JackOlsen

I went out with the intermediate group to warm my oil up, and nearly ended my day.

Real time:


Front view, with description and slow-mo.


Rear view, slow:


I didn't give it much thought at the time. But the video makes it look pretty close.

multi21

Nice "save" Jack. The height of the helmet and roll bar on that Cobra don't look very safe in the event of a roll over.

winders

Did you check up when you saw the car go off track?

JackOlsen

Yes. More than I would have thought. I just looked at my data. My speed drops pretty quickly as I approach the incident. What's surprising is how much I got back on the gas when I was in the dirt. (It might be the reason I didn't spin in the soft stuff.)

Red is a normal speed line for that segment. Blue is with the guy spinning.



It's the intermediate group, so you can already see that I was slower coming up the hill.

TXE36

Hmm. I seem to remember some such saying about two feet in? Something to do with spins.

Crimp moment for sure.

-Mike

kk2

Nice save!

JackOlsen

Yeah. He might have let up on the brake for the second half of his spin. But when I look at the video of the next lap, there's a trail of some kind of fluid leading to the Cobra that wasn't there before. It could be fuel, oil or water -- but there's a possiblity it's brake fluid and he had the pedal down to no effect.

It's a possibility, at least.

RickBetterley

Jeez...nice save and beautifully illustrated.

mikew968

I hope you shared the video with the cobra driver...that could have been very ugly!

Canyonrs4

A pro told me once (indy car and IMSA driver) steer for the smoke (dust) and by the time you get there the car will be gone... Nice save.

JackOlsen

I teach the classroom session for the novices, and 'In a spin, both feet in,' and 'Aim for the spin' are both part of the curriculum.

But this was the intermediate (blue) group. And even so, it's experience that actually trains that kind of automatic behavior -- your first couple of spins, it's still a learning process.

I spoke to the driver afterward. At the time, I had no idea are cars came as close as they did. He was very apologetic, but the reason I walked over was just to tell him I probably had some good video of the spin, in case he wanted to see it. I gave him my email, but haven't heard from him yet.

docwyte

At least you avoided him. Last session of my last track event for the season, last fall, I got hit by a cobra replica going into turn 1. He took a late and ill advised pass of the car behind me, couldn't keep it together, spun and tagged me.

Luckily minimal damage to my car, probably because of his low, light fiberglass car. He was a completely stand up guy and paid for all the damage to my car.

TXE36

Good point. I do remember my first spin and the car was more than 1/2 way around before I remembered this is the part where I put two feet in. I also recall my first high speed spin (85 MPH) where I did the two feet in part just fine but it took what felt like forever for the car to stop

On the second point I do that too :-). I was behind a guy yesterday who was very creative about his TWS CCW T6 spin and went off track right headed for the trees. He did the usual and lost the rear setting him up for the usual off to track left, but almost caught it and shot off track right.

It never ceases to amaze me the kind of direction changes a spinning car can make when the wheels regain traction. It's like some Ninja move. They aren't safe until they have completely stopped.

-Mike

1990nein

You could already see the cobra starting to go off when you are pre-apex. If I pause at :17 I can already see the cobra sideways. You can hear that you aren't off the throttle until around :19-:20.

From the time the cobra starts to spin (this is the moment to lift), you are pre-apex, and you continue to throttle out of the apex. You lift very slightly after the apex, which can be heard in the video and seen as the tiny bump in the blue graph in square 2, but then you throttle again. After accelerating a little bit further and realizing your paths are going to meet, you lift off the throttle (this is the moment the graph starts to decrease). As you are decelerating, you steer off track, and give the throttle a little kick as you are going off track - this instance is the little plateau in square 4.

You are off throttle almost the entire time you are in the dirt. You can see and hear the moment you are back on throttle occurs right before you re-enter the track. The little bump in square 6 is when dirt meets asphalt.

I mean everything constructively and respectfully. My opinion is that this is an example of target fixation. You were fixated on the path of the spinning car and directed your inputs towards the same path/end point, then caught yourself at the last second. The fixation would explain why you kept pushing forward for 2 seconds even after it was clear that the cobra was out of control; your mind was considering the cobra as its target (hence directing your inputs forward at it), rather than looking ahead and considering the cobra in your peripheral as an object that could potentially cross your path (directing your inputs to slow down and give yourself option).

winders

Jack,

Can you overlay data onto the front view of the spin? From the video, it doesn't sound like you back off the throttle until a few seconds after the cobra spins. When did you notice he was having trouble?