[ddeflyer]

Originally Posted by vgk

holy cow

glad you and car are safe.

It was one hell of a ride!

So much stuff happened so quickly; that was probably the fastest I've ever exited the esses. Usually I was a couple of Mph slower before that. The line felt perfect, my track out was going to lead me right up to the berm and then the tank slapper happened and (this is my speculation as I've been pondering this since it happened) I got pushed out further. I don't know if that was partly the traction control or if simply the slip angle on the rear meant loosing that much distance, but it seemed alright before that.

Like many times that day (I'd just got a new alignment with only camber bolts which seems to have made the rear pretty happy) I was wanting to counter steer as I felt the rear end start to slide, but I knew that the traction control would pull the rear end in and I didn't want to spin the other direction on the next flap (VSC was on sport as I inch towards turning it all the way off). When the car was on its second flap I didn't realize I was so close to the edge and then it all went! I'm happy that I did do some counter steer and try to go straight as things started happening, but I was too late. Also I did both feet in as I came around (probably at around 140 degrees)but that was later than I should have been. I had the right reactions, just not fast enough.

One really interesting thing is that after the car settled into the curve I see I added some steering input. Looking at the movement of my shoulders I think I did it by accident when I was trying to push myself back into the seat. Fascinatingly I think this might have been what caused the tank slapper in the first place. The timing lines up perfectly that the jostle as I tried to push my shoulder into the seat is right when the rear end stepped out!

So many lessons, so much to learn! I accepted that this was part of the sport when I started but that doesn't change the terror when things go south.