THSCC Forums

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3197431&page=1

FYI - This just came across the Evo Instructor's list...check out the pics/story on this link and forum. I think it happended in Portland. I'm glad no one was hurt.

Eric

HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!

That is one of the worst wrecks I've seen from an autocross. (I know that there have been worse, but I haven't seen any pics from them.)

On the same note, there was a wreck recently in the Cincy region. Not as much damage, but they apparently lost a site over it.

http://www.autocrossforum.com/forums/in ... topic=3753

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

I love how many people have commented on this accident, yet weren't at the event. So many conclusions without an 1/8th of the information.

Obviously, it's a bad situation. - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

I can't comment too much on what happened other than to say this:

DO NOT ASSUME THAT THIS WAS A BAD COURSE DESIGN OR LAYOUT FOR THE SITE.

When you are at an autocross, NEVER ASSUME YOU ARE COMPLETELY SAFE. Keep tabs on the world around you, ESPECIALLY when working on course. This should be a lesson to everyone. If my information is correct, this could have happened at a lot of sites around the country. It's just luck that nobody was standing in between any of the cars that were smashed into one another.

I'm not trying to scare anyone or deter anyone from participating...freak things can happen anywhere. I just don't want people getting too complacent with an attitude that "they" did something wrong and this kind of thing only happens to "other people."


--Donnie

+1.

Tim Aro told us at the Extreme school's first meeting to never, EVER turn your back on a car on course. Words to live by.

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Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)

definition of irony: $120K Porsche tore up sitting still at an AutoX while parked next to a C4 Corvette.

those are some uuuuugly pictures. how does the average grassroots autoX'er pay for such a f'up?

damn Corvette guys

Definition of reading comprehension: the above response when the Porsche was the moving projectile.

Definition of irony: the Celica was owned by the safety steward for that event.

The facts are slowly coming out, but the collision was not even close to the finish according to teh intarwebs which as we know nevAr lie.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

Excellent words Donnie. I guess with age (I'm 48 ) and a background in mechanical engineering, I've always evaluated worker placements at autocross events from a different angle. For example, at Greenville workers were placed in the middle of the course with cars going by (rather closely) on BOTH sides, and with two cars on course there were times when it wasn't possible to easily watch just one car. That was an example of a very dangerous station since if you had to run, you might run into the path of another car...the type of thing when the club officers are in court and the attorney is grilling them with "what were you thinking?" type of stuff, there really won't be an answer.

From what I've seen over the years, almost nobody expects or plans for the worst case outcome. One tends to get drawn into a sense of "normal" after watching hundreds of runs with cars more or less on line. These worst case event potentials are much higher than the old days given the suspension setups and more importantly TIRES we have now. Few have respect for how long it will take to dissipate the energy in a car that looses it or has a mechanical failure. When you're working the course and have one of those coming at you, it is VERY hard to judge accurately which way to run (and if it’s a 95th percentile driver, he'll probably object fixate on you and "try not to hit you" which of course will lead him right over your tail).

[/soapbox off]

Chuck

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

Well, as more information pours out of this, the more it becomes clear that driver error was most likely to blame. The 'fun run' driver from the Corvette was used to his automatic Corvette, with it's two pedal setup and very wide brake pedal.

More than likely, he came across the line, tried to brake and hit the clutch (GT3 pedals are true race pedals very close together) and panicked.

The best part of the situation is that no one got hurt. - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

Sounds like a case for NOT braking with the left foot.

The site at Greenville poses huge problems for worker placement. Placing one work station in the center was deemed the lesser of two evils. If you place the workers on the outer edges then they must run across two lanes of traffic to get to cones that were knocked over on the inner slalom. I was criticised last year for doing it that way. And in retrospect I agree I saw some dangerous situations there when we did the night course. So whats the alternative ? Put someone in the middle and have cars on both sides of them, or design a course that only goes up and back once (about twenty seconds at most). Needless to say its a tough place to design a good course, and keep folks insulated from potentially bad situations

I guess that tends to point to the only solution being a compromise with safety being the number 1 driving factor (which sounds like what you did last year and should have been done again this year). If the start has to be held while cones are attended to, that's the way it goes (or if someone has to get a rerun due to a cone being down when they get to it). I don't have any other answer that comes to mind.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

I was nearly killed at an SCCA ProSolo event in Peru Indiana about 4 years ago. The course was shaped like in irregular bow, similar to the breast cancer pink bows that symbolize breast cancer awareness. Very similar to this:

I was working in the center of the circle of the bow. Cars launched about every 25 seconds. I remember a worker station not really paying attention, and when a cone went down, after screaming 'cone' multiple times to them, I ran out (a long ways mind you) to fix the down cone. I was in between the 'bottom' of the bow and one side of the course was live for the start and one side was live for the finish. I setup the cone and didn't know which way to run.

Unfortunately, I ran towards the live section that Marcus Meredith in his ESP prepped Mustang was at the top of 2nd gear in (around 65 mph). I stopped about 2 ft from the inside of a live gate, and Marcus went zooming by. I nearly peed myself... I'm know others watching got really scared too.

I apologized to Marcus afterwards, but he had no recollection of it... fortunately, I guess In hindsight, I should have just left the cone for the correct station, because I obviously didn't know what was the best escape route.

I think that Greenville poses a similar threat, but it can be managed a lot by launch interval. The longer the interval, the less likely there will be people not paying attention. I would think we need to try to fill those spots with workers with a good amount of experience to ensure that a rookie isn't caught unaware. - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

Your mad tite JDM running skills were seen several weeks ago at VMP too. Sorry 'bout that.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.