First I must apologise to those of you
who have been waiting for me to post a video clip of the crash.
The sad truth is that there is no record of the crash from my in-car
video camera. It's tragic.
First I must apologise to those of you
who have been waiting for me to post a video clip of the crash.
The sad truth is that there is no record of the crash from my in-car
video camera. It's tragic.
The camera mount was a little wobbly all weekend. Just before this race I tried tightening the screw a little more and stupidly cracked the mounting. I didn't want to risk having the camera fall off its perch, so I removed it. I'm quite happy I did, because the mounting would surely have failed in the impact and the camera would probably have gone through the windshield!
Fortunately, Jim Graham started this
race behind me. We were separated only by Chris Zuke's red #98
Chevette. So Jim's in-car camera should have caught all the
action.
Unfortunately, although the incident occurred only halfway around the opening lap, by that time I was already so far ahead of Jim (ahem) that he missed seeing the actual impact. Nonetheless, there are some images to share. And, of course, there's a story that goes along with them...
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But first, here's a little background information to lay the
foundation for the excuses that follow. I swear, it's all the
gospel truth.
Have I ever lied to you before? |
| The weather was quite mild in the days leading up to this race
weekend. As a result the ice surface melted and refroze smooth as
glass. The organisers eventually called in a truck to spread sand
throughout the paddock area in an effort to prevent people from falling
down and hurting themselves.
The racing surface, however, was left mirror smooth. It was as though someone had run the Zamboni around the track between periods. The conditions were fine for the guys in the Studded Tire classes. But the total lack of traction did not bode well for those of us on Rubber Tires. |
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The Studded cars run first and chew a nice groove along the racing line. There is plenty of traction to be found on that line immediately thereafter.
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As they rip up the ice surface, studded tires throw huge quantities
of ice chips across the width of the track. This effectively
blankets and hides the treacherously slippery ice surface offline.
The organisers send snowplows out between races to clean the track as
much as possible. But it's often not enough.
Straying from the racing line in a curve onto the mirror smooth ice surface can lead to an instant trip into the snowbank, as is demonstrated here by two of the best drivers of the Chevette series -- Jay Esterer and Landon Goudreau. Nearly everyone eventually stuffed their car into this particular snowbank at least once during the weekend. But I think I'm the only one who managed to hit another car in the process... |
Note the excellent visibility as I'm running alone with no one kicking snow in my face. It's a lot different on the opening lap of each race when everyone is crowded together.
| After three races in the Chevette class and another three races in
the Rubber class on Saturday, I was 4th in the Chevette
points, ranked behind Jay Esterer, Johnny Wiersma, and Landon
Goudreau!
And even better yet, the car was still in pristine condition. |
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News Flash!
This just in from the Famous-Last-Words department ...
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ASF file video clip (0.4 MB) of me feeling smug about my good day. Transcript above. |
| The very next day I went and did this to the car!
Damn. |
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