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are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. I am not sure what stage I am in at this point, but I did find out Porsche roadside assistance will bring my car back home!
At some point in the future, I'll post some details to see if you all can help me figure out what happened. I had the Track Precision App running and successfully Stopped and Saved the session, but it did not save my last partial lap, and there was no one behind me, so all I have to go on is memory.
It's quite humbling. Maybe sharing will help someone avoid what I did (once we figure that out), but it is embarrassing as well...
Sorry to see that things did not go as planned - sharing helps you and everyone else so please do share! You are not the first person to be humbled on the track! Key is you are ok and car can be fixed, all else will be a good story down the line!
Road was wet and as I passed the bridge straight (at VIR) the car spun so fast I am not even sure I had any reaction to correct it. Was going ~75 mph when it started, and it was raining slightly. Normal speed when dry is 105 - 115. My only theory at this point is that water was entering the straight from another part of a closed course, and I lifted at exactly the wrong moment to slow a bit in anticipation of entering the uphill esses. I slid on the pavement long enough for me to say to myself about 10 times "please stay on the pavement!" Then I went on grass - boom - spin - boom - stop.
The grass was high and the driver's side door was facing away from the armco (toward track) so i did not get a good look upon exiting the car. Armco is green, and I see green on the wheel (just noticed that this morning) so it seems some part of the wheel rubbed the rail. The lack of obvious significant body damage around the rear fender is a bit strange, but I hope that holds up as true once it gets to the repair shop. I will happily sacrifice the wheel if it mitigated bad things happening to the transmission.
I believe this rear wheel impact was the initial one and the car spun and took out the driver's side headlight. I will need a new bumper and front, left fender. I do not believe there will be serious damage from that front impact since the impact velocity was not all that high at that point in the sequence.
At some point during this situation I was holding the steering wheel and it turned rapidly and jerked my left thumb out of socket. Not too big of a deal, though. Doc reset it very quickly and did not hurt too much.
My best guess as to the sequence is in the figures below:
I believe this is a very rare location to spin...at least I have not heard of this part of the course being an issue...
Any other ideas, thoughts, or questions that need to be asked/answered to determine the cause?
First, glad your ok. track insurance? if not its a good thing to look into. I had an incident up at WGI this past weekend that was caused (im 95% sure) by oil dripping on my driver side wheels. hit the wall hard. luckily im ok and it was my e36 race car and not the GT4. I say that to say that things happen that are totally out of your control sometimes. learn from them and move on as best you can.
VIR is my "home" track. your right that is an unusual place to get out of wack, but in the conditions it sounds like you were in i think its very plausible that there was streaming water coming down from the north course.
Sorry to hear! Did you have the traction control on?
The car feels really squirrelly when it goes over patches of water, even without applying much power. I noticed this at Sonoma Raceway the other weekend and just took it extra slow over the wet patches.
The Track Precision app always seems to fail when you most care about the data...
Good questions...yes traction control was on. I had noticed on the front straight the car would "shudder" (not sure how to describe it) quickly (just lasted a split second) and I really could not see standing water, but I suppose I was going through some. The shudder was very quick and noticeable, but didn't seem to feel like it was causing yaw/rotation. Slowed down some anyway, however. Just thinking, I need to check lap data that I have and see if ECS was kicking in when this was happening and see if anything looks strange when I successfully went through the part I spun in the four prior laps in that session.
Insurance. This is going to be interesting. No track insurance. But, I have a policy with a national company, and I have it in writing that DE events are covered. Depending on the magnitude of the bill I will consider making a claim, but I need to do some investigation on what might happen after that - like will they cancel my policy, raise rates, etc. And, if I do make a claim would that claim follow me to another insurance company if I changed? You all have any experience in this realm?
Lots of variables here as well. My oldest son is already off our policy and on his own USAA policy (he's in the Air Force). Our middle son is going to college next year, and we can move him to his own USAA policy then as well if that makes sense. That leaves 3 of us with our younger son (Sophomore in HS now). I have one speeding ticket with a PJC (prayer for judgment continuation) for about another 1.5 years before it passes the 3-year mark. If anyone on our policy gets a moving violation in the next 1.5 years, my insurance will essentially double for 3 years. Annual bill is ~$6k. I have also thought about changing the repaired GT4 to "off road only," but I have no idea how to do that and do not know what it really means w.r.t. insurance, but I am assuming you would not have to buy insurance.
Good questions...yes traction control was on. I had noticed on the front straight the car would "shudder" (not sure how to describe it) quickly (just lasted a split second) and I really could not see standing water, but I suppose I was going through some. The shudder was very quick and noticeable, but didn't seem to feel like it was causing yaw/rotation. Slowed down some anyway, however. Just thinking, I need to check lap data that I have and see if ECS was kicking in when this was happening and see if anything looks strange when I successfully went through the part I spun in the four prior laps in that session.
Insurance. This is going to be interesting. No track insurance. But, I have a policy with Nationwide, and I have it in writing that DE events are covered. Depending on the magnitude of the bill I will consider making a claim, but I need to do some investigation on what might happen after that - like will they cancel my policy, raise rates, etc. And, if I do make a claim would that claim follow me to another insurance company if I changed? You all have any experience in this realm?
Lots of variables here as well. My oldest son is already off our policy and on his own USAA policy (he's in the Air Force). Our middle son is going to college next year, and we can move him to his own USAA policy then as well if that makes sense. That leaves 3 of us with our younger son (Sophomore in HS now). I have one speeding ticket with a PJC (prayer for judgment continuation) for about another 1.5 years before it passes the 3-year mark. If anyone on our policy gets a moving violation in the next 1.5 years, my insurance will go up ~94% (essentially double) for 3 years. Annual bill is ~$6k. I have also thought about changing the repaired GT4 to "off road only," but I have no idea how to do that and do not know what it really means w.r.t. insurance, but I am assuming you would not have to buy insurance.
Bummer... Sorry to hear about the misfortune. Good reminder to never hook your thumbs on the track and LET GO OF THE WHEEL an instant before a big impact.
Originally Posted by aryork
Insurance. This is going to be interesting. No track insurance. But, I have a policy with Nationwide, and I have it in writing that DE events are covered.
That will be interesting... As in something informal like an email? Or a official addendum to the policy? If it's the former and it contradicts the policy, I bet it will be contested vigorously by the insurance.
I have also thought about changing the repaired GT4 to "off road only," but I have no idea how to do that and do not know what it really means w.r.t. insurance, but I am assuming you would not have to buy insurance.
If you want to turn it into a track-only car, I don't think you need to 'do' anything other than terminate the insurance, terminate the registration (or let it lapse), remove the plates, and never ever drive it on any public roads.
Not sure I agree to this statement. Wet / moist tracks are a lot of fun, slower, giving you more time to correct, potential for proper drifts (I like) and more gentle on the material. Standing water is an issue though...
Not sure I agree to this statement. Wet / moist tracks are a lot of fun, slower, giving you more time to correct, potential for proper drifts (I like) and more gentle on the material. Standing water is an issue though...
I have a ton of seat time in crap conditions, and I will agree on a GP type track with tons of overrun and gravel ... That said, it's all fun until you're along for a ride, with zero control and enough time to pray to the FSM before destroying your car. Even during drift training, I watched a guy write off a pristine 22B ..The only piece of concrete wall on the whole course and he found it once it started to rain.
04-27-2017 | 10:10 AM
Five stages of grief
