mikew968

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn7N7...=youtube_gdata

I'm not sure if I could have done anything else to avoid this???

John H

Ouch! Sorry to see that. I noticed him going a bit sideways in 2, not sure if I would have done anything different than what you did though. Looks unavoidable to me.

mark kibort

I think your insticts were right at the time you decided to make a move, but generally in the rain, i count on followng someone that will loose the rear end. it usually always ends up in a slide and then drifting backwards , unless they have both feet in. had he, this might have been a good escape route.
Personally, when i see someone spin or I enter a corner in the rain, I try and drive the apex line. meaning you would have been more on the inside going into that turn and use your better position for braking if you wanted just to stop behind him and wait and see what he is going to do, (if there was not too much traffic behind you) OR, go arond to the inside, which i usually like to do, so you have more choices. Point is, you can always stop faster than a spinning car in front of you . he has lost all grip and you havent, even in the rain. BUT, it all happens so fast and these decisions are made in fractions of a seecond. I probably would have tried the same escape route.
thats tough to watch and so common in the rain. Sorry. Hope the damage isnt too bad!

Mark

Veloce Raptor

Just second guessing here, but th eonly thing he could have possibly done, in hindsight, is aimed hhis car into the grass track right.. Given how the BMW slowly rotated, chances are he would roll backwards after he stopped rotating...which he did slightly, riight into Mike's path.

Anyway, sorry it happened.

Frank Bullitt

There was NO pavement left. Only thing that would have saved your paint would have been a quick 'off-road expedition'. That area to your right @ the site pretty flat?

Then again after that VIR crash I'm pretty sure everyone on this forum is terrified of any Green Monster.

What broke?

mikew968

I thought in hind sight I had 3 options, what I did, hard braking, harder turn to the right. There is Armco out to the right and had I turned harder right earlier I might have tagged the Armco. I could have slowed more but that didn't occur to me at the time lol

Cajun

I agree with this. The only way out that I saw was to mow the lawn.

I hope that the damage is not too bad. Unfortunately, these incidents happen to all of us sooner or later.

Veloce Raptor

Ah...gotcha. As I said, I was just second guessing, having never been to Putnam. How bad is damage to both cars?

Jim Child

Qualify in front of the BMW?

mikew968

That was good Jim!

I just have sheet metal...a fender and a door. The back of the BMW was pretty destroyed.

Larry Herman

When I saw it I was screaming "brake, brake, brake"! Especially in traction limited circumstances like that, anything that buys you a fraction more time and/or control can be the difference. Of course there is no guarantee if you did slow that the guy behind you wouldn't blast into you.

IMHO you did nothing wrong, and the option that you chose did not happen to work out. It is unfortunate, but it is racing. Hope you can fix it easily.

mikew968

So, if the BMW would have kept on the brake would he have kept sliding sideways and nor drifted backwards?

xsboost90

ouch that sucks Mike! Here is a vid sent to my from the Spec944 guys - very wet racing that weekend.

http://vimeo.com/23853764

Larry Herman

After reviewing your video, the BMW definitely rolled backwards closing off your lane after the spin stopped. Whether or not he let it roll, or the ABS prevented locking the brakes is anyone's guess.

Veloce Raptor

IMO very likely yes.