DaveyKid
09-18-2007, 09:48 PM
is not where you want to do it. Coming out of the carousel, barreling down to the kink I had been experimenting with various speeds and various turn in points, all just a fraction of the others but this time I guess it might have been a wrong combination.
As was described to me by the BMW in front of me when he later scoped me out in the parking lot, "I saw you closing in on me at a tremendous speed, I went through the kink, then saw you coming. The next I see in my rearview mirror is you flying off the track heading sideways for the wall. I told my passenger to look quick in the side mirror as he was about to see a spectacular crash". That's real encouraging. He said it reminded him of a Jeep commercial. As a matter of setting the stage, my ESP is off, I'm running my Hoosier slicks and the track was still damp in certain areas, but not at the turn in to the Kink. The grass however, was still a little wet.
So, from my perspective it's all slow motion at this point. I realized I was carrying a little too much speed, (around 125 mph versus my previous speeds of about 120), but the killer was the slightly early apex. I feel the left front tire lose traction and the car starts to break loose on me. Ok Dave, think quick! Knowing I couldn't possibly save it at this point I released on a bit of my steering angle allowing the front tires to regain grip only I was now about a foot from the wall, still moving sideways and at about 110-120 mph. It's real scary when you can reach out and touch the wall.
Sooooo, compliments of 4-motion, I'm on the throttle big time in 5th as that was my entrance gear to the kink and I certainly didn't have time to shift into any other gear, and get all four tires to get me enough bite to stop my lateral motion and get me going in the right direction again. I stayed on the grass knowing the most made mistake is shooting back on the track by over correcting and bouncing on the other side of the wall. Here's where the "Jeep" part apparently comes into play; I just continued to drive down the grass at about 110-115 and slowly roilled back onto the pavement and kept on going without losing any distance on the BMW in front of me.
No black flag for that excursion, which surprised me, and I still managed to overtake the BMW by the front straight!
Fun times but unfortunately I didn't have my camera rolling at the time!
As was described to me by the BMW in front of me when he later scoped me out in the parking lot, "I saw you closing in on me at a tremendous speed, I went through the kink, then saw you coming. The next I see in my rearview mirror is you flying off the track heading sideways for the wall. I told my passenger to look quick in the side mirror as he was about to see a spectacular crash". That's real encouraging. He said it reminded him of a Jeep commercial. As a matter of setting the stage, my ESP is off, I'm running my Hoosier slicks and the track was still damp in certain areas, but not at the turn in to the Kink. The grass however, was still a little wet.
So, from my perspective it's all slow motion at this point. I realized I was carrying a little too much speed, (around 125 mph versus my previous speeds of about 120), but the killer was the slightly early apex. I feel the left front tire lose traction and the car starts to break loose on me. Ok Dave, think quick! Knowing I couldn't possibly save it at this point I released on a bit of my steering angle allowing the front tires to regain grip only I was now about a foot from the wall, still moving sideways and at about 110-120 mph. It's real scary when you can reach out and touch the wall.
Sooooo, compliments of 4-motion, I'm on the throttle big time in 5th as that was my entrance gear to the kink and I certainly didn't have time to shift into any other gear, and get all four tires to get me enough bite to stop my lateral motion and get me going in the right direction again. I stayed on the grass knowing the most made mistake is shooting back on the track by over correcting and bouncing on the other side of the wall. Here's where the "Jeep" part apparently comes into play; I just continued to drive down the grass at about 110-115 and slowly roilled back onto the pavement and kept on going without losing any distance on the BMW in front of me.
No black flag for that excursion, which surprised me, and I still managed to overtake the BMW by the front straight!
Fun times but unfortunately I didn't have my camera rolling at the time!