JackOlsen

As a side note, there's an understandable human tendency to equate the seriousness of the mistake with the cost of the consequences. If we do a 360 but stay on the pavement, or even spin off onto some nice clear run-off, it's good fun and part of the learning experience. If we do the same thing and contact a wall or another car, or there's an injury or a death, we want to do a lot of forensic work and find the grave error that was committed.

Sometimes, it's something that would have hardly merited a shrug, under other circumstances. The real grave error was the decision to drive at a track surrounded by hard concrete walls.

Set your kid up in a kart, and you know he's going to spin. It's part of learning the dynamics of a kart and the limits of the driver. For those reasons, karts are made to take a little abuse and kart tracks are generally safe places to spin.

Unfortunately, the tracks some of us have to race on and the cars some of us choose to drive don't have the same benefits. We play a kind of roulette, where ordinary parts of the learning curve can either be harmless or very costly.

Geo

As an instructor I had a student go off at the carousel at TWS a few months back. The car was warm (it was being shared by 3 drovers), but I still instructed my student to take two warm-up laps to get himself warmed up.

He was warming up a bit faster than I liked, but I let him go (probably shouldn't have in retrospect, but he was definitely not full-on so I did). Coming into the carousel however he got on it pretty good (chasing someone when he shouldn't have). I knew we were going in pretty hot so I was prepared for what happened next. As he went for the brakes there just wasn't enough grip for the speed he was carrying (braked too late). Even before we left the tarmac (which only took a moment) I reminded him "both feet in and wheel straight." To his credit he followed instructions exactly and we had no additional excitement. I reminded him we were going to have to pit so I had him drive s l o w l y back and we talked about it. I explained that it was a hot car/cold driver problem. He understood and appreciated now why I wanted two SLOW warm-up laps despite the car being warm. I doubt he'll make that mistake again.

Sean F

1) First club race - watching my mirrors for inside dive, went in late and hot = 4 off
2) First club race - see above but add grabbing neutral on the downshift
3) DE - Learning (or not learning) to trailbrake
4) See number 3 but add more rotations

Chaos

Engine blew then seized,around and around I went !

2BWise

My first incident was the first session my instructor had signed me off of the weekend. I went into T5 at Putnam and tried braking about ten feet later than I had been. Turns out it was ten feet too late. Went into the corner hot and tried to be a hero and scrub enough speed to make it, well I gave it a slight lift to get the car to rotate...well it was a little too much and round I went. After the session my instructor came up and asked me how it went. I didn't say a word about the spin because I didn't want him to regret signing my off, but it didn't matter as he proceeded to inform me that he was two cars back and watched the whole thing.

Latest was this weekend at Nelson Ledges. After driving to the track in a light drizzle I was a little apprehensive about swapping to my Hoosiers, but it was supposed to dry out so what the hell, why not. I knew the first session would be damp, so I'd just go out and take it easy. Well not five mins after switching it rains hard for a few mins. Grea! It was another hour until my session and it wasn't nearly as wet. 2nd lap... taking it easy into T12..touch the brakes....front wheels locked...release a little hoping I can get some grip....NOPE...Oh here we go, straight off.

Got lots of others from test days with the SAE team and some are pretty good involving the homicide of many cones, but I'll have to try and remember all the good parts.

gbaker

Bingo. I once did a 360 in the infield grass at Daytona in a SRF. Pretty cool looking up and seeing clouds and grass clipping spinning around.

ezee

So far, my only true off/spin was this spring at Mosport in T2. I went in a little hot, couldn't pull the car back tight into the bottom apex (the throttle was already down and I wasn't about to lift in the middle of T2), and ran out of room on track out. I dropped two wheels off the exit curbing while I was still fighting to keep the car on track and around came the back end... I caught the first spin but I lost it on the correction. I then went both feet in and proceeded to slide backwards almost all the way to T3 where I came to a stop in the grass with my back end about 4-feet away from the outside wall... Thankfully, all I damaged was two tires and my confidence (I still tend to be a bit hesitant through there these days...).

My mistake: I should have known when to accept what was happening and bail on the turn by just driving it into the grass (as I've always been told!). The thought did cross my mind, but at the time I *genuinely* thought that there was a chance I could keep the car on track. Apparently, I was wrong. Lesson learned...

When in doubt, opt for the agricultural excursion...

kurt M

First good spin was T3 at Summit Point. Green drover, too hot, too early, pinched it some and then lifted some when I finally realized that I was a pint low on talent. On track 180.
Second good spin. Too hot for a turn at Kershaw went over the gators from hell.
3rd, Kershaw again same day different corner. Too hot for conditions drove it of and around the gator from hell. I dislike that track...
Got out of sorts coming out of T6 and that messed up T7 which made me blow T8 all to hell at Summit. looped it rather than slow down and put the front of the car right on the apex of T9, 90deg to the direction of travel...With a long string of cars behind me. Each of my buddies just had to slow and wave as they single file squeezed by me.
Jefferson at Summit. Trans bolt came out; trans dropped over a little, I got wrong gear on a downshift and tucked the car inside the turn of and back on over a way too tall shoulder. That one hurt.

Flying Finn

Very true. Everyone should always keep that in mind.

Even today when I look at my "moment" at Sebring where going through Bishop Bend (this also is on that video in my sig, at around 30 sec) I can't help but think how bad that could've been if I wasn't able to save it.

And that was basically only becasue I started to push before I had properly warmed up my tires. Rookie mistake which could've ended badly.

930man

stock 996 gt3
had a great one around southbend at VIR 100mph on video and everthing, buddy in the car ...

watching Video over and over after session didnt lift didnt turn in to quick ??? but away we went !

before the next session I was looking under car and realized passenger side rear sway bar had a broken bolt...

i think it was 3 360s to the inside of track before we stopped ... buddy says "im sure glad the interior of this brown " as we wiped the dirt of the the windshield i at least i got a chuckle out of it!

TedA

VIR up the climbing esses, blown head gasket, coolant on the drivers side rear tire, no warning major ride thru the infield backwards. Track crew had to put out a small grass fire prior to towing me in. I was amazed at how quick I went from complete control to wow........I'm going backwards........in the grass...........I really don't remember if theres anything I can hit over here..................wow, still sliding. Slow motion. No harm other than the deceased head gasket and further motor FUBAR discovered in the autopsy.

Geo

OMG this post made me think of "the one I got away with."

It was at Little Talledega almost 4 years ago (God does time fly) going CW. I was entering the back straight and hung the LR off (right hand turn). That's a fast corner if you get it right and I was hustling. The LR hung off a bit longer than I expected and when it came back on I got a wiggle that earned a pucker in my race suit!

Like you pondering how bad it could have been, I did the same. By the end of the straight I got it out of my mind because I had to get back in the game, but after the session and even now, almost 4 years later, I take a deep breath when I think of that one. Had it snapped back a bit harder on me, at the speed I was carrying, it could have been game over.

Lesson learned from that one: be a bit more circumspect about how you get an errant wheel back on the track. I knew at the time I needed to be careful, but it still almost caught me out. I dodged that one. Had I been with a student who did that I would have instructed him or her to continue straight at a reduced pace (1, 2, or 4 off, who cares?) until the speed was low enough and the path of the car straight enough to ease back on.

Second lesson learned: it doesn't matter how much seat time you have, you can still be caught out or make a bad choice that can go bad. Perhaps someone else wouldn't have thought twice about it because they got away with it. I knew I got a bit lucky. Maybe I'm not giving myself enough credit, but I'd rather assume I was lucky and need to be smarter than to think I was good and make another bad choice later.

Caveat to all of this: This was a DE and not a race. In a race I wouldn't think twice of my choice as it could have easily meant giving up a position, but it wasn't a race. Balling up a car at a DE for making a stupid decision is, well.... stupid. Lessons learned.

RonCT

5 years of DE (2.5 in Black) and 1 One Lap of America:

1-Lap (was just promoted to intermediate / solo in DE land):

1 off track excursion at BeaveRun where I just didn't know the car and carried too much speed into the turn and drifted right into the runoff. No damage, just lots of dust and some weeds in the grill.

1 off track excursion and kissed the tire wall (no damage) at Nelson Ledges. Still learning the car and this was the last track day, meaning 7 days of 2 hours of sleep a night. Same situation -- carried too much and drifted off -- hit wet grass which caused me to kiss the tires instead of stop in time.

DE:

No offs though in 5 years of DE, though many "uh oh" moments where quick thinking saved the day. The toughest situations were not caused by me, including coolant dump by car in front of me at Lime Rock (I saved it, WRX behind me didn't), 8 quarts of oil dump in front of me at The Glen (barely saved it - kissed the gravel trap at T8), Ground Hog incident at Watkins Glen (avoidance), and Cone thrown up and onto the line in front of me in the Esses at Watkins Glen ($1k damage -- new bumper and fog), and left rear tire pressure dump due to debris hitting my valve stem -- was able to save it and limp into the pit.

I feel that I've had my fair share of situations and was fortunate nothing worse happened to me. What I've learned through it all is that the learning process really worked, the seat time after solo (2.5 years now without one) is also a great teacher, and that this really is a dangerous hobby in that things outside of your control can impact you (all my issues outside of 1-lap were not caused by me).

PMS993

1. Learning Physics of late braking and turning in a 993. Spin 1 (There are other spins but they are pretty boring.)
2. Learning about the lack of friction on a wet pait stripe at Road Atlanta turn 5.
3. Buddy hitting me then going into a wall at Sebring.
4. Oil dry on track at the bus stop at Watkins Glenn
5. Unrealized puddle at Roebling Road turn 9.
The point is, we have all had experiences we can learn from. Doing the same thing again and again is an excercise in futility.

gmsracing

Went off track at the corkscrew @ Laguna Seca. I was charging up the hill out of 6 and I had a car behind me that I could pull up the hill. He was a little faster in the corners. I held the gear a little longer than normal coming into the corkscrew to keep him behind me and I ran out of braking space. (Didn't plan for the extra speed!) Jumped the car off of the curbs (Think Alex Zanardi pass) and then went back across the track and kissed the wall with the left front corner of the car.