and the safety of a modern 911. The car was totally destroyed and will be a complete write-off. Thankfully I had OpenTrack and they are processing the claim.

So, onto the lessons. The biggest one - when you are driving at this level, there isn’t much margin for error. Although everyone has to make their own decisions about risk, I won't be driving on track again unless I am in a fully prepped race car. It is pretty easy to rationalize the convenience and value proposition of a street car, but having a near brush with serious injury has shut down the internal debate I’ve been having in my own head about whether a fully prepped race car is a necessity or not. Even if I drove at 7/10ths, which I don’t think I could bring myself to do, there are simply too many ways to crash on track. Part of what I had been asking myself since I got the 991.2 was at what point I was going to stop chasing lap times in a street car. I half-kiddingly told some friends that once I broke 2 minutes at VIR and 1:30 at Road Atlanta I was going to retire the .2, but fate intervened a few sessions before I could decide whether I was serious about that. I'm pretty sure my profile isn't that different than a lot of folks on this forum - we are a competitive bunch, and if we are going to do something, we want to continue to do it to the best of our abilities. That really was the joy for me - learning new ways to extract a few more tenths from the car wherever I could. I'd study my track data for hours on end, watch all the Krause-Bentley track walk videos, and practice on my sim when I couldn’t get on track. It was great while it lasted, but that chapter is over for me. Now I just need to decide if it is worth the money to move to a fully prepped car, or whether I just focus on my other hobbies. For those that I won’t be seeing on track for a while, please be safe, and continue to invest in your safety equipment.

LexVan

Glad you, and coach, are A-OK. Sorry about the car, and having your wife see the accident.

ipse dixit

FerchoPorsche

shewu

Glad you were able to walk away from the incident, and thanks for sharing the post-mortem. Hope you can make the best of your sabbatical from the track with the sim!

djcxxx

tasman

Glad you and coach were ok Rich

carcommander

This is why I don't track my cars. If you do it enough you are going to crash. Glad you are ok and had insurance on the car.

MJG911

Glad you are ok. I've had a few friends crash in that area of the track. I just sold my 370Z racecar and gave up tracking after 15 years. It was a good run, but as I get older and slower, I figured I would quit while I was ahead.

soulsea

Sorry you had the accident and of course glad everyone (and your wallet) is ok.

I really should stop tracking street cars with just a helmet, a seatbelt, sweatpants., and a positive attitude.

I've actually been renting seat time in a 991.1 4.0 cup car recently and it obviously does make a massive difference both in performance and especially safety. I will however say that whether I track with the CC or one of my own street cars the one thing I have stopped doing completely is hpde, and only go to private track days when I can run when I want as I want and pretty much always on an open track with no traffic. Otherwise, just because I managed to get a rare clear lap on the few sessions I get, I will press to hard trying to make the most of it even though it may not be the time for it or even though I may push harder than I otherwise would ... that's honestly when I've gotten myself into the most trouble. Especially with Chin and PCA who pack them in.

disden

man, glad you and passenger are ok. I've had several friends have similar events over the years, as a result I just assume my time is sadly coming. Thanks for your insight and warnings, good for people to hear from someone who has lived it. I've often considered full track car, those thoughts are back now. have a good holidays, and let us know please how OpenTrack claim goes- I use them as well, so would be nice to know how they handle this.

Akunob

First off Rich, glad to hear that both you and your pro coach are fine and walked away with no injuries. Your comments and perspective are well received as my track buddies and I often debate the risk/reward trade-off of pursuing those last few tenths in search of faster lap times. The reality is that for us in this hobby, outside of actual racing results (i.e., podiums), faster lap times is a quick indicator of relative progress at a given track (adjusting for variables such as weather, track conditions, tire wear and run group traffic). A better measure of progress would be driving feedback from pro coaches/instructors however those of us in the upper run groups don't always avail ourselves of this at each track event. Your unfortunate experience and conclusion is sobering as you highlight the true cost of pursing those last tenths in a street car on track. Hope you get back on track sooner rather than later, your track videos were a great watch for many of us. So sad that your wife had to witness the incident.

robmypro

Haku

Rich, I'm sorry for your crash but thankful that you're not physically hurt. Thank you also for sharing your experience. For those that track, there's a lot there to consider and take on board.
Regardless of what car follows, you're both always a part of the Smokies group and welcome.

R.Deacon

Rich , reading some references of such an occurrence here on this past weekend's RA Chin event , much surprise for me to read your post !! as we haven't met ; I have followed with great respect your contributions here and perceived you to be a highly confident and competent driver having posted times you have accomplished . I now have even more respect for you, to step-up and share such an event here . I will soberly digest this news and glad to know you and coach endured uninjured . As well thanks for sharing info on Open Track as I now utilize the firms policies as well .

#21 best to you on the path ahead and how you choose to take it !!