"If you can read this, roll me over."

[rice_classic]

Let me start by saying... All parts of a race car are wear items, including the chassis.

The first impact on the nose of the car was easy to withstand (belts, hans, etc) but the 2nd hit while backwards at an angle (right rear essentially stopping the car) hurt, like knocked the wind out of me hurt. I felt like I got hit by a linebacker and then as the car rolled over it just felt like one punch after another. I even thought to myself, "OK! This can stop now!"

Anywho.. I'm fine, and I've already sourced a new shell to transfer the parts to.

Oh yeah.. the video...
[ame]http://vimeo.com/135303749[/ame]


The lesson in all this: Sometimes it's quick, unexpected and expensive but most importantly, safety items are important. There was NO damage to the rear of the roof, or the hatch (didn't even break the rear glass) had I not had a full cage, just a roll bar, the roof would have collapsed down on me. Without the window nets my head and neck (and seat) would have done a bunch more stretching. Knowing how to EGRESS while inverted is helpful. I did everything BEFORE I unclicked the belts, even making sure the door would would open. Ignition, kill switch, window net, steering wheel, open door, disconnect cool shirt then brace myself and CLICK..


So why did this happen? Well, I drive on the exit of this corner all the time and just drive up the hill.. so why was this different? Well the CRX is a short wheelbase car and it's setup to rotate: stiff rear springs, big rear swaybar. Well I over cooked the previous corner so I was not setup for this but carried my speed anyway which resulted in corner entry understeer at WOT and the car approached track out the understeer rapidly diminished while the rear of the car was still on its rotational trajectory. So I was anticipating the front and the rear to drop and at the last 6" of pavement the front stuck and the rear dropped and it was game over. I knew the result was going to be an inverted exit before I even got the hillside.

You can see what it looks like when driving off this corner normally..
SKIP TO MINUTE 20:30.

[ame]http://vimeo.com/135304730[/ame]

[Racecomp Engineering]

Yikes. Glad you're okay.

I hate crash videos, but they're important and can be pretty instructional.

- Andrew

[Kuri]

dannng

[frssfo]

Glad you're OK. Thanks for the break-down of how and why it happened. I hope you can get the parts back into a new shell and get out there again quickly.

[Teseo]

You are immortal, dont worry

[solidONE]

Good thing your still in one piece. On the bright side, this demonstrates the effectiveness of all that safety gear. Looks like you were really hauling some ass chasing that miata.

That last video was pretty intense.

[juliog]

That looks like a beautiful racetrack!

PS: Glad you're ok.

[Sleepless]

Originally Posted by juliog

That looks like a beautiful racetrack!.

Yeah, except it eats cars for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Zero runoff and angled dirt embankments everywhere there isn't ARMCO...

I had a very similar rollover two turns back (T5a) in April in my former Elise. Not fun... Glad you're fine

[glamcem]

ouch!!! glad you're OK Colin :/
one of the reasons why I try to avoid going to Pacific Raceways.. typically people have accidents at Turn 5a and 5b. I heard someone got killed when roof collapsed (it was a Corvette IIRC) right when the driver lost control and hit the roof on hillside ..

similar to this accident (fast forward to 6:03):
[ame="http://youtu.be/Ze6Ic3-LO9w?t=6m3s"]https://youtu.be/Ze6Ic3-LO9w?t=6m3s[/ame]

[glamcem]

Originally Posted by Sleepless

Yeah, except it eats cars for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Zero runoff and angled dirt embankments everywhere there isn't ARMCO...

I had a very similar rollover two turns back (T5a) in April in my former Elise. Not fun... Glad you're fine

exactly, lift off oversteer on T1 is also another common deadly spot at PR, when going over 140 mph things can go wrong a lot faster I think

[Locust]

Originally Posted by glamcem

ouch!!! glad you're OK Colin :/
one of the reasons why I try to avoid going to Pacific Raceways.. typically people have accidents at Turn 5a and 5b. I heard someone got killed when roof collapsed (it was a Corvette IIRC) right when the driver lost control and hit the roof on hillside ..

similar to this accident (fast forward to 6:03):

Pacific Raceways is baaaaaaaaaad. Had a friend roll 7 times because he dodged someone that spun out and parked it in the middle of the track.

[GotMunchies?]

The margin for error at Pacific Raceways is MINISCULE and the consequences of a bad off are usually pretty severe.

Glad to hear you're alright!

[glamcem]

Originally Posted by Locust

Pacific Raceways is baaaaaaaaaad. Had a friend roll 7 times because he dodged someone that spun out and parked it in the middle of the track.

ugh... it's too bad, I really like configuration the only problem is that there is no run-off area and the owners were really cheap to fix the track.. people had accidents because of the puddles(!?!) really?
so I always paid close attention to the T9-T1- T5a and T5b since I heard so many horror stories

This specific accident wouldn't result in roll over on other local tracks .. at least the car had safety equipments so didn't hurt anyone

[DarkSunrise]

Wow glad you're ok. Sucks to damage the car, but any crash you can walk away from...

BTW I take it from the second video that your normal track-out line exiting that corner takes you two-off? Isn't that a bit too risky?