Beantown Kman

Good to hear from you and thanks for posting. Very relieved to hear that you are ok!

Thundermoose

I knew it was coming and still crapped my drawers when you got hit. So glad you're ok.

HelpMeHelpU

Glad to see the GT3 driver safe, unharmed, and taking it in stride.

I felt the same way as above when I watched it. Ouch.

Veloce Raptor

Holy smokes!!!!

Akunob

Glad you’re OK FF. Similar to the prior comment, even knowing it was coming, it still felt intense when experienced/viewed from your perspective.

dgrobs

Very scary. Glad you are ok FF. You have a great attitude about the whole thing.
Cars, as special as they may be, are replaceable. Drivers are not. Glad you came through the whole thing in one piece.
Very scary.

mdrums

Yep...I constantly have to tell my students especially in higher power cars to LIFT when pointing by that lower power car that is all over there rear. They all want to start racing them. I’m constantly reminding them this is a DE...non competitive event. Seems like a lot and I mean a whole lot of drivers need to get this drilled in their head in the Advanced solo run groups. I have noticed this both with a Chin and my local PCA club.

sbelles

Damn! Glad you are OK. I can tell by the lack of expletives when the car comes to a stop that you were pretty shaken up.

996PIMP

Very nice driving to the man in the 993 video. Respect Sir.

Coochas

I'm glad you're OK! Your cockpit video is scary with the hit!

MattUF

Running in yellow/white solo groups at Sebring in a '98 Boxster, there was nothing like getting a point by coming out of turn 16 only to have a car (pretty much everything had more HP) floor the accelerator and walk away from me only for me to catch them back up after turn 1.

Manifold

Very glad you're ok. Painful to watch your video of the hit.

Caution is good, though I don't really see anything you could have done to avoid getting hit (nor am I convinced that you owed the Mustang a point-by). As discussed in this thread, the track layout enables this type of side impact at high speed, though fortunately that's an uncommon event (not much consolation for you).

To reduce the risk of injury, a roll bar and especially roll cage provides some protection for this type of impact, as well as a seat with good restraints and halos (not many DE cars have good halos, and not even all club racing cars do). Maybe some airbag systems provide meaningful head/neck protection for side impact, but I haven't run across good data on that for the track context. We should all remember that head/neck restraint devices like the HANS provide only limited protection for a side impact.

If you're comfortable sharing with us, did the Mustang driver reach out to offer an apology, help with repair costs, etc.?

hf1

FF, so glad you're ok. Such side-impact g-forces could be deadly without halo seats, HANS notwithstanding. Won't ask how your neck felt (still feels?) after that hit.

bertram928

In my less than fully informed opinion, Fritz was better off without a roll cage which has the effect of imparting much higher G loads to driver due to taking the controlled deceleration feature of a deformable structure out of the equation. What also helped is that GT3 was at or near max cornering loads thus less initial resistance to impact, instead some energy expended in moving GT3 across the grass. Glad you are ok Guy.

To me the innocuous appearing Earnhart crash was an eye opener, that highlighted how stiff Nascar roll cages are which imparted a severe un-attenuated impulse to Dale without any dampening and energy absorption provided by OEM type crash structures. like sitting in a tuning fork

Always use halo seats and Hans if you have a roll cage.

Personally for non competitive events in group of guys that have been vetted, and can be trusted to not succumb to red mist; I see no need for spending a lot on safety equipment when in a modern OEM chassis which has a lot more engineering behind it than your local tube frame/roll cage welder.

hf1

I would think that even the side impact g-force applied to the neck without a halo (even if the helmet doesn’t hit anything) would be tremendous and life-threatening in its own right. Luck may be involved here in more than one way.