I bought the rims used from a fellow AI racer earlier this year. I'm unsure how long he'd had them before I got them. I used them at 3 or 4 events this year, without any problems. No contact with other cars, and I had just inspected them to have a new set of RA1's mounted 3 days before Sears. It's possible the tire shop got the rim "tweaked" in the mounting machine, but I have no evidence of it. I do recall one particular rim/tire combo having a slight air leak that I thought was a valve stem. When the tire shop install the new RA1's, I had them replace all 4 valve stems, and didn't have any leaks afterwards. At least, as far as I know.
There was NO warning prior to failure, at least, that I can recall. We've all heard various "noises" when driving, typically attributed to rocks flying up, a nut/bolt, etc. But, we don't pull off track every time we hear what we believe to be a "minor" ping/ting/thud.
Had the rim failed in T10, or the carousel, it would have been very ugly. Had it failed on the banks of Cal Speedway.....well....
The brake rotor, while packed with dirt and grass, was undamaged, as the remainder of the rim rode along the pavement the short distance prior to the grass. The passenger fender is a bit tweaked, but can he popped back into place. Beyond that, the car appears to be ok - I raced on Sunday, and the car was ok. I didn't run the laptimes I wanted (damn Nick Steel!), but was faster this weekend than I had been before.
The center section is now hung in my office as a trophy, and the rim is in the garage and will be treated similarly. At least there's a good story behind it.
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