I saw life be savagely cruel today.

"Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief" (flynorcal) 07/09/2017 at 20:42 • Filed to: None

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Thunderhill Racetrack is great for one reason in particular. There’s nothing to hit. There’s one wall, which if you spin just right out of turn 15 you can hit but essentially, that’s it, and you’d not only have to spin but try to save it and then lose it again and then hit.

Now I know you’re thinking I’m about to tell you I saw someone hit that wall. I did. Yesterday. Just like described, and far from the first to do it and who wants to blow the turn leading into the straightaway? This isn’t about that. This is about something I saw today.

While out on the track today between turns 3-4 the track was red flagged and every car on the track pulled over and stopped to let emergency vehicles through. (If you didn’t know what the red flag meant before, now you do.)

A red flag normally means an accident, which is unpleasant to ponder as you sit watching smoke rising from the other side of the track and see flashing lights heading for it. I was certain it was the ambulance. Very unwelcome sight.

After a while we were all black flagged and drove back to the paddock. In doing so we all passed the accident which appeared to be a false alarm as someone simply overcooked a turn and went straight off the track and came to a stop in the dirt, totally unharmed. The driver was out and clearly fine. So what’s the deal?

Well as I got closer I realized the ambulance was actually a water sprinkler truck which was trying to put out the grass fire that lit under the car when the car slid to a stop and clearly had all the time it needed to do its work. It also explained all the smoke.

My heart goes out to that Honda ST2K owner.

Little Black Coupe Turned Silver > Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief 07/09/2017 at 22:05

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My local track is honest to God boarded by alfalfa and I think maybe soybeans certain years. I know people have ran off and mowed it down, but haven’t heard of anything catching on fire.

shop-teacher > Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief 07/10/2017 at 00:40

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Ouch! That sucks!!

Nearly 20 years ago, I watched someone destroy their brand new Camaro SS at an auto cross. The course had been set up on the drag strip return lanes at Route 66 raceway. He broke it loose entering a slalom, and slid backwards through the grass maybe 50 yards, then rolled into a drainage ditch. He was fine, and the car drove away, but with roof damage. It had something like 255 miles on it at the time.

Needmoargarage > Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief 07/10/2017 at 09:36

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I did my first HPDE out there for that reason - that you can’t hit anything. Yet I looped the car right at that spot. Started to get into a tank slapper and just let it run off to the right instead of trying to save it and possibly going left.

It was there and then I decided never to track anything that I couldn’t walk away from financially and emotionally.