Most Embarrassing thing YOU have done in a race car!

[Modo]

My first pro race, I rolled my Tui BH3 Super Vee in the pits at a Robert Bosch Gold Cup race at Mt. Tremblanc, Cananda, 1977. I was being towed in after the first session with a broken shift linkage and went to throw the rope off the rollbar to coast to my area in the paddock...the driver had knotted the rope....bulldogged me right over...sat there upsidedown with my arms crossed and egg on my face saying to myself "I don't believe it". They righted my 882 pound FSV and I came to face with Herm Johnson who said get it fixed and get back out there, somewhat friendly. I said "that was it, didn't have material to fix it and I'm tired"... I had driven all night to get there. We picniced at White Face Mountain back in NY that afternoon and attempted another Gold Cup race in 78' at the Glen.

[D.T. Benner]

Racer27. Did your act of getting your finger stuck get captured by your carema's "Better view"?? [img]redface.gif[/img]

[D.T. Benner]

Opps,thats CAMERA. [img]redface.gif[/img] [img]redface.gif[/img]

[EYERACE]

part 2.....going out for qualifying without the transponder just this past weekend - gets you no time, so you start in the rear - won't make that mistake again - at least went from about overall 30th to about 16th, impound never looked so sweet even if it was just 4th out of 6 in class

[JHaydon]

You know, the worst part about this thread is reading other people's stories and saying to myself, "Oh, yeah, I forgot I did that once too..."

I did the transponder bit. We had wired it into the rain light circuit and of course I forgot to turn it on for qualifying. My crew heard on the scanner that I was not registering any hits... I drove past the pit lane to see them shining a big handheld searchlight at me. Took me a few seconds to realize what it meant.

I'm not sure if this one qualifies because I wasn't IN the car at the time -- which is what makes it embarrassing: I started the car to warm it up, only didn't realize it was in gear. Chased it about 10 feet before it stopped. It pulled my watch off my wrist (ouch) and of course just hitting the kill switch wasn't enough to stop it. It stopped about 5 feet short of a chain link fence (which would have stopped it from crossing the pit lane... )

[Allan Davies]

In the old days (80's), we used to set tire pressures on the pre-grid.

One day at Laguna Seca my 'crew chief' spaced it out...I went out with, like fronts at 24/16, rears at 27/18 (or worse). Felt great, qualified 3rd fastest.

We're still married, still racing (now we set pressures down from hot AFTER the session, not cold, before).

This is a great thread!

Regards, Allan

[size="1"][ August 11, 2004, 12:12 AM: Message edited by: Allan Davies ][/size]

[Dave Harmison]

My dumbest move: Bought my first FF 18 years ago. Hadn't ever driven a FF so I thought a solo would be a good place to learn something. While pushing the car in the pits I slipped and got my left foot run over by my own car. Broke the foot.

But that's not as bad as a crew guy I know that push started a Reynard by the main roll hoop and got caught by the rear tire when the engine fired. Broke his hip!

Now for the long post, The following is my race report to family after the Indy Regional at the beginning of this season. It's a bit long for here, but some friends said they liked the writing:

I went to Indy this weekend. The weather was gorgeous. Cool evenings, warm days.

Saturday had a couple minor hitches but qualified fourth. Had seven CFF's and the top five were very close. We raced nose-tail-nose-tail, etc. in a pack of four for 15 laps! All of us missed both spinning FV's that we encountered as we lapped traffic (and lapped traffic, and lapped traffic). I finished third by a nose. In impound and the paddock everyone agreed we had played tough but fair and had a great race. Everyone was smiling.

Sunday morning Jenny Morsh put her Continental Crossle in the wall so she couldn't start. I had an engine mount break but got it welded. I qualified fifth but with 1.0x seconds covering the first five places on the grid, all CFF, I couldn't complain.

Race starts and I got a great jump. Went into turn one in third place. First five CFF's running in a train. Got passed on lap three so I'm running fourth in a train of five. Flat out down the front straight and into turn one with just a confidence lift. Not five feet between anyone. Arc into turn two and the three guys in front of me tighten their lines, I assume to discourage passing. I hold my line and right on top of the tunnel between turns two and three I hit a full size passenger car tire in the middle of the racing line. I didn't see it until it launched me. There is debate about whether there was a debris flag out at the time. Come on, A DEBRIS FLAG? Took the left rear wheel off the car. Broken shock, upright, links, rod ends, the works. A DEBRIS FLAG?

Turns out a FV had hit the wall and continued but knocked a tire loose from the tire wall and into the middle of the racing line, so the corner workers showed a F#$%^ING DEBRIS FLAG!

I spoke to the cheif steward and he said "Read the GCR. Debris flag was appropriate." Give me a break. Considering the racing line was occupied by the tire, which stayed there the ENTIRE RACE, I think a yellow might be appropriate. I mean, it has to be a no passing area, there isn't room to pass with a tire on the track, and as far as caution, yes, it's a bit hazardous.

Me bitter? Nah.

You know how BIG a passenger car tire looks with your ass an inch and a half off the ground at 100 mph? A DEBRIS FLAG?

I gotta stop now before I blow a blood vessel.

[butchcfc01]

should've been a yellow & debris flag.then maybe they could remove the tire.if just a few laps left then just the flags.
butchcfc01

[Richard Dziak]

In my first "ROOKIE year running SCCA at Second Creek Colorado I was so excited driving the Formula Ford, that when the Checkered Flag fell after the race, I just keep going and going around the track. Soon the track was empty with no other cars except me. Soon I saw the SCCA corner workers waving at me. Shortly after I was wavied down from one of the Stewards in the pits. After entering the pits on the next lap, they stopped me and asked "what in the hell are you doing"? I was so excited to tell them I am racing. They directed me to the paddock area. I just couldn't wait till the next day to race, and learned when the Checkered Flag dropped it is time to exit the track. I guess it was just super excitement as a "rookie".

Richard Dziak
Las Cruces, NM

[Gary Jarlson]

Two instances come to mind:

Last national of the season and three of us are neck-and-neck for the division title. During morning warm-up, the clutch goes south. My crew was me and Pit Poopsie (banned from touching the car after oil dipstick she left on the chassis fell behind the brake pedal and I discovered said mistake at the end of the back straight into the oval at old PIR). My rivals pitch in to change the clutch while I'm trying to convice the trackside parts guy that a) I had left my credit card (long since maxxed) at home and b) I was good for it. Make pre-grid with about 30 seconds to spare. We get waved out, but I go nowhere. Can't get it in gear. Push it back to the trailer where Poopsie is blithely fondling the throw-out bobbin.

Second case: Running second at Riverside and I know just where I'm going to make the pass on the next (last) lap. Up the front straight and there's the checker. Crap! I'd waited too long. I was so pissed I didn't even run the cool-down lap, instead pulling off into the re-entry lane before Turn 1. Later in the paddock I'm greeted with looks that say, "Just how many dumb-ass pills did you take this morning?" The checker I saw was a new billboard over victory circle that advertised First National City Travelers Checks.

[formulasuper]

checker I saw was a new billboard over victory circle

Now that has to be one of the best.

[Riaanc]

Hi,

Our first race in Formula Vee. This is our first competitive outing in our single seaters. We qualify ok but request to start from the back of the grid as some of the faster drivers have had problems in qualifying and are now behind us. We are very mindful of our inexperience and wish to stay out of everyone?s way. I was thus the last out of the pre-race paddock on the parade lap to the grid.

In South Africa we do standing starts so the done thing is to light up the rears out of the last corner to get some heat into them before pulling to your grid position. I trailed along behind everyone, (I took last on the grid, my wife second-last) and decided to be a bright boy and boot it put of the second last corner (a 180 degree hairpin with +-200 feet to the last corner, a 90 degree left), hey, this was my first race and I was awed by the experience, and emulating the big guns in front!

This I promptly did, only to notice that my wife has just about crawled to a stop before booting it through the last corner. I must have been looking at the crowd or something! The impact was significant. It resulted in a broken gearbox for her, my car was ok as I hit her gear selector with the front beam. The front of my car landed on the rear of hers, with the resultant cars-in-the?act-of procreation look.

She did not speak to me for 2 days and had me hauled in front of the Clerk of the Course etc. Fully justified, I believe.

Whenever we go and race at that track, even now years later, the commentators always have some wisecrack about Kim having to be careful as I am wont to mount her from behind at every opportunity etc.

Kind regards

Riaan

[AJ]

I can remember two instances that happened on the same weekend. BAD MOJO that weekend.

First, Dive Bombing an FF at the end of the long straight at CMP and spining into the FROG. Yes, the one and only Purple Frog did get a piece of my Right rear corner. I wasn't even trying to pass him, but since I overshot the corner by a BIG margin I spun the car trying not to T-bone him. Wow, Frogs really get Mad!!!! I think it took him 2 weeks to talk to me again. Of course I felt like a Purple Ass for hitting him and I trashed my car. I think Butch still thinks I'm an idiot. Such was my luck that weekend.

The other was my tarp went flying with my No2 bottle. Remember never to tie tarp to anything but toe vehicle or drive stake into ground deep.

[Lee Racing 8]

Broken shoulder Powderpuff cheerleading...

[SStadel]

GaryJ's post made my morning. (I don't know how it missed it a month ago). Mark Martin must have been thinking about you when he pulled off the track during a Busch race while leading when he forgot to take the checkered flag while the race was under caution.

[D.T. Benner]

As for the flying No2 bottle. Once at Sears Point I watched as my 75 Lb. Floor jack [tied to the leg of my trailer awning] made a gracefull arc about 20 ft. it the air and came down thru the roof of my trailer! Lucky for me my State Farm agent racer friend of mine was pitted next to me! "Your covered" was all he said and we went about our business. When EZup's came out we nick named them "Sears Point hang gliders" I watched one fly about 150 ft. and land in the infield of turn 11.

[Dave Belz]

So why are so many of these from FV days? My first(?) June Sprints - I never did well there so I stopped going - a friend had showed me this neat trick where you use a crescent wrench to turn the motor by the bolt on the front fan pully to adjust the valves between sessions... A couple of other drivers came by to chat and wish me luck... suited up, into the car, start up for the drive to the grid, and BANG! Which is VW speek for "you're not going anywhere today".

More fun is my first driver school, and then again this August after a two year hiatus, after an on track session - drive all the way through the pit lane - get to the turn off toward the paddock area - and reach for the turn signal lever with the left hand...

[Gary Payne]

The following is a little off topic but one of the funniest things thats happend to me in a race car follows:

Before formula ford, I ran an ITS 280 z for years. The first session of the first weekend out after a long winter, an unusual movement in the passenger seat caught my eye just as I was approaching turn 1 after the long front straight at the old gateway int. raceway in St Louis. I proceeded through the turn and into the short straight before t 2 when something caught my eye on the driveline tunnel between the gear shift lever and the bottom of the dash. I make turn 2 and have time to take a harder look at whats been flopping around and back on the passenger seat I see a field mouse with eyes as big as saucers and nose twitching like crazy. For a moment, we make eye contact, he heads for the floor pan on the passenger side and a beautiful escape hole, so he thinks, where the floor pan drain plug used to be. Last I saw of Micky was his tail slipping out of the car as he met his demise at the apex of turn 3.

Gary Payne
FF #2
St Louis

[ccambern]

Second test day in my first formula car... coming from karts I was big into left-foot braking. I was entering the bowl at Grattan and went for the brake... the pedal went to the floor and I thought, "Holy sh**! No brakes!" Then I realized I'd hit the clutch pedal by accident.

[Douglas Brenner]

Watch the language or we will dock you 25 points...Oh ya, this isn't nausiacar!!!

[D.T. Benner]

OK Douglas it's about time you add some of your tales to this post!

[Argojm2]

Well this didn't happen when I was in the car but actually before I even turned a wheel at a race at Roebling some years ago. It was the first time my 14 year old step son had gone to the track with me and he was pumped to help me out in any way possible. We picked our padock spot and busyily unloaded the trailer. We unstrapped the car and, as with most beaver tail trailers, we had to crank the nose up some so the car wouldn't high center as it rolled out. I had him go crank it up and then got side tracked with some other task. I turned just in time to see our ff2000 auto unload and roll stright back into a Georgia pine tree as,in his eagerness, he had taken the chocks out from behind the tires before he went to raise the front. Ouch!!! We strightned the wing and the weekend turned out great even though it started rather badly! Ah the memories!!

[Chas Shaffer]

OK, season's over and I'm already bored.

My first pro USFF2000 race which took place at Mosport, a track I'd never been to. I was pretty much a one man show so I didn't sleep much the days prior to the event thrashing to get ready. I towed up to Toronto from Virginia (first time through customs) got through tech and all the other stuff associated with pro races back then and finally got into the car. As I was pulling on the track I realized I hadn't looked at a track map. I had been so busy getting ready for the event I never thought about actually driving. I had no idea where I was going but figured I'd learn as I go. After two or three laps on the track I received the black flag and figured something was falling off the car. On my way in my volunteer crew radio'd me that I was being black flagged. I told them I saw the flag and asked what was wrong with the car. After a brief silence they told me I was being black flagged for being too slow and that I needed to speak with a driving coach before I'd be allowed back on the track, some guy named Calvin Fish. I was horrified. As I pulled into the pits I saw Calvin coming towards my car. He came over, sat down on my left front tire, looked me in the eye and said "Not having much fun out there are ya mate". Having just read one of Senna's books where they talked about Calvin being Senna's rival in British F2000 I wanted to die. Fortunately Calvin was really cool about it and once I knew where the lefts and rights went everything was fine.

He and I had a pretty good laugh about it on the grid at the runoffs last year.

[mark defer]

okay chas, if you can tell that one, i've got an embarrasing one to tell myself.
i made my first trip to the january florida nationals in '01. did the first weekend at sebring, then it was on to moroso. well we were doing the test day on friday and it was my first session on the track. i did a few laps and was getting up to speed. knowing the importance of the last turn [it leads onto the longest straight], i decided to try and see how much speed i could carry thru the turn, a long 180. so there i was, car at the limit, concentrating to the max, and as i exit onto the front straight i wonder "what are all those people and cars doing scattered all about?" well you guessed it. i had just entered the pits at 100 mph+. you see at moroso, when you approach the exit of the last turn, there are three areas of pavement to the right. first there is the dragstrip, next is the front straight, and last is the pit lane. well, i was concentrating so much on what the car was doing, that i got confused and ended up in the pit lane. luckily, i got the car slowed down [kinda sideways actually], as people were jumping over the pit wall. i continued to drive sheepishly thru the pits and back out onto the track. needless to say, i was pretty embarrassed afterword. it did help when steve knapp came over afterwards and laughed as he told me i wasn't the first one to ever do that. i still get reminded about it every year by the guys at st clair when we get to moroso.
mark d

[size="1"][ October 13, 2004, 12:34 PM: Message edited by: mark defer ][/size]

[D.T. Benner]

Thanks,Chas and Mark! See we all have our moments! Anyone else???

[stonebridge20]

I hope the girlfriend never sees this! Pocono national 04. The bet... A flash from the top of the trailer(parked on the front strait wall) if I win the race. Last lap and leading the GT-3 race and I figure reach over and turn the video camera toward pit lane and get the shot of her on top of the trailer as I go by (for bargaining purposes at a later date). I start turning the camera coming out of the banking and look over to see if it looks like it's pointed right. Everything looks great....I'm gona get the shot! Sunday night 3 hours in a trafic jam get home at 2am I can't stand it any more. Honey, let's watch the tape(she knows nothing) "That Race was so exciting, too bad the tape ran out on the last lap and it didn't get the checker flag"."Goodnight... I'm going to bed". Plenty of tape left I must have hit the pause button when I was fumbling around trying to turn the damn camera!

Mike

[DaveW]

OK, guys...

I've got a list of embarrassing things so long I don't know which to put here, but here's one:

In 1984 I was the main test driver for the Sports Renault (SR), now known as the Spec Racer. The first real race for the SR (an invitational race including a bunch of very good drivers) was held in conjunction with the Detroit F1 GP on roads near Cobo Hall. Because I was the test driver, I got invited.

I HAD (Chas...) looked at the track map, but when I got on course, almost every 90-degree corner looked the same, and I couldn't remember which corner was which, or even which was left or right. The first lap was OK, since I went out behind someone who had a clue which way to go. However, I was too impatient, since I knew the car, so I passed him.

The next time I got to a place where there were two consecutive RH turns, I thought the second one went left, approached the turn at speed on the wrong side of the road, saw the corner went the "wrong" way, said something like "Oh, s***," and had to take the escape road. I never did properly learn the course during that session.

After the session, a driver who was following me said he almost did the same thing, since he thought that "Dave must know what he's doing."

That night, I drove around the course for at least 25 laps in someone's renta-car so I could figure out what the course actually did.

It must have helped, because in the race, after Bob Lobenberg spun, I wound up winning (It also didn't hurt that I was probably the only one there that really knew the car's handling traits).

Believe me, I've got a lot more, but that's enough for now.

[Converse_Motorsports]

There's never enough. I just need funding to start my career and then I can post plenty of these stories.

[DaveW]

OK, here's another one.

Way back when I was running FV, I was upset about being passed for the win at Nelson Ledges while going around an ambulance that was on course.

Turns out the guy that passed me was correct in what he did, but I was so PO'd that I punched a building in my frustration and broke a bone in my right hand.

Of course, that didn't stop me from doing another race a few weeks later at Mid Ohio. While trying to catch up to the leader after a car that was holding me up spun off, I got sideways in turn 1, and because my right hand was still too sore, I couldn't catch it, and wound up pretty much totalling the car.

I should have learned something from that, but I'm not sure it stuck...

[Keith Carter]

Originally posted by DaveW:

I should have learned something from that, but I'm not sure it stuck...

LOL!!!!! I think that's the closest thing to my life motto as you can get. I think it's because I only have a 30 second memory.

[Curtis Boggs]

this is by far the best thread on apexspeed, !!!!

Curtis

[Agitator]

OK, OK, I would have hoped I'd have read a similar experience by now ....Yep, I've peed in my driver's suit.

This past weekend I had "to go" on the grid - just then they gave the "fast" five minute warning. I literally pull my FV on like a cheap suit. It is not an easy task, so I decided not to chance it.

4 laps of racing and I've forgotten the urge...then we get a double yellow and it starts raining very hard. The urge to go comes back so much that I decide if we get the green that I'm not going to be able to concentrate. After 5 laps behind the pace car I decide to just go - I'm already wet anyway.

I get performance anxiety all alone in my cockpit. Takes me halfway down the front straight to actually start the process...I continuing peeing all the way thru turn 1. They throw the checker and call the race on that lap!

The positive was that the rain was cold and I was warm for the rest of the lap .

James

[JHaydon]

Aw, James, I only didn't post that type of story because it didn't happen to me (yet).

Last year, Road America, pro FM race. I was working for the track as a gopher (winner's circle activities -- pre-open the champagne, hand out the hats, etc) and one of the team captains runs over and asks for three extra bottles of water to cover up for a driver who couldn't make it through the cool-off lap.

I'm just waiting for the day that happens to me, though. Isn't it normal to have to go any time you hear a bunch of race cars start up??

[Keith Carter]

Originally posted by Agitator:
OK, OK, I would have hoped I'd have read a similar experience by now ....Yep, I've peed in my driver's suit.

This past weekend I had "to go" on the grid - just then they gave the "fast" five minute warning. I literally pull my FV on like a cheap suit. It is not an easy task, so I decided not to chance it.

4 laps of racing and I've forgotten the urge...then we get a double yellow and it starts raining very hard. The urge to go comes back so much that I decide if we get the green that I'm not going to be able to concentrate. After 5 laps behind the pace car I decide to just go - I'm already wet anyway.

I get performance anxiety all alone in my cockpit. Takes me halfway down the front straight to actually start the process...I continuing peeing all the way thru turn 1. They throw the checker and call the race on that lap!

The positive was that the rain was cold and I was warm for the rest of the lap .

James

You think if it wasn't raining that you would've gotten a black flag for 'leaking fluid'?? Try explaining that one!

[bob scheib]

Last Saturday at Portland, Oregon - SCCA Reg'l at PIR. Received a long distance phone call just as I was getting into car for practice session - gentleman says "I'm buying your car"! I decide to run anyway, but "carefully" - just minutes before checker I have a big spin at the "Festival Chicane" and smack the concrete with front and rear of car! "Hello, Dave? I had a sort of, well, small incident this afternoon.............. you still want the car, right?"

[D.T. Benner]

Bob. That goes to show that any race car thats for sale turns into a concrete magnet! Dave W thanks for your stories! PLEASE share some more with us! Isn't it fun to know that none of us have been free of mistakes/bloopers.

[Brian Good]

In '84 I ordered a new DB1. Since I was living in an apartment, my brother agreed to help me build the car in his garage in Detroit. When he called me to tell me the car had arrived, I drove to Detroit as fast as I could, and we spent the evening drinking beer and sticking parts on the car. The very last thing we put on the car was the steering rack.

The next morning, I got into the car while my brother fitted the harnesses. I was idly turning the steering wheel (okay, I admit I was making engine noises in my head) when I suddenly realized that when I turned the steering wheel to the left, the front wheels turned to the right. My brother happened to be looking in my direction at that moment; to this day, he says he's never seen such a look of slack-jawed confusion on anybody.

Of course, we'd simply mounted the rack upside down, and it was a two-minute fix. For some reason, though, I had trouble coming to grips with that car, and I'm not entirely sure that my lap times the first year would have been much slower if we'd left the steering reversed.

Still, I learned that, while there are people who can consume large amounts of beer and still do accurate mechanical work, I am not one of them.

[RussMcB]

While preparing to do some metal grinding in my shop I went to put on my safety glasses and stuck myself in the eye with them.

[R John Lye]

I've been enjoying reading all these stories,
and just remembered one from my Solo days. I
was in second place, and got a bit behind through
a slalom so I began to push it a bit harder and
had a snap spin just before the finish line. I
got the clutch in and went through the finish
lights backwards. To make it funnier, there was
a photographer there that day, taking photos of
the cars as they went through the finish lights.
He was perched on a ladder to get a better angle
on the cars. I decided that a photo of my car
going through the lights backwards was worth
buying, but when I asked him if he'd gotten the
shot, he got really upset. Apparently I had
scared him so badly that he'd jumped off the top
of the ladder and run away...

Needless to say, I don't have a photo of that
moment! I think that Tom Tipsword might have
been at that event.

John

[Top]

I sure can’t top the stories I’ve read here but I have made myself feel stupid several times.

A few years ago I was instructing at a NCCC high-speed autocross school. Several of the Corvette guys kept egging me on to show them what my little 4 cylinder Honda S2000 “Del Slo” as they called it could do against their Corvettes. Of course I thought I had something to prove so I lined up for my first lap intending to make it a fast one, cold tires and all. As I whipped it through a big slalom at over 90 mph something big slammed into the inside of the passenger door. I wondered what the heck I’d left on the seat but I was too busy turning the other way to look. Thunk, bam, WTF is that as something big and red ricocheted off the console and up over my arm into the steering wheel. That’s when I realized that I’d forgotten to put on my helmet. At least it stayed in the car.

I had driven several FV’s, FF’s, and a couple of DSR’s in the high speed Solo II’s we have down here but I had no experience on a real track fully suited up like a real racer. Then I was invited to co-drive a Monster car at a test day at Talladega. Some of you will know the car since there are very few old FF’s with big wings, Atlantic rubber, and throaty V8’s running around the SE. We get to TGPR and I get suited up making sure that I do everything right. I make several laps getting the feel of the car and wondering if my head will stay attached in the turns when I decide to go for an all out hot lap. I sail through the last turns before the start/finish faster than I thought possible, (pretty slowly actually) and grab 4th gear just before the start finish line. Then all hell broke loose when a heim joint broke in the right rear and I started spinning. Luck was with me when I passed within six inches of the end of the pit wall and into the grass past pit out. Nothing embarrassing about that but as the car was about to stop without hitting anything I held up both arms giving a “thumbs up” to the car owner video taping the whole thing from the stands. That’s when I noticed the arm restraints dangling unattached to anything but my arms in front of my face.

In August at CMP I was pushing our Swift with my wife in it in the pit lane. As soon as I finished telling the guy that ran up to help push from the other side to watch out for his feet I stuck my right heal under the rear tire. It made it up my heal and onto my ankle before bouncing back to the ground. The shank in the bottom of racing boot was bent into an S shape and had to be cut out of the now useless shoe but my very sore foot and damaged pride survived.