[thstone]

Here is the video of the impact from Saturday...

This is the second race on Saturday. I had finished 4th of 14 in the first race so I started this race in P4. At the start, I got a good run and was able to get to 3rd. Then 1st-4th were all within a few car lengths of each other for a couple of laps. Subsequently, the white car that spins in front of me caught our group and passed 4th and then passed me to move into 3rd.

The video below starts shortly after that. After working on the camera system over the holidays, I now have three cameras: front view, rear view, and a camera pointing at me.

The video starts as I upshift to 5th as I enter Turn 8 and then downshift to 4th on the short chute before entering Turn 9. The white car ahead takes a highly non-traditional line as he cuts down to the inside of the turn and then starts to spin. All the while I am taking the more traditional line to the outside.

When I saw the spin carrying him towards the inside of the turn, I maintained my line towards the outside of the turn intending to pass behind him.

Then his car reverses direction and starts to come back towards the outside. Oh crap. Let me say that again: Oh crap. For a moment, I thought that I might get by but I quickly see that the angles and speeds are not working in my favor. Damn, I am pretty screwed at this point. I turn left to try and miss him but we hit. Of course, this all happens pretty quickly at 90mph.

My car careens off his and heads into the desert run off area. The impact damaged the front suspension so I don't have any steering and I have the brake on the floor but the car doesn't slow much as I head straight towards a 3-4 ft berm in front of the track retaining wall. The car hits the berm pretty hard but it slows me down and I come to a stop on the backside of the berm. As I was going over the berm, I remember thinking: please don't flip over!

As soon as I come to a stop, I unlatch my belts and pull down the window net in preparation for the car possibly catching fire. I wanted to be ready to get out quickly if needed. The car doesn't seem to be on fire so I take a few breaths and then put my left arm out the window and tap my hand on the roof to let the track officials know that I am conscious and ok.

The edited video ends at that point, but then I re-attached my belts and waited in the car for the safety crew to arrive.

There were two other 986Forum members in this BSR race, Branimir (bkovac) and Justin (jedd). Branimir was right behind me and is going to send me his video. Justin was further back in the pack.

The in-car video shows that my harnesses keep me in the seat and I cinch them up pretty tightly for exactly this reason. My head flops around a bit from the impact but the HANS device would have presumably prevented over-extension of my neck. With that being said, my neck and shoulders were sore the next day.

Video from Race 1 and the start of this race coming soon!