Veloce Raptor

+2

RonCT

My daughter is so looking forward to June when she turns 18 and can DE. She got a chance to drive my GT3 around Watkins Glen last summer during lunch - 3 laps behind a pace car that was supposed max out at 55, but went 75.

Around here, we'd get black flagged and a talking to for having anything loose in the car, especially a camera. Pretty expensive projectile that could hit you, her, fly out the car and hit something else, etc.

Greg Smith

Still winning those DE's, eh?

PS- That vette driver really didn't give up, 90* at 60mph and still at full throttle. ' I can still save it!'

ervtx

Same here for a PCA event around here. I should have mentioned that this was not a PCA event. It was a members' track day (different rules).

But more importantly, I was driving about 70% of normal DE effort/speed and giving a ton of room to those who were driving at 100% (like the Corvette driver). Notice how I was off-line down the entire straight prior to the turn. The risk of something turning the camera into a projectile was quite negligible - probably less than it was on the trip home with all the yahoo's racing on the streets.

Veloce Raptor

That's what she calls it, junior. And, at 2 1/2 years old, she is more mature than you.

ervtx

I'm still not sure if it was a case of missed downshift, or him getting the brake and gas pedals confused, but I'm leaning towards the latter given the way he totally blew the turn-in and foolishly tried to save it. In person, it all came off as an amateurish hot-shot move.

Veloce Raptor

Yeah, I agree.

sjanes

That Jeep needs a little more mud ...

Chris White

BTW - at Watkins Glen they would have black flagged you for the hand held camera......

DarkSideDE

Same at Roebling - and the cornerworkers do look for it!
and if it were a PCA DE (which it wasn't) even the passenger must be 18.

RonCT

I mentioned that above I wouldn't have anything unsecured in my car even in a parade lap. The guy in the Vette demonstrated how things can go wrong even at only 7/10. Imagine if you were unable to avoid him... When I'm on the race track, I don't worry about my driving, I worry about everything outside of my control that always bites me. I've had my share - 2x oil, 2x coolant, 1x Gopher, 1x Bird at 145, 2x debris into the windshield, 1x debris to a valve stem, 1x cone thrown in my line @ 110. Two bad results: A new bumper thanks to the cone and 2x windshield replacements.

Pretty serious stuff on the track...

Crazy Canuck

My cousin (he's 23) was out in the passenger seat of a Cup Car at Calabogie doing hot laps and out comes the camera ...

The driver couldn't believe his iron stomach.

ervtx

Ok, thanks for the warnings and notes of caution. They are worth adding to my list of mental reminders re: safety.

Just to be clear,

a) This was not a case of simply letting her do as she pleased. We talked about the camera ahead of time, and I checked it myself to make sure it was secured to her wrist with a tie back to keep it snug (see the pic below). It was not being held loose w/o a tether. And yes, if this had been a parade lap, I would have required her to secure the camera to her wrist just as I did during for the hot laps. The question is whether or not the tether to her wrist is enough in either case. Perhaps not. But it was tethered.

b) There are no corner workers on a member day. Private track. Granted most people use a member day to practice, and run hard, but there are also guys out there who are taking it easy for reasons of entertaining guests (something encouraged by the club). So it's understood that each driver has a larger responsibility than usual to accommodate the more varied traffic out there. I'm not saying which rules are better. I'm just saying that they were different in this context.

c) Things went wrong for the vette because he was driving beyond 10/10. The fact that I was driving well under my own limits is precisely why I was able to avoid getting mixed up with him. I had slowed down enough to have come to a full stop before reaching him if that had been necessary. Granted, that doesn't disprove the fact that things can go wrong. It did, however reduce the likelihood that things would go wrong with my own car, and provided a wider margin for things that could and did go wrong outside of my car.

d) Don't forget, this is my daughter. You'd have to know me to understand the context of those hot laps... to know that it was more about the bigger picture of teaching her about car control than it was about a thrill ride, to know that I take my kids too seriously to deliberately put them in harms way. But you'll have to take it on faith that safety was the topic of the day, that I do exercise more judgement and common sense than a short clip is able to portray.

So on balance, I'm satisfied that she will be safer for a lifetime for having gone thru the experience, camera and all. But your points made are good adds; thanks.

joseph mitro

guys, give it a rest. "I wouldn't have anything unsecured in my car even in a parade lap" mmmm kay

they both have helmets on and like he said, he wasn't driving at race pace. do you daily drive to work with unsecured objects? that's more dangerous than what ervtx's daughter was doing.

Veloce Raptor

^^ +1 ^^