CHJ In Virginia

I attended and ran the NASA Hyperfest event this weekend at Summit Point Main circuit. Friday and Saturday we had two on track instances of car contact with the area wildlife one mild and one severe. Just a reminder that your track situational awareness must extend beyond the racing surface.
Friday during an open track session we had a mild squirel contact with a Zo6 about 4 cars ahead of me. Rodent ran on track, got squished and spread on the apex of turn 4 leading into the shute. Guts and blood do not make for good traction. The corner workers were good with the "Debris" flag. No car damage, just a slippery driving surface. Earlier in another session a large ground hog ambled across the track but avoided contact.
Saturday morning was a different story. In the instructor run session a black Zo6 hit a deer running from the infield across the track. Driver was just hitting the braking zone on the front straight going into turn one in excess of 100 MPH. Caught the deer on the right front and it rolled up and came through the windshield. Front fascia, right quarter, hood and windshield were destroyed. Driver was not injured, but but got sprayed with a million glass fragments from the windshield. Car is a mess but not totaled. Sorry - no pics, maybe another member can add some to the post.
Two major lessons to be learned here - 1) Keep your situational awareness up at all times on track and to the sides ! 2) Wear a full face helmet and pull the visor DOWN - it's your eyes !!!

John Shiels

RIP Rocky!

Bill Dearborn

Yep, can happen at a lot of tracks. I think they had a deer jump on the track at Pocono 10 or 15 years ago during one of the NASCAR Cup Races. A number of groups that run at the Glen warn about wild life (mainly wood chucks and deer) showing up on the track. The flaggers even have a hand signal for wild life. Hands and fingers raised up to the head like antlers. Problem is the guard rails are high and the vegetation is close to them in some areas of the track so you can have one jump over the rail right onto your car and never see it until it crashes through the windshield.

Bill

gbvette62

We were just laughing about the "antlers" signal last weekend, at The Glen. Fortunately, it wasn't needed.

Pocono and Summit, are notorious for wildlife, roaming the tracks.

JeremyGSU

I've been doing track events since 2002, steady since 2005 and this happens every event. Now that I'm instructing I get some of those students myself or I get a level headed guy.

As for animals, I was at a Chin event at Roebling Road once when a guy plowed a deer on the front straight in a Boxter doing 120. The deer flew up in the air and a Z06 right behind him went under the deer before it landed on the track.

The damage wasn't as bad as you think but it was hairy for the guy I'm sure. Mostly the hood/windshield were screwed.

AU N EGL

Deer, Turkeys and Turtles at VIR

jlutherva

and geese!!!!!

BERETTA

Scary stuff! Video Posted in the NASA Forums--
http://www.nasaforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=58270

ZipZap

On Friday, there was a dead squirrel at the exact turn in point for T4. I laughed thinking about "turn right at the squirrel"

Here's the deer carnage from Saturday.

03threefiftyz

Pretty startling....

vms4evr

I was in the Z06 that went under the flying deer the Boxter hit. That was interesting to say the least.

gfacter

I was a few hundred yards behind this the deer strike on Sat, maybe around the start finish line. I saw parts flying and thought maybe 2 cars made contact.

Didn't find out it was a deer strike till later.

Glad the driver is OK.

...Lowers visor....

Wicked Weasel

WGI - woodchuck

Spring mountain I chased a road runner.

grantar2

Since no one was hurt I can say this, but you would think that tracks that NASCAR runs on would be depleted of wildlife. Sounds like a deer, turkey and vermin season is needed to keep the local population down.

Don Keefhardt

~15 years ago at Summit Point, had a cow (full-sized, black & white, moo....etc) appear on track during the night portion of an enduro....it was strolling, counter race, down the white line on the left-hand edge of the track at the far end of the front straight. 700-900lb. cow. Oh joy. Call on the radios from the race cars were pretty strange at first...."Cow ?"..."As in Elsie ?"...it all led to an early checker (it was about 11pm, and we were ~10 minutes before the scheduled checker).

It ambled off into the orchards, and we never got an explanation of where it went.

A few years later, Herb the Mighty took a turkey thru the windshield just past the bridge, as he approached T10, during a 12 Hour enduro. Blew the whole windshield out...but Herb just stayed out (like a good enduro driver) until they finally black flagged him. Turkey was still in the passenger side. Guts & feathers everywhere.

2K3Z06

freaking stupid deer. I almost hit one 4 months ago, while landing at a country airport. one of things that never comes up in the preflight/drivers breifing.

gotta feel for the guy in the black zo6. bum luck.

MazdaRob

My buddy was driving the Z06 right behind him.

Oh him VMS4evr

sebdavid

The story made Autoblog...
http://ca.autoblog.com/2012/06/18/co...deer-on-track/

Video is eye-opening; the deer seems to materialize out of thin air. No way you could see this coming. I run a full face with the visor down; things like this prove me right.

96CollectorSport

The stats don't lie -

Clip from United Stats of America on History Channel -

http://youtu.be/Y0jk7QQqI8Q

mgarfias

I nailed a deer on the street last oct. Mine looks like the black c5z above, except for the hole in the windshield.