One of the best things about VIR is its park like setting with lots of grass.
One of that bad things about VIR is that when it rains it's in a park like setting with lots of grass...and red clay dirt.
Have a look at some highlights of the Grand-Am and Continental Challenge races there this past week end.
One of the more dramatic incidents involved someone well known here in the North East. Rick Deman is a well known for Porsche race preparation but he probably was not prepared for what happened when he put two wheels off exiting turn 10 and slammed an invisible pothole caused by the rain...
Lots more highlights after the jump
Did he say "whoo-hoo!" while mid-roll? Man, I haven't seen that kind of bravado since I was a rally driver.
ReplyDeleteBut, really, what else are you going to do?
The rain didn't cause that pothole. Never grading the off course areas makes it like that. It's rocky in the VA Piedmont as well as packed with clay. My 318 on hoo hoos was flat from T4 all they way through 10 and up to Oak Tree. Sometimes you'd put two off exiting 10 and it's a bear to hang onto the car without going drivers left.
ReplyDeleteI rolled a car like that once on the street, it's a hell of a ride. Something everybody should try at least once.
If I had to roll a car, I'd rather roll one with a cage and proper restraints ! :)
ReplyDeleteIs it just me or was he screaming on the in-car? I don't think it was 'wooo-hoo', either...
ReplyDeleteI was watching another vid of VIR and they've done some work on the infield - namely the tree on the inside of the hairpin - so why couldn't they do some improvements and make the off-course likely spots a bit more stable? I know the rain and clay make for a PITA situation for the track workers, but there are plenty of 'mixes' of dirt that could be laid down to about 10ft off the track that would make this kind of accident a lot less likely.
Considering how narrow the track is...