THSCC Forums

Hey folks. I just wanted to post this as a reminder to all you track junkies. While at Roebling Road this weekend we had an incident that caused crumpled sheet metal. It was not the result of another car or driver out of control.

A deer (about a 90lb doe) decided to cross the track right at the end of the long straight just before the braking zone. So the car was traveling about 120mph. I was following it. He hit the deer with his hood and it completely caved in. The deer flew up in the air literally 30ft or so. The driver was very fortunate that the deer wasn't higher in its stride or it would have gone through the windshield. Driver and passenger were not hurt. Driver was shook up and bummed obviously at the crumpled sheet metal. I saw it and him braking in time to slow down and go around him. So no cars contacted or anything else. It could have been a lot worse...

I know some clubs mention in the drivers meeting that you need to watch out for animals. Some don't. So this is just a public service reminder. Besides watching for cars, apexes, and corner workstations. Since most of these tracks are out in the boonies you should expect to see wildlife at some point. This weekend was a perfect example.

Graham

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http://www.greywinds.com

Just another cautionary note: deer rarely travel alone so if one has just crossed the road (or track) ahead of you, you should anticipate that there may be more following it.

BTW: the same goes for wild turkey for which Andrew and I had to slow down on stage at Rally New York! Those sort of hazards are not in the stage notes!



Simon

I had this happen one time when I was instructing at Summit Point. Damn deer strolled out in front of us in turn 1. Fortunately he was well ahead of the car so no problem....until we exited turn 2. Damn stupid deer hadn't learned and jumped out in front of us there too! We had made a little time in it but it was still far enough in front for us to miss it.....

Ron

Your instructor/rider during the incident has noted that you didn't have your in-car video on (on another forum). That's a shame.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

<from the deer's perspective:>

'Damn stupid humans haven't learned and tried to run me over here, too!'

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Keith Q.
2008 Top Gun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmX8XuZ_DCo&NR=1

had deer on side of track 2 weeks ago at Watkins Glen. she decided to jump back over the armco. worst part is i never saw it and only found out after talking to two of the guys i was following/leading.

glad to hear you were able to avoid it Graham.

Yeah I had the camcorder in the car and loaded but forgot to turn it on. Jeff was riding with me for that session to show me some places to improve on at Roebling. As soon as we realized everyone was ok the first thing he asked was if we were recording...

The car was a Porsche Boxster. So not having an engine in the front appeared to give him more of a crumple zone. The hood was crushed down quite a bit. The bumper and windshield was scraped up.

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http://www.greywinds.com

Who has the photo of the deer jumping in front of (and fortunately over) Kathy Morris' car as she approached turn 5 at Summit?

This can be a serious threat. Does anyone remember several years ago (probably ~10 by now) the incident at Summit at a DE with Larry Van Voorhis instructing in a student's car when a deer ran out in front of them? I heard Larry tell this story a couple of times, but basically they were moving pretty quickly on a straight section of track, the deer jumped in front of the car, and mostly landed in the windshield, with the leading edge of the roof acting like a big knife. The student got the car stopped and looked over to see Larry covered in blood + guts- he promptly opened the door and bailed out while simultaneously vomiting, thinking that he had killed his instructor. Larry was an open-face helmet user at the time and suffered some pretty serious facial damage requiring a couple of surgeries to repair. I'm pretty sure Larry retired from instructing after this incident.


So, yeah, be careful out there.



Bret.

I'm suprized we don't see deer at VIR. The standard corner worker
signal is a yellow flag (with no immediate sign of an incident) and
placing thumbs to the temple and waiving the fingers upward. IF the
deer is moving it will be a waiving yellow and very agigated hand signals.
This is a comman occurance at Summit Pt .

That's the reason I have a vertical bar in the center of the
windshield welded to the center of the foward hoop and the
dash bar and I always wear a full face helmet.

MV

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Mark Vitacco
THSCC TT Chairman
mvitacco@bellsouth.net

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/stor ... id=2539326

Christian Da Matta collected a deer with his CART car at Road America. Currently, prognosis isn't good (subdural hematoma).

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

Been trying to follow his progress on/off over the past weeks. He has seemed to drop of the radar a bit from a "news" point of view, but he is apparently out of the hospital as of yesterday. It looks like he has a long recovery ahead. Best place for updates is on his personal site...

http://www.damatta.com/

By default the text is in Portugues, but there is a button that shows the English version.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.