Mikelly

Today, While running in white run group with PCA on Summit Main, I hit a ground hog at over 135MPH on the front straight. Fortunately I only took out my splitter and my radiator...

Watch it out there at Summit... Lots of woods that should be taken out. I'm pretty much done there, with the conditions of the pavement and the continual animal strikes...

Mike

CHJ In Virginia

Glad that the damage was not any worse. In March running with CarGuys - I almost took out a deer at turn # 1. Scared the dookie out of me. By your remarks, I assume that Summit has not fixed the screwed up spots from their cheap out on the repaving job. Any fool knows that you can not apply blacktop over concrete and expect it to stick in extreme applications. It only will get worse !!

Aardwolf

Car kept going straight?

I was inches from a chipmunk this week at Road America, braking into turn eight. I had the quick thought that I REALLY hope he doesn't get stuck under the tire like a banana peel.

BEZ06

Holy Crap!!! Hitting ole Phil at 135 was bad luck!!

I think this can happen at a lot of these tracks. Below is a video from the NCM event at VIR in June. You don't have to watch long to see road kill on the track - it's at about 7 seconds into the video at the 100' remaining sign.

Coming into the brake zone for T1 I got the "debris on the track" flag and was looking for car parts or marbles from somebody going off, but saw a gray furball laying there in the middle of the track. I was going about 80 at that point, so I assume somebody else hit him going about that speed. I can imagine that the impact you had at 135 must have been a pretty good whack!!!

I guess you need to look out for these guys at a lot of our venues with any trees/woods around the track. I'll be running Daytona at a couple events this fall and that's a track I don't think these guys can get onto - but you never know!!

Bob


VIR Video Link


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63Corvette

MIkelly there used to be a big ole woodchuck who lay on the runoff area on the outside of the Carousel at Nelson Ledges. I used to runout just past him, and he would look up, but never moved. He had big ones. Hope he lived to a ripe old age

sothpaw2

Mike,

I actually wanted to avoid Sept. at Summit as that's when the Deer will be in heat and then they do really stupid things. I saw one cross the track in July though. Wish they would have hunt.

Sorry about your car, glad it's not worse.

Hope they repave it. Otherwise, with that NJ track starting up, a lot of people will stop doing Summit.

Maybe they will lower the costs because with the pavement like it is, it's less fun then before the repave & a lot less then when the repave was brand new (nice!!). I like the Main course a lot still but yearn for how it was newly paved.

cgh1

I just left Summit Point and we had deer, ground hogs, dogs, etc.

It was like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Track Kingdom!

Sorry to hear about the strike and glad that if it had to be it was as minor as it turned out.

Summit's a neat layout for a track but overall an armpit of a facility. There's limited runoff everywhere, the few restrooms they have are lame and relatively unserviced, trash pickup as all but non-existent and it seems that any event that's not a BSR military deal is treated as 2nd or 3rd class.

But hey - Marcia, the caterer ROCKS! Her food is awesome - especially the cookies! (www.thebestcookie.com)

Mikelly

They actually PULLED OUT the concrete, from what I was told this weekend, and filled in the spots with sub-standard base grade materials...

Here's the "other" thing about the paving job... It's normally $1M per MILE of heavy load asphault properly installed, materials, and labor... That track is over 2 miles and they paid just over $600K to pave it.

The place has always been "less than" great, from a facilities stand point, and will never be a VIR, but it's going down hill fast, and I'll run Shenandoah before I ever think about going back to Summit Main.

Mike

varkwso

A groundhog is tough. I have seen a deer strike at Roebling, saw a cat fall out underneath a car at CMP, dodged frogs and turtles at Hallet, and have seen deer beside many tracks. I am surprised more tracks do not have controlled hunts to keep the critters wary of humans.

For us deer are more of a threat driving to and from the tracks here in the SE.

AU N EGL

Had a deer jump out and run across the track at Autobaund ( Chicago) a week ago. Good thing it was 40 yards up the track. We kept looking for more to follow the first one.

Seen Deer, Turkeys and black snakes crossing the track at VIR.

johninar

Sorry about the car. It sure could have been much worse.

Does this mean 6 more weeks of Summer?

LJD51

Holy crap, Mike...glad to hear the damage wasn't more...it could have been a lot worse. I guess we better what we talk about during down time between sessions from now on, huh?

sothpaw2

?? They pulled out the concrete last year when they did the paving job or in the last few weeks to repair???

Cheaping out on the repave was a lot less wise then just not repaving would have been. It's worse now then before.

Do you know that BSR up'd the FATT cost 10% this year? When I was doing my scheduling, I ended up going with P clubs, NVCC, & TrackDaze because they were so much more cost effective for the track time then a FATT with the increase.

The should have been saving all that $$ for a very good repave. Like you said, they don't spend it on new toilets.

SHOCheapRacing

6 or 7 years ago we had to dodge a turkey on the track at Summit. If it was closer to Thanksgiving I may not have swerved.....

Mikelly

I was told they took out the concrete when they repaved it last fall. I hate the FATT format and won't go back to a FATT there... I'll do SeatTime events, but no FATTs... And for my money (doesn't matter what you drive) pca events are as cheap as it gets... Three days for $325 this weekend at Summit Main.

Mike

JaGsC5

You mean they still have not fixed the track? The pavement starting coming up in May?

BuckeyeZ06

This reminds me of a story I was told last year about Sebring:

This driver was learning the track and was using a rock as a brake marker for one turn. His lap times were getting faster and faster until one lap he lost it going into the turn with the rock brake marker. It turned out the "rock" was actually a turtle that was slowly (is there a fast turtle?) walking closer to the corner, causing the driver to brake later and later going into the turn, until it was too late!

Another one: do you now why Mid Ohio does not allow pets at the track? Once a few years ago a dog attacked a police horse (think mounted police) and the horse threw its rider and he broke a few bones. After that...no more dogs. When told this story today at the track my first reaction was "mounted police?" Yes, at big races (IRL, etc) they are there and put to good use.

Mike: I do think you need to have a hunting license to kill groundhogs in WV, right?

AU N EGL

BSR the owner of Summit Point makes a lot of money from Military contracts for Security training grounds. Any money made from track rental is so small that it does not add up to much.

gfacter

Speaking of Summit, I was at the Redline Time Attack event Saturday instructing.

It's the fast and furious crowd on a road course...

It was a complete cluster fkuk. Sunday was even worse I hear.

Gray Ghost GS

I share the same sentiments! Not worth my time, money and wear on the car.