disasterman

Racing at Blackhawk for the first time, NASA GTS 3. Kind of dangerous track with lots of trees and other hard stuff that is very close. Started 2nd in class, worked up to first, second overall and then.........coming onto the front straight, just past pit entry.......KABLOOEY! Actually just sounded like a lot of parts rattling around, not that exciting.....but....my crewman on radio, who was right there, calmly pointed out "you are on fire, I repeat, you are on fire, pull your exinguisher now" in a very nonchalant, calm manner. The cabin immediately filled with smoke as I moved off line and coasted up to the turn one flag station for some fire retardent relief. Pretty funny that I remember using my turn signal indicator as I moved off line. I waited until I slowed a bit before I pulled the fire retardent handle, which I could not see. I felt the spray on my legs and lap. Within 20 yards of corner station, I disconnected my net and pushed it out the window, I did not even consider bothering with the door. I unclipped my haness when I figued I was far enough off track and close to stopping in case I got hit from behind, there was a massive cloud of smoke from the oil fire. I climbed out within a few seconds, it took two attempts, my Hans was caught so I ducked a little lower and stepped out into the sunshine. I was glad that every time I get out of the car, I do so with my Hans and helmet on to practice my "duck & exit".

I wear a Stand 21 helmet and used to run with the visor and open face. I switched to the lense and race with it down after reading the Espenlaub article in Grass Roots. Although there was no fire in the cabin, it did provide me with a little relief breathing and keeping the oily smoke out of my eyes.

Although the cabin was not on fire, only choked with smoke and kind of hot, the car was in flames underneath the entire chassis. The starter and NASA officials on the starting platform said there were huge flames coming out from the side and behind the car and that the heat was intense. The official NASA photographer said he may have some photos as he was on the stand as well.

What happened - engine let go and punched out the pan near the turbo, resulting in the ignition of 7 quarts of Amsoil.

A few photos attached. Got the car home and cleaned the extinguisher powder off.

VERBOTN

Hardly a ZERO! Glad you came out OK and you reinforce the reason to wear all the YA-YA while on track; competion or not.

gbaker

Even though you practice, you still got stuck, eh?

DanR

sorry for the engine but glad you were safe!

disasterman

The window opening of a 944 is small with a pretty severely raked A pillar. To get my helmeted head and Hans through that opening they have to be in close proximity. You have to shrug your shoulders to move the Hans close to the back of helmet or it will get caught on the cage or door opening.

I wear all the gear, even during practice day.

Black Sea RD

D-Man,

Wow, glad to hear everything came out okay for you, it could have been worse. Fire is a bad thing no matter what!

However it sounds you prepared yourself well, both mentally and with your equipment, for just this type of event, which let you keep your thoughts focused to the tasks at hand to get out of the car safely and not causing more harm to yourself or anyone else.

Just thinking out loud, is there any oil out there that is not flammable but as good for racing?

Hope you get back to it soon!

Cheers,

J richard

Yikes! Glad to see your ok, sorry about the car but good your ok, thanks for posting. Your lucky that it happened in a spot that you could be seen, and lucky (luck favors the prepared) that your fire system worked, you had radio and someone to give you a heads up, and you had the forsight to pull the handle and bail. Nice job.

Aftrs seeing the grassroots article and then the loss of a spec racer is florida, it made me reassess the risk of fire- new bottle and relocated nozzles, and the mental committment to pull the handle and get the hell out... The 944/951 #2 rod through block/pan and fuel rail failures are way too common and either is a carbeque in the making. It's amazing that a hand held is still all you need to race in most series...

How much of a difference did having somebody on the radio make? I would imagine the confirmation made bailing easy...

disasterman

Spotter was a huge benefit and I was luck he was at the start finish. Blackhawk is a tough track for the spotter. I do consider the radio an important part of the safety equipment package during a race, sometimes it's tough to get everything lined up for every track session but I try. Knowing the car was on fire prevented any hesitation, I was out within 5 seconds of the car stopping.

I also was very familiar with where the exinguisher handle is, I practice reaching for it with my eyes closed. I also never put the safety pins in and still have a check box on my check list to make sure they are out.

kurt M

Stuck? Per his account he climbed out in a few seconds after bumping once with no time spent working secondary release systems.

Glad to see the safety systems in car and track side worked. Good work and cool thinking.

J richard

Even in a controlled situation with tons and tons of practice it doesn't take much, it's not uncommon to hear a pro driver was struggling to get out to finally realize his belts were still latched and tight...

Great prep and great execution IMHO...

924RACR

Oh, please.

My wife's never gotten stuck trying to get out through the window of the 924 with her HANS on (well, mine actually).

Likewise I've never gotten delayed coming out by popping the pins on my ISAAC.

Enough of the stupid finger-pointing and calling of names like 3rd-graders...

Glad you made it out in good order and everything worked as it should.

Jim Child

Wow! Glad you're OK! Why didn't you exit through the door? I don't know if I could get out the window with helment and hans on. All of my exit practice is through the door.

924RACR

Uhhh, you might wanna think about options, then! In my wife's case, it's been when she's buried it so deep in the gravel that the door won't open.

I always use the window, but I've had occasion where I parked it next to the armco with a busted steering rack, impossible to get the car off the wall, and out the window we go.

There's also the possibility of wanting to/needing to bail out the passenger side...

disasterman

Although it was kind of slow motion, I was anxious to get out. I unclipped the net before I stopped and pushed it out the window leaving me with the only option of exiting through it. Since I am relatively small, 5'5", 145 it's possible, especially when you want it bad enough. I also have a Recaro Pro with the wings on it which adds to the challenge. Now that makes it a small hole.

Sterling Doc

Great account! Post this up over on the NASA forums as well - I'm sure they'd be interested.

I got selected for an "exit drill" earlier this year with NASA (glad they do this!), and nearly failed the 10 second requirement - it was a good wake-up call for me to practice some more. I have a halo seat in my 944 as well, which definitely complicates egress a bit. The side wings caught my shoulder belt, and hung me up momentarily. I now have flipping the shoulder belts over the seat as part of my exit drill.

I had to get out of the car last year through the window when the A-pillar was buried in mud and car on it's roof - no fire then, but getting out upside-down through the window was interesting!

One other egress issue I've noticed, is that when I have the right sided net tensioned appropriately, it's hard to operate the quick release (takes a pretty hard pull).

Glad to hear you got through unscathed, and damage doesn't look too bad, for a big fire.