Where was it? What happened? How much seat material did you gather up?

For me; Sears Point in a driving rainstorm before the new configuration, back when the section between 12 & 1 was part of the dragstrip.

There was a stream (with currents and everything) that ran down the uphill section between 1 & 2 when it rained.

Towards the end of my session, I hit the stream just right and the car walked over to the right a full carwidth; it hadn't done that ever before.

I was giving the Group 4 leader a ride along, and he shouted, "Nice save!"

I couldn't reply because I had thrown up a little bit in the back of my mouth.

About 2 inches of seat material.

 

After about 6 years of 5-6 weekends a year doing DEs with my '93 RX-7 moved over to a 993TT. Two DEs, and I was wondering what was all this talk about a Porsche being difficult to drive, and what was "lift-throttle-oversteer?"

Fell in love with an '04 SY GT3, bought it, and sold the 993TT that same afternoon.

Took the GT3 to Laguna Seca, and was quickly humbled. Oh, yes, the 993TT had AWD. Duh!!!

First DE session was a disaster. Kept it on the track, but barely. Steady improvement (drove a bit more slowly) in sessions 2 and 3. In session 4, I began to get the feel. 5th session was right on. Was getting tired, but thought I'd do one more. MISTAKE!!

About my 3rd lap of the 6th session was feeling really in sync with the machine. Came into the Corkscrew too hot, LIFTED, tail came around RIGHT NOW, and instead of going two feet in, tried to save it. Stopped with my nose in the tire barrier.

I'm still picking pieces of the seat out!!!

 

ouch, back when I was learing, I took a barber school and went straight off at the top of the corkscrew; remember the champ-car that went off there a few years back, thats where I went off. didn't prang the car but got a pretty good dressing down by the instructors.

thanks for sharing!!

 

Late apexing diving turn at Lime Rock and not seeing the puddle left over at the apex from the rain the night before until it was too late.

Ugly........................VERY Ugly!

Actually saved the spin until the car snapped the other way and reminded me of exactly what end the engine is in.

To my credit however I did keep it on the track.......swapped ends about 5 times but kept it on the track.

 

nice save! now about the seat material?

 

How long you been doing NASA? I began running with them back in the early days, '93 or '94 as I recall.

My off was in a weekday NASA event.

Once I get back to DEs (am about to have ankle surgery that will sideline me for 4-5 months, and has kept me off the track all this year), I'll look you up for some instruction.

 

Took the bus stop at Watkins Glen way too fast ... VIDEO

 

sounds good i've run with NASA in the Bay Area for over 10 years and have been a licensed instructor with NASA for years.

before that I instructed for Tracqest and on a ad-hoc basis for other groups who rented out tracks.

please look me up, at minimum we can do some lead follows; i focus mostly on novices and beginners (which you clearly are not) and with advanced folks like yourself it becomes a matter of sharing perspective.

i did recently help an accomplished racer drop 3 secs a lap at t-hill

 

thanks for sharing!! hey you looked cool doing it, i'm sure onlookers said "hey Ryan's spinning, man but he looks cool!"

did your car retain the same dimensions and color palette? did you suddenly become up to date on your swear words and finally,

did that Carrie Underwood song pop into your head :-)

 

rmag, that looks scary I've done Watkins once this past season and while I wasn't going that fast (first time, newb group) I never felt the car want to oversteer at the exit of the bus stop... was that the infamous "do not lift" moment?

My personal scariest moment so far is going off into the gravel trap at corner 8 of Mosport doing just over 100mph. It was raining, I did a session in the morning on the rain line and had fun... after a break it started to dry out and I went back to dry line and braking points... Mistake. Nothing serious, replaced most of the underbody plastic panels, refinished the rims... Keeping the scratches on the left rear quarter panel as battle scars!

Made a little rock garden at the mechanic's shop the next day with all the stones that we got out of suspension elements

 

Luckily just tapped the wall at the end and ended up with a few scratches on the rear. But did need to change my shorts when I got back to the paddock


Wasn't oversteer. Just went in WAY too fast. It was first lap, and brakes tires weren't up to temp, so couldn't slow down enough...mental error. In retro spec, having made that error, I should have just gone straight thru the cones bypassing the bus stop, gone straight and gotten on my brakes hard.

 

love mosport, spent time in Toronto and visited mosport a few times, haven't driven it though

thanks for sharing

 

oh by the way, how much seat material did you gather and when you went off, did you say "My bad" and tap your chest like they do in the NFL?

 

Now that was UGLY!

P.S. That's why I never video the first session of the day.

 

Yea, not one of my better moments, but always willing to share so hopefully others won't make the same mistake.