Random Thoughts... (Motorsports Edition)

Well, it turns out my ankle fracture is not as simple as initially though, so I'm stuck at home for 2 months :(
 
A young girl in our class had a pretty bad accident. The instructors said it was the worst they'd ever seen at Laguna, in Skip Barber cars. This was the first time they had to call a helicopter to take someone out.

Basically, we were doing downshifting drills. This was one the first day, after about an hour of autocross. The drill was pretty simple, just a little different. The cars would drive backwards out of pit lane, around that extremely tight entrance, then make a left at pit-in and go the regular direction through 11 and down the front stretch to turn 2, which had another braking zone for downshifts, then slowly through turn 2 and left into the pit exit, then backwards down the pit lane again into another braking zone (conservatively placed away from the tight pit entrance).

This 15 year old girl somehow missed the braking zone. Maybe she missed it, maybe she put the clutch in, maybe she had full throttle and brake at the same time, who knows.

She hit the wall, in a spot with no tire barriers, going at a decent clip. Her belts were also loose, so her helmet hit the steering wheel.

The poor kid broke her ankle, her jaw, and lost her front teeth (the helmet strap must have been loose too). I knew it was really bad when one of the crew made a radio call, and I heard her screaming through the radio.

Put a big damper on the rest of the day, and was in the back of everyone's mind for the rest of the school.

I'll put details up about the actual school and onboard videos tomorrow.
 
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Ouch, that sounds pretty bad :|
 
Holy cow... why was her seatbelt and other safety equipment poorly done? I mean even at low speeds these things are very dangerous as it's plain to see
 
erm...shouldn't her gear be checked before she was allowed on the track?
Hope she gets well soon.
 
What surprises me even more is that they use part of the track/pitlane in reverse direction without proper runoff/airfences.
 
It's just a very unfortunate situation all around.

The rest of the school went by without a hitch though. I got some good footage:

[video=youtube;Sk-RECJHkxQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk-RECJHkxQ[/video]

 
Here's the new Austin grand prix track.

20057573_622158_530233c.jpg


The layout looks... bland.

http://www.statesman.com/sports/formula1/promoter-unveils-f1-track-layout-890582.html

Austin's Formula One race track will be fast, have a signature start, pay homage to some of the world's best Grand Prix circuits and offer plenty of good sight lines for fans, according to race promoter Tavo Hellmund.

Ah, that's why.

There's no more originality.

130 feet of elevation change isn't even that much. Infineon has 160. Nurburgring has about 160. Laguna has 300. Spa has 340.

VIR has 130 so expect similar.
 
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Haha, every single article I've seen on that this morning has "pays homage to" in there somewhere. I would've liked to see some more different stuff in there, too.

Not that a lack of originality matters too much...I still want to take the Failtima on it for the lulz.
 
Pirrelli have the toyota F1 car, why would they need a GP2 car (unless pirrelli have the Gp2 contract as well)

Correct, Giorgio Pantano is doing testing for both Pirelli and GP2 for the new car and new tires, and Heidfeld is doing just tire testing for Pirelli's F1 tires in last year's F1 Toyota.
 
Ahh, in that case, Dear Dallara:

Please dont emulate F1 this time. Please continue along the previous car's lines. GP2 doesn't need to copy F1's ugly designs, the racing is great as is.



P.s I know the idea is for the GP2 car to feel more like modern F1 cars (well i presume anyway), but this will feel like the end of classic formula car design. Oh well, we still have F3 and below
 
That Renault is beautiful :jawdrop:
 
Damon Hill just got interviewed on TV at the BTCC event at Donnington, he was with his son Josh who is racing Formula Fords.

Josh Hill has had two race wins at the event and wears the same helmet colour scheme as his granddad, former F1 World Champion Graham and his dad, also a former F1 World Champion.

I wonder if he will ever get an F1 drive and be any good?
:)
 
Josh Hill's overtake on the final corner in one race was sublime!
 
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