Lothar

Bill,

Evil spirits inhabit the exit of turn three. Many a car has been launched into the tire wall to the left. There used to be just one row of tires. Now, there are three or more.

We are all thankful for your lack of more serious injuries. Thank you for sharing your story. It is so easy to think, "it won't happen to me". We all need a reminder once in a while.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery and return to the track.

richard glickel

Bill,

Thank God you're okay. The damnest thing is I was thinking about you over the weekend while I was up at the Zone 1 Tech Tactics. Someone had mentioned to me that he had spoken with you not too long ago about maybe buying your 993.

I know that you'll bounce back . . . better (and, a little wiser) than before.

Get well soon.

Richard

viperbob

Holy cow. Glad you are OK Bill.. I consider the broken ribs to be OK in light or what could have happened..

You have a good attitude about the incident and I hope you get back in the saddle again real soon...

Think HANS. I am getting one this year as I had a track incident a few years ago into a tirewall sideways at 120. Glad I am still here....

CMMTracknut

Bill, I am sorry to hear of your misfortune. What is truly important is that you and those around you are ok. Ribs will heal, with some time and pain, but you will return with a higher level of consciousness and competence. I had a similar incident shorlty after upgrading my brakes. I was unsure who was bleeding my brakes, me or my mech. Such a simple thing I could have taken 5 frickin' minutes to make sure. 3 laps in, top of 4th downhill off camber right hander and the brakes went to the floor. $14,451 later the car is back and I am fine. I was mad at myself for ages. But the fact of the matter is, these are the kind of things that separate us from the other bags of warm water. We learn we adapt we come back. (we also allow other to learn from us) Good Luck

Adam Richman

Hey Bill, glad to read you weren't seriously injured. While your throttle was sticking in your first session Saturday, I was busy balling up my car a few hundred miles away at Road Altanta. The car hit pretty much flush into the concrete wall which threw the car up in the air at a 45° angle, left two physical wheel imprints in the concrete wall and just laid waste to the tub. Just to add to the lessons learned aspect and not trying to hijack your thread, a few things I'd like to throw out there:

<from my post on another board>
--- quote
Don't have much on details, I would think my recollection isn't exact but from combining what I recall w/ accounts from people watching; I got loose exiting T1, countered, thought I had it and the rear continued on to the right. Out of track, I was rotating right, sliding leftward off track and left the track unstraight. I slowly rotated through the grass while (what seemed to be) parallel to the wall (this took a long time - was trying to get the car to restart for most of this). At some point the car has done roughly 270 degree turn and I think I am going to hit but then nothing ... then a huge hit d. side against the wall. Pop off my Isaac and harnesses, can't find a CW (no mirrors left) and grab my fire bottle (go ahead laugh =D) and then see a CW coming up from the outside wall. Get out, wait for him to take off for another incident, take off my helmet and spit out blood from my tongue bite (didn't want to scare the crap out of him as I didn't know if my balaclava was bloody).

Ended up w/ a bone bruise on my left arm (door bar), surface bruise on my inner right thigh, cut up the tip of my tongue (its not that bad actually - looks like one bite down, one up), strained my right hand middle finger (no clue when or how). No neck pain to this point, minor soreness in my lower left shoulder blade last night but not today. Basically, hugely grateful for the seat (Momo Cup GT), the Isaac Device and SFI padding where my arm hit.

Easier to list what is still intact than what's broken I'd think. I think the right side suspension is fine as are the right side wheels. The motor internals are hopefully all fine. Fire bottle is still good. Right side tires are good, lefts *might* be good. Think the kill switch is still intact. The battery, if it survived a trip through the engine bay is good. Wipers are good. The hatch glass is good. John's Air Dam survived HAHAHHA! Well, until we loaded it on the trailer . The front core support may be ok. The gagues are fine. Me, my helmet, my restraints (going to send the Isaac in for analysis but my cursory check seemed like they were still good), drivers suit still clean and perhaps my seat is still good. I think that's it aside from some wiring and other probably the oil cooler, remote filter mount and lines.

Basically just some great lessons learned with very little serious consequence. Very glad I had what I had on the car and me and consider myself a dufus but fortunate and much more educated. Hell, we wanted to build a new tub anyway so this just moves up the time frame. Most of all, I was very glad to have such great people there around me, the Pucketts, the Muresans, the OPM guys, Scott, Blake and a list of others.

Too bad I am on generator power right now as I have been w/out power since 7:30 last night Now THAT's irritating

--- end quote

I went on to add, its the sum of all the components that really seems to save the day, not any particular one. To that, for me; a H&N restraint (the Isaac in my case), a shoulder supporting seat, SFI padding, window net, proper distance from the cage all play a substantial role. I really find it funny that I ever thought that a good composite seat and SFI padding were expensive.

Hope someone on the fence on some safety equipment takes the time to reconsider - I didn't leave the paddock with the intent of balling up a car.

mitch236

Nobody ever does. That's why we should all have safety first in mind.

Jon Moeller

Adam,
As much as it probably pains you, could you please post pictures of your car. I'm really interested to see what damage you sustained to the car, in order to get an idea of what you went through. As yours is the first case that I've seen (admittedly, I haven't been looking too hard) of an accident involving use of the Isaac Device, I'm extremely interested in hearing more.

Thank you, Bill and Adam for sharing your experience. Hopefully, some of us can learn from the mistakes (and the excellent foresight) that both of you made/had.

Thanks,
Jon

Adam Richman

Oh hell no it doesn't pain me to, anything that can help someone else determine what can make them safer; that's all I am doing with the data. Right now, its in the trailer in storage. If I can get a digi-cam, I'll gladly take a few shots but I don't know that pictures in the trailer will do it justice. I am going to pick up a new tub this weekend and once that is up on the jig, we'll unload my (doesn't roll - that's part of the coordination issue) car and then probably get some good detailed pictures.

DCLee

Adam:

Sorry about your incident. Glad you're OK.

A question about your post: Is the Isaac Device the system with the two shock-absorber thingees? If so, can you adjust the tension to permit extra lateral rotation (i.e., in English this time, can you loosen it to swivel your head a bit more on one side? I need to do this and it has been keeping me from the HANS).

Lee in D.C.

Hubert

Bill: I don't know you from Jack, and haven't met you personally, but have read your posts on this forum with great interest, and have regarded youhighly for your insight . Your humility in sharing your misfortune only further speaks to the depth of your character as an individual, and as a racer. I hope that all of us may be as enlightened if (God forbid) we should ever find ourselves in a similar situation. I wish you a swift recovery, and am glad to hear you suffered minimal injury. Good luck to you.
Best Regards,
Hubert

PMS993

Well, I spoke to Bill and he's doing the introspective thing but since I know he is a marine and you know those guys are hard headed to a point, he'll be back out there. One thing I will say about all those marines I know, you may have to hit them hard but they learn from pain.

Hurry back Bill, can't wait to race together again.

Adam Richman

Lee, yes this is the device that uses the shocks (http://www.isaacdirect.com/html/works.html). There is no tension adjustment per se, you have roughly a 110&deg; range of motion (guessing on that number) but if you slow your movement down you can get a little bit more. I think all H&N restraints will inhibit your motion to some degree - the Isaac is probably the least inhibiting when not in use (i.e. I really don't know you have it on until I get back to the paddock).

gbaker

Jon,

Not to butt in, but I noticed some server traffic from this thread and your interest in the subject.

We have had many customers crash. Most don't bother to tell us, some do, and a few offer up written records. We post some of these on our Web site but reserve most of the comments for non-crash impressions, as racers are more concerned with how a product feels than with how well it works.

http://www.isaacdirect.com/html/Othe...sComments.html

chas911

Bill, glad to hear you are ok. The description of the incident sounds much worse than the outcome.
Get well soon!

Charlie

Manny Alban

Hey Bill, get better soon and I'm looking forward to seeing you on the track again. Mistakes happen and if you learn from them, that's all that counts.