Bull

For those contemplating running Summit Point, here is why it isn't good to lift in The Chute (high speed kink in a downhill "straight"):

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/Thum...383&g=00&s=625

Scroll to the bottom of that page of pictures, then the top of the next page. Degree of difficulty = 2.8

Veloce Raptor

Holy code brown moment, Batman!

Food Angel

Yeah--that was ugly.

kurt M

I was 5 or 6 cars behind it. Got there as the tires were settling down. What you see is AFTER the first impact and primary energy absorbtion. This was in Black. I was told that the reason someone was in the right seat is he felt the driver was going too fast/flat out for T4 and in danger of spinning. The paddock scuttle is the reason Mike Levitas was in the right seat is he offered to give some pointers to his friend that was also client of his shop. The same scuttle is that Mike was overheard before the run saying something like "You have to brake for 4!"
They are both very lucky as the first impact was before the gap in the tire wall and the second still energetic hit was just after the gap. There is hard stuff like light poles on the other side of the gap in the direction of travel. This is one of the most sobering non injury wrecks ihave seen in a while. The energy levels were huge.

jester911

Sobering indeed. Why is that since I bounced off a tire wall myself recently all I seem to see now are pics and video of track carnage?

Larry Herman

The chute can bite you hard. I dinged my 914 there 24 years ago. It was my humbling experience, and of course I was in white. I learned a huge lesson right there that I have not forgotten since.

kurt M

It seems to be more as in car video becomes more pervasive. It also seems to no longer be poor form to post them. There is a video from the car right behind as well that shown the spin and inital impact. From up track in the video after the inital impact all you see is dust and then a tire dribbling out cross track. The still cam shots were from down track and down wind.

Bonster

As the HWFMR team's official Butt Puckerometer, I rate this one a butt pucker factor of 9.5 (10 being complete loss of bowell control). I am so glad to hear that all involved are doing well.

Veloce Raptor

Levitas was in the right seat?

Damn.

sbelles

For some reason this is what pops into my mind.

Bull

Yes, this has to be one of those times when you climb from the car, make certain that the driver if OK, stand him up straight....and then beat the crap out of him...all in the spirit of quality instruction of course!

Veloce Raptor

And then send him a large bill.

SundayDriver

DJ, a fairly large guy, had the best speech. If he had a student that started droving over their head he would say something to the effect of...

You are going to crash. I hate to crash. If you crash I am going to beat the crap out of you before we finish the crash.

Bull

A big problem with the chute at SP is not so much taking it without braking, it is getting the car straight enough to apply the Hand Of God brakes that you better have for T-5. Going down the chute with a slight lift requires that you get back hard on the gas through the kink in the cars that I have driven through the kink...always an interesting part of that track.

Robert Henriksen

My first thought was, 'hell of a job by the photographer'.

Second was pity for the instructor along for the ride.

Third was how lucky they both were that the shiny side stayed up.