PedroNole

1st Red Sprint Race Saturday. About 8 laps in, just took over 3rd place in GTC3, climbed through the esses and onto the back straight. Got about 1200 feet from the bus stop and was at max speed (data showed 155mph) when the left rear tire blew.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXOVMx6Yb54

SundayDriver

Pretty scary. Glad you seem to be OK.

DanR

wow!!! I did not realize this was you as I was sat at the stewards table opposite you yesterday afternoon! Sorry I did not say hi and in better circumstances

sbelles

Sorry to see your weekend cut short and your car banged up. Looks like a hellava ride glad you're ok! Seems to happen a lot in that stretch but there are worse places for it even if they aren't as fast.

DanS911

WOW now that is what I call a BLOW OUT!!
No in car video I guess, that must have been one hell of a ride.
Glad you are still good to go, gonna have to dust off the Blue one now I guess!

earlyapex

Wow, that's one heck of a ride. I'm glad you got out of if safely.

What caused the tire to go down?

PedroNole

Unfortunately, my video cut out (been having problems with the ChaseCam box overheating...) about 3 laps before the accident. It was one of those things that as soon as the spin happened I knew it was going to be expensive.... Thankfully, no tub damage.

Not really sure. I felt a little vibration, then boom. I must have run over something on the track or the tire just failed on its own. The other 3 tires showed almost perfect wear and the set only had 14 laps on them at that point.

DanS911

Looked like it hit rear first, no motor damage either eh?
Where is it now, at Marty's?

DrJupeman

Peter, this sucked.

It was nice meeting you. I hope you put the car back together real soon and I hope to see you at a race again. Maybe I can make it back to a Florida race again one of these months.

PedroNole

The thing that saved me is the initial snap spin scrubbed some speed and then my left rear hit first in only a glancing blow. The hardest hit was when my left rear hit it spun me back around and I whacked the right front really hard. It was so hard that it whacked me back and I hit the right rear which then put me perpendicular to the wall and then I skidded for a few hundred feet.

These cars really are amazing. The motor mounts are perfect as is the box that the engine sits in. The only damage done in the back besides quarterpanels is that I broke the right rear tie rod.

Marty is driving back as I'm typing this. Should be back at his shop around 2:00tomorrow.

Charlie, great to meet you, Colin and the guys. If I don't see you at Daytona, maybe Mosport?

DrJupeman

I won't be at Mosport this year, Food Angel is in a sprint triathlon that weekend. Daytona is also unlikely this year. I would really like to make it back to Sebring, so maybe Feb!

analogmike

Wow that was really violent. My car spun very gently and just tapped the wall but it sounds like we both had about the same amount of damage (look for mid 20s to repair if your muffler is broken like mine was). My delaminated tire slowed the car down a lot while it removed my bodywork. I felt as if the ABS prevented me from keeping the car on the track. But your car spun a lot faster than mine and ABS does not work sideways (luckily) so maybe locking the tires up may not have helped you, did you feel that way?

iLLM3

WHOA violent is right, glad you are okay and that the car didn't sustain much damage..

Why do tires blow almost at the same spot there, on multiple other car's as well?!

IcemanG17

Damm....how old were the tires?

PedroNole

From what I understand, your tire delaminated but still had air in it while it was damaging your car. You could control it better with air in the tire at that speed I guess. Mine just exploded and spun in an instant and I was only backward in a semi-straight line for an instant so there was really no saving it....

14th lap when it blew.