Thunderhill Major - FF - big crash

[bhayes]

https://bradhayesracing.com/video/#race-footage

[-pru-]

Brad,

Glad to hear that everyone was okay; that was quite a shunt!

Losing your left mirror (9:46) would have been enough excitement for me for one day.

Take care,

[Daryl DeArman]

Ouch. Glad everybody turned out okay.

Someone spins in front of you, aim for them! Chances are they won't be there when you get there

[Eric Little]

Glad to hear that you and Chuck are physically okay. Watching at full speed when you cleared Skip, I breathed a sigh of relief (even knowing it was not over yet). Then the big impact. Talk about being out of time, room, and ideas all at the same moment.

I hope that the repairs can be done reasonably quickly and inexpensively (a relative term to be sure).

As for the traffic cone removal of the mirror: 1) l like that you appear to move your head twice to look at where the mirror was (I too would be questioning whether that really happened.) and 2) for the love of dog, why are those things even on the track if they can be that easily removed and do that kind of damage? I kind of get it at Fontana* where a large paved area is used for multiple uses and coning off a track is just one of them. But at THill, why not adjust the track pavement to get rid of those devices? Would hate to be hit in the helmet with one.


* Note - Eric's rant about cones having no place on any racing surface. My last race at Fontana, the car in front of me hits a cone and sends it flying. I am now trying to find a line and a place that will not have said cone land on or immediately in front of me. I came close missing it with the front tire and hitting it with the rear sending it who knows where. The next lap, the car in front of me goes through the same corner and I follow. After he passes the corner station, all sorts of yellow flags are being pointed at me (not waived or held out to warn me of danger but pointed). I presume it was due to the cone that I did not want to hit in the first place and would not have had it not been kicked up in the line. It is never the first offender that gets caught. Always the second guy. Seeing what a cone did to Brad's mirror, I have a pretty solid understanding of what it will do to fiberglass and I get enough work on that without hitting a cone. Rant over.

Good luck
Eric Little

[Josh Pitt]

glad that everyone is OK, and really glad that orange track marker missed your head................, and only took off your mirror, that's an easier repair.

[scorp997]

One I won't be showing my wife...... glad everyone is ok, hope you and Chuck's repairs are quick

John

[bhayes]

Yeah cones suck. For the rest of the weekend, we didn't have any of these cones knocked on to the track in our session. So not nearly as bad as I've seen at Fontana where multiple cones were on the track in every session. But all it takes is one cone to wreak some havoc.

Regarding the crash, I want to thank the Learned's for building a super safe car. The Piper nose crushed as designed and absorbed a lot of the impact. The front of the frame has some damage, but the area around my feet was fully in tact and kept my feet and legs safe. All of the a-arms folded away nicely and nothing protruded in to the cockpit, even as the other car rotated around in to the left side of my car.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ric baribeault]

That was a really nice drive. You probably would've gotten by with some off roading if he'd stayed on the brakes. Always a tough decision either way.

[old 59]

That's a hard hit. Glad to hear you're both okay.

[beachguy12]

So, why was the original clip showing the impact modified resulting in removing the impact?

[BeerBudgetRacing]

So, why was the original clip showing the impact modified resulting in removing the impact?

See the thread you started:
http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77800

[beachguy12]

Actually, that version has also been edited as well.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Actually, that version has also been edited as well.

Correct. You asked WHY it was edited. In the thread brad said he didn't want to sensationalize the incident.

[teamfun]

I would have liked to see it again and see how the safety equipment did its job. I can understand not wanting to sensationalize it with a regular audience but many of us here rely on this equipment to keep us safe for exactly these sorts of incidents.

I was pretty damn happy to see them both fine at impound. However I think the whole group needs to clean up its act a bit - it wasn’t Brad's incident.

Skip Streets also caught it about 10:15 in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2blNjqBsk0Y&t=637s

[bhayes]

I would have liked to see it again and see how the safety equipment did its job. I can understand not wanting to sensationalize it with a regular audience but many of us here rely on this equipment to keep us safe for exactly these sorts of incidents.

Regarding safety equipment, everything worked exceptionally well for me.

Front nose: the front nose on the Piper is a carbon structure meant to crush and absorb impact. It did exactly that.

Body kevlar reinforcements: The Piper side body panels have kevlar reinforcements along the full length. After the initial impact, the car I hit spun around in to the left side of my car. My front left suspension was completely sheared off. There was some surface damage to the bodywork, but nothing made its way through in to the cockpit. The Kevlar did its job. And the design of the suspension arms with the anti-intrusion bars also surely helped.

Hans: In one frame of the video, you can see the straps to my hans are fully extended as my head moved forward on impact. I have always been a bit worried about this type of movement, as I have had neck surgery (fusion) which limits my neck flexibility a bit. But after the impact, my head was still attached, no signs of concussion, and not even a sore neck.

Bead seat/tight belts: I run a bead seat, and I also run my belts pretty tight. This combo also worked as expected. I stayed put. Harness held me in place, and also helped keep the Hans in place as well. The only pain I have had after this incident is a little pain at my tailbone. I think this was just from my back being compressed down in to the seat a bit during the impact.

One discovery that we made when inspecting the car back at the shop....I actually bent the momo steering wheel. So that gives a little perspective to the force of the impact.

Overall, everything worked well. Don't hesitate to spend a little extra money on good safety equipment. You never know when you are going to need it!

And I'm also glad that I was in a modern well engineered car. I'm super thrilled with how the Piper DL7 performed both before and during the incident! I've driven some other cars in my past that I'm sure would not have kept me as safe in this type of impact. We have a lot of repairs to make, but I'll be strapping back in to a Piper in time to get qualified for this years Runoffs.

If anyone has further questions about the safety aspects of this, let me know, and I'll be happy to share.

Thanks,
Brad


BradHayesRacing.com
Piper DL7

[teamfun]

Brad let me add that this Jeff/F5 (team fun was our old team) and I was right behind you when it happened. So I saw how the nose and footbox worked when we were in impound - impressive. I was most curious about the hans - so thank you for the explanation.