Track Safety Proposal <long>

[SMILLER@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Please forgive me for the length of this post, but I feel like I need to set up
my proposal with some background.  Duane's HEROS of PF, Part III was
interesting for me for a couple of reasons.  1.  It happened to me.  2.  We
should take action to reduce the number of off track excursions.

>Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 15:44:52 -0400
>From: Duane <drcollie@domain.elided>
>Subject: HEROS of PizzaFest, Part III
[major snippage throughout]
>* Crash # 3: I was instructing Jim Hudson from New Mexico in his E30
>325.  He was cutting a good, quick path around the course, but was
>frustrated by an E36 325i that would give him a pass wave and then
>speed up on the straight and hold him to the outside.  He simply didn't
>have enough power to get around.  

Of course this is easy for me to say with my customary 20-20 hindsight,
but what Jim should have done was pull into the pits, wait for a clear
track, and go back out.  Yes, he might have  lost a lap of his precious
track time, but he would have had a lot more fun not trying to get by the
other car, and of course he would probably be driving his car home
instead of a rental.

>On the third time that happened (coming into # 3) he held
>the inside line and was determined to get by.  I saw it coming and
>started yelling "YOU WON'T MAKE THE CORNER - BRAKE! BRAKE!
>BRAKE!". 
>
>We went into Turn # 3 with a shitty inside line and way too much
>speed.  We spit off into the gravel trap (naturally) and I'm yelling
>"BRAKE! - BRAKE!  - - BRAKE!" in the gravel trap knowing that if he
>does we'll spin and be in pretty good shape.  
>
>Jim opts to try to gather it up and get back on the track. BIG MISTAKE.
>!!Oh Shit!! - here we go.  Car hooks up on the pavement...shoots across
>instantly to the other side - and now we're sliding in the mud sideways
>at about 60 mph into the tree line.  Car is in a perfect slide - not
>changing attitude and my door is gonna take the tree hit. CRAP. I
>actually was wishing there was an "EJECT" button a la '007' so I could
>get the hell outta the car. Nothing to do but lean into the door to minimize
>the impact whiplash and we became one with the tree line on my side
>of the car at about 40 mph.  Car stopped REAL fast - my helmet broke
>out the window.  Thank God I had a neck collar on. My ribs hurt like the
>devil. 
>
>We have GOT to address track safety more often here on the Digest.
>This thread would be too long for this post, but I intend to come back to
>this topic again later in the week.
>
>Duane Collie
>Almost recovered

Back in 1995 I was working (non-instructor) at a Golden Gate Chapter
school at Sears Point.  Of course, workers get to drive, and I was out in
the last session of the day in my 1987 325is.  I was signed off to run
solo, and had been for years, but even so, at every school I made sure
to corner an instructor to ride with me for a few laps just to be sure I
hadn't lapsed into any bad habits.  But, on the last run session of the
day, I was solo.

Turn 10 is a high-speed right-hand sweeper.  My line through 10 had
been pretty consistently good all day, though probably not perfect.  On
the fateful lap, for some reason I found myself running out of road at the
exit.  (I have tried to analyze what I might have done differently on that
lap and come up empty.  The Toyo Proxes RA1's, apparently unhurt from
the incident I'm about to describe, ended up on Bill Arnold's car.  Bill's a
much better driver than I am.  At another school the next year, he said
that after a bunch of hot laps, the tires just "went away".  Could this
have happened to me?  Maybe, but I'm not blaming the tires, it very well
could have been me.  After 11 years and 18 drivers' schools, I should
have seen this coming sooner than I did.)

Off in the distance outside of 10 there was a wall.  I knew that, even
with ABS, stopping a car going over 90 MPH in the dirt before getting to
the wall was questionable.  I decided to use my last few feet of
pavement for HARD braking, get off the brakes going into the dirt, and
then get back on the brakes in the dirt.  Except I forgot one little thing - I
should have gotten back on the gas during the pavement-dirt transition,
but I didn't.  The right rear tire acted as a brake and fulcrum, and I spun
around backwards and sideways back across the track (see the
similarity here with Jim and Duane's Big Adventure?) and across into the
tire wall.  Of course, the tires are there because there is a barrier.  I don't
know how long it took to traverse the track into the wall, but that part
happened in slow motion, and I remember thinking that the driver's side
was going to hit the wall, thus spreading the impact out over a large area
of the car.  If I tried to brake some more, it could upset the balance and
put a corner of the car into the wall, where the impact would be more
concentrated and severe on a smaller part of the car and possibly do
more damage to the car (this quickly became a moot point) and to me.  So
I chose to just let it slide on in.

Yes, the impact stops you RIGHT NOW, tire wall tires flew into the air
about 15 feet (so I'm told), and despite being belted in, the seat frame
bent I slammed into the door HARD.  No glass breakage, thought, my
helmet hit the B-pillar.  I managed to unbelt, open the door and walk away
(after traffic was stopped!).  I was in shock, and when that wore off, I
had bruised ribs for a couple of weeks, but no other bodily damage.  (Try
THAT in a Toyota!)

State Farm later determined that the car was totalled.  In the settlement I
kept it, then when I sold it, I kept the "is" parts  which went onto my 1990
325i, thus the "hybrid" lable (now you know).  Important point for CA
drivers' school participants who have State Farm:  1)  The car was
covered.  2)  You get one insurance point for having a solo accident.  3) 
You get another point if there were injuries.  I did not report any
"injuries", I just basically decided that bruised ribs was not an injury, I had
no medical treatment (other than getting checked over by the paramedics
at the track), and thus I avoided having my insurance rate increase (it
takes 2 points or injuries).

BTW, I was told that you can send your helmet somewhere after a crash
to have it X-rayed (or something) to see if it is still safe to use.  I was
going to be replacing my Snell '85-approved helmet the next year
anyway, so I just threw it away.  If this happens to you, and you have
big bucks into a new helmet, you may prefer to have it checked.

So why have I subjected you to this?  Oh yeah, safety!  At the drivers'
schools, we're alwayt TOLD what to do if we go off the track, but we
never get a chance to PRACTICE going off.  Hearing it is good, but actual
experience would be better.  Taking evasive action must be instinctual,
not something you have to think back to and say to yourself, now what
was I supposed to do again?  In my case, I knew what to do if I put a
couple of wheels off the track (been there, done that), but my angle was
going to take the whole car off of the track, and there was that wall in
the "distance" that I really didn't want to hit.

So how do we get this practice?  If money were no object, this would be
my proposal:  Your friendly local BMW CCA Chapter would buy a beater
car that runs good, and install a roll bar and harnesses.  Drivers would
take turns, with instructors in car, driving the car off the track into the dirt
and practicing doing all the right things.  This practice would have to
include going partly off and also going completely off, taking different
angles into the dirt.  Only this way could we all get the experience, and
get to feel what it is really like in that situation.

Of course, it all comes down to money.  Do the chapters have enough? 
Should they raise prices so they could afford the cars?   Who would
transport it, maintain it, etc.  I won't attempt to answer these questions
here, we should all take it up with our chapter Boards.

Had CCA schools been doing this all along, Jim (and passenger Duane)
and I might have had different experiences.

OK, enough from me, any CCA Chapter Board officers out there care to
comment?

Scott Miller
Golden Gate Chapter
BMW CCA #44977
1990 325i/is hybrid (and now you know how it got that way)

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