Spinout

That's right I was shot at hauling my race car back from VIR this past weekend, the result of a merge gone bad.

Was hauling the 996 back on an open alum. trailer from a weekend at VIR w/ my F250SD on Sunday night going though Charlotte. Merging onto I-77S from I-85S. There are typically 2 merge lanes but the left is obstructed due to ongoing construction.

I'm over in the left lane as soon as I can be, driving this slow, sloth of a rig and the left lane is clear (there was a sign to merge right as the lane ended about 1000' back)

As the lane ends on my left, I have a car on my trailer bumper, another 1/2 car length in front of me and 70mph I77 traffic on my right. I'm good at a current 60mph.

In my mirror, I see a hot hatchback closing on my left quickly, with no lane left for him and no room in front of me, he tries to squeeze in front of me. With me tight, nowhere to go on the right and no room to get on the brakes, I hit the horn and see the impatient driver have to get on the binders and stop on the shoulder. "sorry dude, but there was no room, otherwise I’d have let you in..."

Come about a mile later down I77 I’m in the middle of 3 lanes and I see in my passenger side mirror this hot hatch closing on me fast in the right lane. As he passes me at a high rate of speed, I hear several ‘clinks’ on the side of my truck as he passes and keep accelerating. I hit the gas but I’m no match for this small, maneuverable hatchback. I’m hauling ***, about 90 and he’s 10 car lengths ahead. He quickly moves all the way to the right and jumps onto an off ramp at the last minute. I’m still in the left lane and snap a grainy photo. Oh well…. 45 minutes to go and I’m home. I’m thinking these punk *** kids threw a handful of pennies out the window. Not much damage a penny thrown @ 60 mph is going to do.

Wrong. I pull into the driveway and look to see if there are any scratches from the altercation. I walk around the nose of the truck to see my camper top window is blown out, there’s a bullet dimple in the B pillar of my F250 and my 911 rear quarter window is completely blown out. Another 2" forward from the dimple in the B pillar would have gone though my front passenger window. Craaaaaaaaaaap.

I didn’t get a good look at anything during this fiasco so I didn’t call the cops.

I spent 3-4 hours cleaning up the glass with a shop vac out of the back of my enclosed bed and racecar yesterday. I was looking for but didn’t find a projectile. Apparently, a lot of the glass from the rear quarter window went directly into the air intake in my wing b/c when I was finished and opened the engine lid, I heard it rain glass into my air box. Add another hour to remove the rear deck lid w/wing, air box and vacuumed everything in the engine compartment just to be on the safe side.

I now have to do all the legwork to get these pieces replaced which I anticipate will take quite a bit of time and effort. Looking back at all this, I don’t believe I could have done anything different other than to start slowly braking when I first saw the hatchback in the left lane which was going to end.

jdistefa

Holy sh*t

al@cpt

IMHO, you should still report this.

There was a similar incident in our area where a semi truck driver was shot and killed by a tow truck driver.

Not cool.

Cory M

Crazy, you should still submit a police report, someone like that is likely to do that again and it may be helpful to have it documented.

I'm always amazed at the moves people pull on large towing rigs, they think we can stop and turn like a car. We used to haul a stacker trailer behind a big diesel pusher and people would cut us off all the time, then get on the brakes so we'd lose all of our stopping distance. I would hit the brakes but I wasn't going to swerve, if our 40,000 pound rig didn't stop in time it was going to plow right through the car in front of us and there wasn't much I could do about it.

Frank 993 C4S

Crazy - but I'm not surprised.

Somebody could have gotten killed - File a police report!!

Jferrante

Holy hell - someone was just killed in West Chester PA some guy shot at a girl in a road rage incident shot her right in the head....

I have quarter window glass if you need it.

LuigiVampa

Firstly, glad you are OK. This could have gone done differently. There was a teen girl just killed a week or so ago when she accidentally cut off some crazy guy who shot her in the head.

Hauling a trailer is like having a magnet for crazy drivers. I have more problems going to and from the track than I have at the track.

Report the incident because this is not the first or last time this guy is going to do that.

Der ABT

Another reason to always run a dashcam while towing

I started after a guys stopped short on me after cutting me off...luckily he owned up to the damage, most wouldn't but from that day forward a dashcsm for me

But shooting at someone...wtf

raclaims

The area freakin' VIR resides in still boasts confederate flags all over the place...it's the land time has forgotten

Veloce Raptor

Report to state and local police in NC where it happened.

gman3280

Wow! Glad you are okay. I'd recommend as others have said to report the incident. You never know if you'll need to file an insurance claim or something like that.

ace37

I'm often amazed at just how crazy people get about innocent driving mistakes that result in no harm or major risk to safety. Most cases are misunderstandings or simple mistakes with no harm done, and I completely get making a mistake - we all do it now and then.


The other day in our Range Rover I had someone in a tired old Isuzu Trooper urgently decide it was time to slowly pass a semi. They jumped over quickly without a signal when we had five car lengths and about a 20 mph speed differential between us. I assume the driver saw me and jumped over before taking that moment to observe my speed. Annoying but fine, it happens, so I got on the brakes and slowed down. Then, strangely, the driver decided to brake check me. The old Isuzu had terrible brakes and barely slowed but it sure did bob the nose of her car down. So what can you do - I just chuckled in amazement. I passed the gal a bit later and boy she had an angry face - mad about whatever terrible thing I had done I guess - and my simple thought was boy I feel sorry for whatever poor soul is your spouse!!

GTgears

Report it. Something similar happened to me 20 years ago when I still lived in CA. I didn't get a plate number, but the description was enough to get him picked up on the same stretch of highway less than a week later. He was a parole violator, so after they arrested him I never had to go testify because of it. Just the fact he had a firearm in the car when they stopped him was enough to send him back.

Coochas

WOW, that is a crazy story. I'm glad you and the 996 are OK. Wow.

rlm328

I take umbrage to this remark.

Most of the people you are denigrating would not be driving some "hot hatchback" but probably a pickup of some type.