Bull

Hard to know the dynamics of the car when you got on the grass from that video. You either were on the brakes and locked the rears, or the car was loaded to the left side. As Brian said, the save opportunity was there, but prior to entering the grass.

APKhaos

Its a little hard to be sure, but the video shows that a quick 'both feet in' as soon as he left the track would most likely have resulted in contact with the wall to the left. His velocity vector was definitely wall-bound. By waiting until he had tried to straighten it out a little, he actually held it off the wall. Maybe that was slow response, and far from optimal, but it saved the day in this case.

Crazy Canuck

I know a couple of other guys who have done the same thing by running out of track and going into the grass at 7. They managed to keep the car straight and rather than pinch the car, trying to get it back on the tarmac ASAP, they drove on the grass for a bit in a straight line and went back on the track at a later point as the track naturally turns to the left a bit.

Bryan Watts

I don't advocate both feet in as soon as the car leaves the track. I advocate straightening the wheel and seeing whether you can drive alongside the track.

But once the car steered a bit away from the wall and is spinning, both feet in would have caused the car to travel more parallel alongside the track, maybe still entering the track before stopping, but at a slower speed further down and in a predictable manner to anyone coming from behind. Instead the car rifles back ACROSS the track at a pretty significant angle and then does a 180 degree tank slapper right in the middle of the track surface...notice he rotates all of the way around till he is facing the wrong way and then it slaps back around to face the correct direction. That's a NIGHTMARE situation for the car coming up behind who has no idea which direction to go.

APKhaos

You're right, Bryan. Good point.

BobbyC

Glad u and the car are safe.

Flying Finn

Of course it could've been saved but it is bouncy with very little grip so it for sure ain't easy. And before going to the grass, you could've saved it (easier than when on grass). It looked like you could've "slide it through" but in a way, going to the grass was safer.

I don't know how experienced you are but you actually did pretty well (I though you were not gonna spin), once you realized you were not gonna make the turn, you eased to the grass.
Problem was you still were going to the wrong direction (wall was waiting) so you needed to steer slightly to the right, doing that made it more difficult of not to spin.

Glad to see it ended well.

RickBetterley

Glad you were OK; lots of folks have tried to save it at 7, come across the track and smacked the inner wall with force. Glad you're not one of them!
I agree with the 'straighten it out and run on the grass for a bit' idea.
Bad place to be early.

BostonDMD

It was a Turbo and with an instructor driving......to be exact......

Sean F

yikes, glad that turned out like it did Paolo

BostonDMD

Bryan, not sure if you have ever been to LCMT.......

Turn 7 is off camber and is best approached (as the instructors that have thousands of laps there tell me) with neutral throttle till the apex, only then foot to the floor.......

BostonDMD

Yes it was.....

At that point I decided to straighten out and only lift on the grass....

No brakes yet, I was hoping to lose enough momentum on the grass and get back on track......

Then the left wall was approaching and thus turned a little to the right ended on the track but couldn't save it at that time and that is when both feet went in........

It all happened so fast.....

BostonDMD

I am not very experienced at all, I started this DE thing last year......

I think you described exactly what was going on in my head at the time.....
(I also thought I wasn't going to spin....)

Once I realized I wasn't going to save it because of too much momentum and the slide to my left, both feet went in......and that was the end of that.....

Bryan Watts

If you went both feet in, you did it too late...the car was already shooting back across the track. You also pulled your foot off the brake after the car got to the center of the track, which is the reason the car reversed from spinning clockwise to counter-clockwise. The point of going both feet in is to make your spinning car predictable to the car coming behind you...your car was anything BUT predictable. Once the car was "lost" in the grass, going both feet in sooner would have resulted in a lot less dangerous spin for you and the other cars on the track with you.

MUSSBERGER

I think you would have been able to save it in a 955