Everett Ogilvie

I don't recall if I mentioned that a large Coyote ran across the track right in front of me at Road America, between the carousel and the kink. We were probably going at least 100mph and I got on the binders pretty hard because I was going straight. Mike was riding along and I am sure he thought "what the hell?" more due to me hitting the brakes, instead of the presence of the Coyote (still not sure if he even saw it, it was gone in a flash).

I know that everyone tells you to hit the animal rather than risk upsetting the car, but for me it always comes down to the specifics of the situation. First, because it was a pretty big animal I did not want to do considerable damage to the carbon fiber front end of the car, and my estimate was based on the trajectory he was on and the distance between us. I guessed that with some hard brief braking we would miss each other, which we did. It all happened so quickly that now it hardly seems like it happened, but I guess wildlife is fairly common at some tracks.

SLandstra_Z06

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/h...hoto/cyote.jpg

Could have looked something like this....

ZoomFreakinZoom

We had a test day at Road Atlanta about a year ago.... Nic Jonsson hit a deer on the back straight just before T9 doing about 180 in the Krohn DP car. It hit hard enough it totaled the car. I've seen deer on track and also had a big armadillo run in front of me at Infineon. It happens sometimes. After Nic's accident, the Krohn guys put a shotgun rack in the trailer, just as a joke, saying next time they are going to put on in the car .

AU N EGL

many many Turkeys at VIR Birds too.

TmillerC5

I was right behind you in that session in a red vette. I saw the coyote/wolf too. He shot across the track pretty fast, but that could have been ugly. Ran into a bird a little later in the session right after the kink, but no damage

Everett Ogilvie

Wow, glad I am not the only one that saw it. Now that I think about it, it was not the light colors we see on Coyotes out west - it was considerably darker. Because it was big and dark, I wonder if it was indeed a wolf.

Short-Throw

Everett was afraid of the kink and we went through there at 20 mph. The Coyote is a made up story to cover up. May has well been a dinosaur out there.

UstaB-GS549

Everett: Tough crowd you hang with...

GT Racing Tires

loL, Dinosaur's are everywhere at RA!!

Short-Throw

All right, all kidding aside, I did not see the coyote until after Everett hit the brakes. After asking the h@ck he was doing, I saw it on the left side debating suicide. He did a great job of keeping the color scheme of the Mosler sans blood and fur.

Everett Ogilvie

Now I'm not sure what I saw;

Short-Throw

brkntrxn

We had to black flag a session at CMP a couple of years ago due to two dogs chasing a deer in and out of the woods in the T1-8 complex. The corner workers and some volunteers had to walk through the woods to chase the trio out of the track.


-Kevin

Git Er Dun

Last weekend Ron (LawDog) hit a turtle on the exit of a tough turn at Brainerd (Turn 3). He said he tried to miss it but the car couldn't turn in anymore and he felt the bumps as he went over it.

Brainerd usually has a decent amount of wildlife. I've seen a deer a decent way up from me hop across the front straight. In the morning they always drive the track looking for deer or other animals. I've also passed ducks crossing the road in turn 2 which is about a 130mph turn.

Crankedupforit

That's pretty scary Everett. That stretch between the kink and 12 seems to be a wildlife preserve. Once I was driving with an instructor when a racoon staggered onto the track. The instructor, not knowing how I would react ,absolutely freaked out fearing I would drop anchor and send us into a spin. We were in a pretty bad spot rolling out of the kink full throttle with no time to avoid him. We luckily passed him at about 120 and I swear he was inches from us as we blasted by him. My instructor aged about 5 years.

Screamin Z

At the PCA event at VIR a couple weeks ago one of the track workers said they spotted a bear in the paddoc area before they opened the gates.