AU N EGL

"The instructor on previous run with blue student, Was pulled in for poor passing.

The Instructor has not been with club for a while and unaware of the passing signals. Control ( grid out ) also checked the car out and told them both (The Instructor and student) the tires were marginal.

The Instructor told Control he would take student out in next run group… Little did we know it would be The Instructor driving the students car and in the black group. Within minutes the crash occurred.

Instructor missed Drivers meeting

Hasn’t been on VIR since repaving

Wet conditions

Hit slick spot at speed ~+90MPH and lost it


Look ahead in the video

http://vimeo.com/4270534



The car:

Hot Turbo Mustang

2001 with <20K miles… Owner sleeps with it….

When we left Tuesday night…. Wondered how they were going to get it on a trailer today… Heading back to NJ.

Owner/Student – Friends took him out for drinks Monday night

Instructor – BOUGHT THE CAR

Loss – Priceless + $300 in VIR tire walls"

waddisme

When I was there Apr 2nd, it rained all day. With wet track, it seems like a good time to practice regaining control because speeds are not as fast. However, after seeing the Ferrari spin off the track and shearing the front bumper off, even though he wasn't going that fast, made me change my mind. On the other hand, I wasn't really that comfortable with the Active Handling, as the car didn't seemed to react the way you would expect.

I hate it for the owner though, especially seeing he wasn't driving.

L98Terror

Damn, that is not good

SIK02SS

video's still loading, but it sounds like the "instructor" never should have been allowed to instruct if he didn't know some basic to/not-to-do stuff...

JimbeauZ06

That looks eerily familiar. I was at VIR with PCA back in mid-March. 6 cars went off track the first day (Friday) in that same general area coming out of the esses around Turn 6. Saturday VIR posted a standing debris yellow all day at the T6 stand. Difference was rain and standing water, while the video looks like the track is dry?

My EBCM was out so I just practiced my line and just took it easy, but even with the debris flag there were more excursions Saturday and Sunday.

drivinhard

there was an "instructor" that totaled a student's SRT neon a few years ago at road atlanta.

generally speaking (IMHO) instructor driving students car =

if you want to learn by watching (which I love to do on new tracks) do it riding in the instructors car.

dvandentop

i can see some big puddles at the beginning of the S, looks like he hit that and tires got loose.

crazy for sure

spazegun2213

wow, i heard about this, I thought it was a stock mustang... the TT makes it not so slow....

I'm glad the instructor bought the car, but still there is no reason for that... and the instructor should not have missed the meeting

spazegun2213

for anyone that was out there for the ACNA event a friend of mine was there taking pictures

http://forums.quattroworld.com/midat...sgs/6634.phtml

Screamin Z

Reminds me of Road America last fall... I think 3 cars in one day?

A C6, C4 ZR1 and another silver car of sorts

Short-Throw

Tom,

Thanks for posting.

Sceamin Z,

If true, good to see the instructor took care of the damages. Not the desired outcome but at least he stepped up.

I feel an instructor should be willing to compensate an owner for damages if he drives a students car off the track. It is this reason I never drive a students car hard. It serves no purpose.

A mechanical failure is one thing, but driver error should not be a free walk.

This video also teaches to look way out and stay ahead of the car. The driver taking video did a nice job seeing it early enough.

Mike

Tintin

I never ever drove a student car - it just isn't smart. You are unfamiliar with it and weird stuff happens that costs a lot of money....

On another note, did they ban the guy with the camera in his car from all of their events for life? Stopping on the track for a minor incident indicates major stupidity... I wouldn't go on the track with this moron.... he was lucky not to get whacked by someone else.

AU N EGL

I dont know about that. I do know who he is, but took out his name from the post above.

and Tintin brings up a great point. Thanks

fej

I am not sure I would call tire wall tires rolling around on the track, a wrecked car, and miscellaneous car debris all sitting on the track a "minor" incident. The only clean line around it was off track, and this was not a "race" of any kind. Hopefully the spotters on track were doing their jobs and radioing in to flag people behind the incident. I can't fault the guy who took the video.

That being said, it was good that people trailing the incident were aware enough not to cause another incident

Fej

froggy47

Noob question,

What are the huge red & yellow lights on the dash of the "camera" car.

Look like taillights.

Screamin Z

Like ive heard Tom and many others say before at the HPDE's. The only trophy at the end of the day is taking your car home in one piece. Accidents do happen, when they do you can only hope for the saftey of the driver and passenger.

WBHighwind

I was wondering too.

I would like to be an instructor some day. Im not opposed to the idea of driving a students car if they let me, but it would only be for instructional purposes at a teaching speed. Something like 4/10ths. Partly because its good experience for me as well to see what the car is doing so that I can better instruct. I only have experience in my C5. Ive ridden in a 996T and an elise, so if I were to instruct a student I would feel better equipped if I drove at least a couple of laps easily.

wallyman424

==============

wallyman424

I'm almost certain that they would throw a red flag for an incident like that.

Short-Throw

Sounds reasonable, but if so, he didn't stop at the nearest corner station.

If you look at the 0:59 mark it seems the corner worker (on the right) was just starting to react but I can't make any flag out.