Big ALMS crash at VIR

Did anyone see this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfvu29GMv8c

Yay for well built cages!

I can't imagine the reaction of the camera man in about an hour when he sees the replay. Especially the one that shows him NOT looking at the car that almost lands on him.

Wow... Modern safety equipment is amazing...

Now, what the berk happened? I'm going to assume the guy on the inside isn't a hatchet-wielding psychopath 'til I hear otherwise, so what caused the contact-turned-lunge-to-the-right?

got diaper?

I love the female in the gazeebo with her back to the racing turning just in time to see airborne 911. WTF was she doing there?

In reply to Javelin:

Looking for accidents down stream of the location- exactly what corner workers do. One looks up stream, another looks down. If she sees an accident, she can tell the flagger to wave, and she can keep looking at it for developments.

Javelin wrote: I love the female in the gazeebo with her back to the racing turning just in time to see airborne 911. WTF was she doing there?

My first thought was that she was a flagger looking down track, but she's not wearing typical corner station wear.

Props to the orange car for TOTALLY sticking the landing.

mndsm wrote: Props to the orange car for TOTALLY sticking the landing.

This.

But what the hell was going on? Any idea of the cause?

In reply to N Sperlo:

Two guys after the same piece of real estate......seems normal.

In reply to yamaha:

But why the hard right turn at contact?

They didn't seem to hit that hard really, but the white car kind of kept pushing after the initial bump and the orange car responded by locking the brakes which scrubbed zero speed and allowed for absolutely no control. All armchair quarterbacking of course.

Looked pretty simple to me.

Inside car was trying to go out a bit wider so as not to completely Berkeley his corner entry and didn't realize the other guy was right on his hip.

yamaha wrote: In reply to N Sperlo: Two guys after the same piece of real estate......seems normal.

I guess the total loss of traction combined with the speed just made it look suspicious.

z31maniac wrote: Looked pretty simple to me. Inside car was trying to go out a bit wider so as not to completely Berkeley his corner entry and didn't realize the other guy was right on his hip.

That's all it is. The Porsche on the inside is in a faster class, too, so he wouldn't be expecting the other Porsche to fight him through the turn (which would slow them both down more than if the slower one breathed it on the straight and tucked in behind the faster car). Just a racing incident, albeit one with more severe consequences. I was watching live and I really did fear the worst when I saw that roof...

scardeal wrote:

Javelin wrote: I love the female in the gazeebo with her back to the racing turning just in time to see airborne 911. WTF was she doing there?

My first thought was that she was a flagger looking down track, but she's not wearing typical corner station wear.

White clothing and a radio? Though not long sleeves, which I thought was a requirement, though I could be wrong. Scroll down to the comments on the youtube page-- she says she was working the corner.

Basil Exposition wrote:

scardeal wrote:

Javelin wrote: I love the female in the gazeebo with her back to the racing turning just in time to see airborne 911. WTF was she doing there?

My first thought was that she was a flagger looking down track, but she's not wearing typical corner station wear.

White clothing and a radio? Though not long sleeves, which I thought was a requirement, though I could be wrong. Scroll down to the comments on the youtube page-- she says she was working the corner.

I have no idea where on the track that pavilion is or it's orientation, but unless the course curves back around 180 degrees aft of their position, she wasn't looking down the track. She should be looking right at the camera guy basically for downstream trouble. (I think)

In reply to Javelin:

I gonna say she was doing her job just fine.

Javelin wrote: I have no idea where on the track that pavilion is or it's orientation, but unless the course curves back around 180 degrees aft of their position, she wasn't looking down the track. She should be looking right at the camera guy basically for downstream trouble. (I think)

It is the climbing esses - they do sortof wrap around the flag station before going over the crest and down to the left. It's hard to tell but it looks like she was watching the 2nd kink which should be right in front of her but with the camera angle it's tough to tell.

N Sperlo wrote:

mndsm wrote: Props to the orange car for TOTALLY sticking the landing.

This. But what the hell was going on? Any idea of the cause?

two cars in different classes (fairly large difference in speed) ...the faster one wanted to get past so he wouldn't have to follow the slower up the single line up-hill esses ... the slower was running his race and didn't just automatically give way to the faster car .... contact ensued

Looks like 3 workers in the corner, she may have been on break, watching for fans trying to get a better picture by jumping the fence, or any other number of things.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Javelin wrote: I have no idea where on the track that pavilion is or it's orientation, but unless the course curves back around 180 degrees aft of their position, she wasn't looking down the track. She should be looking right at the camera guy basically for downstream trouble. (I think)

It is the climbing esses - they do sortof wrap around the flag station before going over the crest and down to the right. It's hard to tell but it looks like she was watching the 2nd kink which should be right in front of her but with the camera angle it's tough to tell.

Watching the gif in the post right above yours makes me think she's looking basically at the far away tire wall where the course comes back around?

The comment below yours about watching the stands for enterprising fans does make a lot of sense, too, though.

Thanks for the lessons!

mndsm wrote: Props to the orange car for TOTALLY sticking the landing.

I hate to say it but is that really a safe place to put corner workers? Some times I really wonder about how some tracks are designed and where they palace corner workers. I realize that nothing short of being in another zipcode from a track is really "safe" but to me that looks like you are putting the corner workers in harms way. I have never been to VIR so I don't know that set of corners and you don't really get a good cense space / distance from the video but that video proved that cars can get to the corner workers and that is good enough for me to think that they should re think that corner worker station.

Regarding that accident. It really did not bother me all that much. No sudden stops made by the cars so once again although it was spectacular the dissipation of energy over a long period of time makes me assume that the drivers would be ok (and they were as I saw at the end).