Seth Thomas

Who would have thought about this one happening!





Wow! Glad driver is okay.

Good reminder why having your faceshield down while on track.

jbossolo

Wow! Driver reacted quickly, took hands off steering wheel, covered his face. Glad he's OK.

sbelles

Pretty much anybody who has been to Summit Point.

Did he let go of the wheel with both hands?

Leica356

Holy F*%#N$h#@t! The infamous deer falling from the sky, happens in Florida all the time! Glad he was OK!

docwyte

Wow! Wonder if his insurance company F'ed him over by denying his claim since he was "On a racing surface".

bauerjab

Happens all too frequently at SP. I wonder if the driver's waving to the other driver distracted him. That deer came from the right side of the track and should have been visible.

GuyIncognito

or possibly the other car could have screened the deer from the driver?

this is actually a common problem at a number of tracks, Blackhawk Farms and Road America come to mind.

BBMGT3

We get cats @ Yas Marina.

Carrera GT

It doesn't really matter if he let go of the wheel -- he was barely holding it in the first place. Maybe someone taught the driver that a "10 and 2" hand position was old school and now it's "7 and 5" ... it's not fun sharing the track with this level of basic skills in the hands of other drivers.

The driver's meetings at these DE's should include a multiple choice quiz to at least raise the question of whether each driver has even the basics down.

This business of waving and "thanking" just has to be banned. It's idiotic. The other driver isn't looking at you, he's watching the track, finding the line to the apex, anticipating the brake marker, watching your front wheels to see if you're steering into his line, etc. Even if he momentarily glances at your cabin, the likelihood of it being at the exact split second you wave your hand (instead of, oh, I dunno, steering the car ...) is practically zero.

Ban waving!

bobt993

^^^^ Really bad form. You obviously have not been to Summit. Guy on the right came on track from the pits and properly stayed right to not impair the drivers doing a 130mph down the front straight. There is little place to go where he was even if he saw the deer. Another 150 feet and he may make the side road to the left that heads to the skid pad. Veer left or right and your taking cars with you. That was just bad luck and I am not sure he could have prevented that one. This also happens in the chute (T4 also) and hard to do anything.

jbossolo

Agree with hand position, ban on waving. He did look too "casual". In his defense, I doubt he could've done anything to avoid the deer, just too little time. Just one of those freak occurrences. I'd like to see what the car looked like after!

Reimu

I am by no means an expert on the track but I've always wondered what the deal is with all the waving. I mean I can understand if you're trying to signal a nearby car but some people just seem to do it to say "hey look at me I'm driving on the racetrack!" It's even weirder when they're waving at people off track, hell I've seen videos where people seem to have their hand off the wheel for half the lap because they can't stop waving.

Would you really be that offended if a guy didn't wave at you?

jittsl

At mt Tremblant the flaggers have a standard signal (thumbs in ears and fingers pointed skyward) to indicate the presence of a deer on or near the track so I guess it is pretty common up there.

I also noticed the uncommonly casual hands of the driver in question but I did not think that was relevant to the point of the discussion.

As to waving. The only time I wave from my car is during the cool down lap to thank the flaggers and corner workers.

Nick Wong

Road America and Blackhawk Farms are nowhere near as bad as SP.

Summit has had recorded animal incidents of over 300 per year at times. There is minimal fencing, and a gradually encroaching residental area near the track that is forcing wildlife towards the one sanctuary- the same place we go to race unfortunately. A person I know died from hitting a deer there leading his shifter kart WKA National race on the back straight about 7 years ago, right in front of one of my best friends. SP still has WKC regional kart races there, but in my opinion you would have to be crazy to race there. It's too bad since I love the layout and am fast there.

kurt M

Another reason to also consider a bolted in place Lexan windscreen. Sandwich type and tempered safety glass can bow in, pull free and into the car. Even when it does not it blows shards all over. Non bolted in place plastic can also deform and let the deer into the drivers compartment.