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oz98cobra
06-05-2006, 05:32 PM
Yesterday while instructing with the DriversEdge at TWS CW, my green student had a major brain outage and smacked the POS rented TWS track Miata into the tire/concrete wall at Turn 4!

Got a ride in the ambulance - which is NOT the type of vehicle I would rather be in at a track event! :( I'm OK though - I refused transport to hospital despite the EMS crew's liability motivated urgings. I didn't black out - but came real close - it took about 30 seconds for me to regain my bearings after the impact. I have some bruising and a stiff neck and shoulder today, and should be fine in a few days. The driver was fine, even though it was his side of the car that hit the wall. The POS Miata is totalled.

I took a much bigger hit than I should have - about as much as I'd ever like to experience - and it appears to be because the car itself was not adequately prepared. These pieces of junk have Kirky aluminum race seats, but with no seat back support, and the little roll bars have no padding whatsoever, despite the fact that they are above or in front of the seat backs! My seat did not seem to be properly mounted - it was lose on it's mounts after the impact, and the back had collapsed without any support and it moved the 5 or 6 inches back until it hit car body metal. My helmet impacted the unpadded roll bar. The helmet did it's job and saved my knucklehead from suffering no more than a bad headache for a few hours, but it is toast now.

On inspection, all the other TWS rental Miatas were found to be in the same sorry state - so DriversEdge will not be allowing them to be used for their events again until they meet safety tech requirements (seat back supports, securely mounted seats, and roll bar padding). I will let NASA TX know also in case anyone rents one of these for HPDE at the August event.

The circumstances of the crash were that despite the fact that the student had driven this corner successfully dozens of times before during the weekend, and that we were following a similar car who did brake at the correct point, the driver did not brake at all and stayed in the gas, even when I gave the hand signal we had been using all weekend, and that I was screaming brake brake brake! He was totally zoned out! I was just reaching for the wheel to steer us to the right of the wall when he wrenched the wheel to the left to try to take the corner - and from that point it was all over - we spun once and at least he got on the anchors eventually because I was still yelling at him to slam on the brakes - we slid into the wall still moving at somewhere around 40 mph, with the rear drivers side corner impacting first. The wall is concrete with one row of very old rock hard tires in front of it.

Ironically, it may have been a ride in the passenger seat of Mason's Mustang immediately beforehand that contributed to the guy losing the plot from one session to the next? So it's all Mason's fault! I won't be letting any more of my green students ride with him! ;) Seriously though, I always enjoy seeing the look on a green students face when you take them for a ride in a speedy track car and you dive off the banking at 130mph for the first time - but maybe it isn't such a good idea for all students? Not everyone may be able to experience that and keep it together?

I learned a thing or too about instructing from this episode. Most importantly, that if a student does not have it together enough to string a lap together, or has gone downhill from a previous session, get him/her off the track straight away, regardless of the circumstances. In this case, the student had noticably deteriorated from the previous session and had lost the line and was missing turn ins. I actually considered bringing him in a lap or two before the incident, but did not do so as it was a student from a corporate group and it was his last session before he was done for the day - I wanted his weekend to end on a high note and not for him to feel like he had "failed" - and I figured he couldn't get into too much trouble in the car we were in anyway (early model automatic Miata that could just make 85 on the straight if we folded the mirrors back and both farted). WRONG! I made a bad call - a driver who does not have their head where it needs to be can get into serious trouble and endanger themself, their instructor or other vehicles on the track regardless of the car they are driving, the track they are on, or how many laps they have done already!

This hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for instructing - and I still feel that I have adequate 'control' of students who are focused to keep them and myself out of trouble most of the time - but I will certainly NOT be ignoring any warning signs that a student has lost the plot in future!

BTW, for what it's worth, despite having now become intimately aquainted with the wall at turn 4, I have driven TWS 2.9 track at many events both CCW and CW directions, and I really do not consider either direction to be more or less dangerous to race on than the other - there are nasty walls to hit in either direction that I consider to be equally hazardous and incidents can occur in either direction. T4 CW is no worse than turns 8/9 CCW. There are other walls, some unprotected concrete and armco, that can be hit in either direction in the event of a spin to the inside. As Mitch mentioned, the pit wall CW is a concern and would need to be adequately padded - but then again, having sampled just how hard those 10+ year old tire walls are, there are many areas that could use some reworking of "padding"!

Apologies for the lengthy post, but hopefully others who are instructing might remember this if they have a brain dead student in future and can avoid a potential incident.

Mike Bell
06-05-2006, 05:39 PM
Bummer, but glad to hear you are both OK. Thanks for sharing your thoughts/input on this incident, hopefully we can all learn and remember. Just take a few weeks off, let AG handle Hallett, mmkay? :wink:

mitchntx
06-05-2006, 08:56 PM
T4 wall ... I'm trying to visualize it.

Are we talking the concrete barrier on the NASCAR back straight?

marshall_mosty
06-05-2006, 09:44 PM
Glad you're okay... Can't say too much about the car except it deserved to die.

AI#97
06-06-2006, 08:22 AM
Daron, glad your ok and I must say my experience instructing at the SVT event in December changed my interest in doing it..... to get me back in the right seat of a 500rwhp, 4400 lb coffin would take A LOT of money....especially with a green student with a heavy right foot and tunnel vision!!!


The car doesn't look that bad unless there are some suspension pieces f'd up or the frame tweaked....however, if the safety gear wasn't up to snuff, then I am sure ANY impact would have rung your bell!

michaelmosty
06-06-2006, 09:54 AM
Daron,
Wow, I'm glad you are OK!!
It definitely looks pretty scary when you see where the passenger seat is sitting currently. :shock: I hope the body gets healed up for Hallett.

AllZWay
06-06-2006, 10:32 AM
Definitley glad you were okay.

I learned a new respect for instructors after my weekend of instructing at TWS with green students.

I would try it again with more experienced drivers, but I am not sure I would again with complete newbies.

oz98cobra
06-06-2006, 06:38 PM
Thanks guys.

The car is kaput - there is more damage than this pic shows - like a ruptured heater core (big puddle of anti freeze inside the car) - it's frame is a banana!

More than one other instructor thanked me for helping to reduce the TWS "rent-a-coffin" fleet by one - small consolation.

I have no problem riding in 500hp weapons with newbies, as long as their head is where it needs to be - but I'll think twice about riding with someone again who has trouble stringing a lap together in an automatic Miata! :roll:

Speaking of 500HP weapons, Chris M had a student with a C6 Z06, and he said they were nudging 160 on the straight - with both of them in it! :shock: That's some serious speed for something you can drive to work in the next day!

Boudy
06-06-2006, 11:06 PM
DITTO! Glad you and your greenhorn are OK. As for the car... Glad it's dead.

Boudy

Lewis Tanner
06-06-2006, 11:34 PM
That's what you get for bitching out an entire novice run group at MSR last week.


Oh, wait... never mind!


Glad to see you're OK and the car isn't. See you in OK!