Carnage at Sebring this Weekend....
12-14-2011, 09:40 AM
#1
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Carnage at Sebring this Weekend....
Wet weather on the track is no joke. Unfortunately, it rained like a bitch this weekend at Sebring. The day before and the day after were spectacular (murphy's law), but naturally Saturday and Sunday had monsoon like rain conditions. I didn't even bother running at all on Saturday.
Now I've seen a couple start finish incidents before in the wet, but not like this one. They always issues warnings about coasting over this particular area of the track and this is why:
Initial point of impact approximately 25 yards after the S/F line.
The final resting place approximately 50 yards further down the track. The driver walked away. Says a lot about the car as he was in standard seats with 3 points.
Randy (Izzone) managed to talk the registrar into sticking Reter (Trakcar) into pairing him with a 22 year old kid with a 700hp viper. With pretty much zero track experience. While I was laughing at Reter's perspective day instructing in that particular vehicle, he managed to flip the script on me and pull the "I don't fit in the viper" card while he was standing next to me and my services as an instructor were subsequently volunteered
Anyway, once again the wet weather comes into play. I spent most of the day telling my student what a death trap his car is, even in the hands of an experienced driver in hopes that would put some good healthy fear into his head. Which it did. I was impressed with his restraint. However, "Hello Mr. Wall. Please meet Mr. Viper's rear quarter panel." eventually happened. If you skip to about 11 minutes you can see it goes from light rain to downright pouring. At this point I had him slow wayyyyyy down. Despite, the rear end came around while taking a gentle turn around T9. Again, he was going pretty slow, Maybe 60. Road speeds. But with around 600 foot pounds at 2k rpm on sport cups, it doesn't take much. You can hear him just breathe on the throttle right before. And that's all it took. Naturally the impact was on my side Fortunately for both of us, neither were hurt and unbelievably he walked away with a scratch on his fender. He gets the "Second luckiest guy at Sebring" award that weekend.
My student on Sunday had a 650TT and it was his first time at Sebring, 3rd time on a track. I think Randy plans all this just to F with me PSM came into play more than a few times. Luckily he decided to pack it in towards the end of the day, deciding that nothing had happened and he wanted to end the day on a good note. Good call on his part.
Now this guy gets my nomination for the "Luckiest Guy at Sebring" that weekend. I shot this video while running in the blue group. If there was ever a time for him to go out and buy some powerball tickets, this is it. I talked to him afterwards and he wasn't sure what happened. He stopped short of the wall by about a foot. Maybe....
It wasn't all bad that weekend despite the weather. Bored GT3 rennlisters will naturally get involved with some shenanigans...
Here's a shot of us illegally using the skid pad for 2 hours. Once the track found out... Well lets just say they weren't happy about it since they normally charge $2500 a day
The GBG racing team joined in as well with some of their race 3.8 caymans. Their manager thought it would be interesting to bring the golf cart on there. And somehow managed to get it drifting.
With the crappy weather Chip (don't remember his screen name) brought the baller wagon out on track. Izzone has a baller wagon as well. We tried to instigate a "3 Lap X5 Cup Race" but Randy chickened out with some nonsense about it being his work vehicle
This, I'm just throwing in for good measure. No comment necessary. How does it go? A picture is worth a thousand words.
And here's some video of me sandbagging in the blue group on Sunday. One of only two dry sessions I got out there all weekend. It was pretty much take what you can get if the sky is dry at that point. Nothing terribly exciting here.
Now I've seen a couple start finish incidents before in the wet, but not like this one. They always issues warnings about coasting over this particular area of the track and this is why:
Initial point of impact approximately 25 yards after the S/F line.
The final resting place approximately 50 yards further down the track. The driver walked away. Says a lot about the car as he was in standard seats with 3 points.
Randy (Izzone) managed to talk the registrar into sticking Reter (Trakcar) into pairing him with a 22 year old kid with a 700hp viper. With pretty much zero track experience. While I was laughing at Reter's perspective day instructing in that particular vehicle, he managed to flip the script on me and pull the "I don't fit in the viper" card while he was standing next to me and my services as an instructor were subsequently volunteered
Anyway, once again the wet weather comes into play. I spent most of the day telling my student what a death trap his car is, even in the hands of an experienced driver in hopes that would put some good healthy fear into his head. Which it did. I was impressed with his restraint. However, "Hello Mr. Wall. Please meet Mr. Viper's rear quarter panel." eventually happened. If you skip to about 11 minutes you can see it goes from light rain to downright pouring. At this point I had him slow wayyyyyy down. Despite, the rear end came around while taking a gentle turn around T9. Again, he was going pretty slow, Maybe 60. Road speeds. But with around 600 foot pounds at 2k rpm on sport cups, it doesn't take much. You can hear him just breathe on the throttle right before. And that's all it took. Naturally the impact was on my side
Fortunately for both of us, neither were hurt and unbelievably he walked away with a scratch on his fender. He gets the "Second luckiest guy at Sebring" award that weekend. My student on Sunday had a 650TT and it was his first time at Sebring, 3rd time on a track. I think Randy plans all this just to F with me
PSM came into play more than a few times. Luckily he decided to pack it in towards the end of the day, deciding that nothing had happened and he wanted to end the day on a good note. Good call on his part. Now this guy gets my nomination for the "Luckiest Guy at Sebring" that weekend. I shot this video while running in the blue group. If there was ever a time for him to go out and buy some powerball tickets, this is it. I talked to him afterwards and he wasn't sure what happened. He stopped short of the wall by about a foot. Maybe....
It wasn't all bad that weekend despite the weather. Bored GT3 rennlisters will naturally get involved with some shenanigans...
Here's a shot of us illegally using the skid pad for 2 hours. Once the track found out... Well lets just say they weren't happy about it since they normally charge $2500 a day
The GBG racing team joined in as well with some of their race 3.8 caymans. Their manager thought it would be interesting to bring the golf cart on there. And somehow managed to get it drifting.
With the crappy weather Chip (don't remember his screen name) brought the baller wagon out on track. Izzone has a baller wagon as well. We tried to instigate a "3 Lap X5 Cup Race" but Randy chickened out with some nonsense about it being his work vehicle
This, I'm just throwing in for good measure. No comment necessary. How does it go? A picture is worth a thousand words.
And here's some video of me sandbagging in the blue group on Sunday. One of only two dry sessions I got out there all weekend. It was pretty much take what you can get if the sky is dry at that point. Nothing terribly exciting here.
12-14-2011, 09:56 AM
#2
Addict
Rennlist Member
Rennlist Member
I skip the rain on track days, especially on a concrete surface. Concrete is high grip in the dry, and no grip in the rain.
I was at Watkins Glen one time in heavy rain (back in 2004) going 80mph on the main straight on Michelin Sport Cups, Solo group, these are the days when GT3 were not known in U.S. (they have been out since late 1998 in other markets). Most drivers in my run group bragging about blowing by my doors left and right, how slow I am, etc.
That was a strong hit, the Lexus held quite well, safe car. It makes me want to buy one of those LF-A NRing (read Chris Harris on latest Evo about this car at the Nurburgring, revealing).
I was at Watkins Glen one time in heavy rain (back in 2004) going 80mph on the main straight on Michelin Sport Cups, Solo group, these are the days when GT3 were not known in U.S. (they have been out since late 1998 in other markets). Most drivers in my run group bragging about blowing by my doors left and right, how slow I am, etc.
That was a strong hit, the Lexus held quite well, safe car. It makes me want to buy one of those LF-A NRing (read Chris Harris on latest Evo about this car at the Nurburgring, revealing).
12-14-2011, 11:15 AM
#6
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Trending Topics
12-14-2011, 11:35 AM
#8
Race Director
12-14-2011, 12:44 PM
#10
Rennlist Member
http://sebringraceway.com/track_map.lasso
O and I was passenger in the black baller X5 Diesel SUV. Tons of fun, the brakes lasted on 3 laps, but I bet it was faster then the 2005 Mustang GT of my student
We even passed a Miata and were faster than it in the CORNERS.
O and I was passenger in the black baller X5 Diesel SUV. Tons of fun, the brakes lasted on 3 laps, but I bet it was faster then the 2005 Mustang GT of my student
We even passed a Miata and were faster than it in the CORNERS.
12-14-2011, 01:02 PM
#11
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
You and Peter are right. I had a few too many drinks last night. On a school night no less. Head was a little foggy this morning when posting.
The irony is that despite getting my corner numbers wrong I'm still faster than you. You keep memorizing the corner numbers and I'll keep working on my lines
12-14-2011, 01:20 PM
#13
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
12-14-2011, 02:15 PM
#15
Race Director
Lil doggie since when are you faster than me? Yeah you on cheater Hoosiers and me on crappy used R888's....stop running around in blue group... Is was looking for you last weekend
