Over the past couple weeks we have featured some great driving work in the form of drag cars being dragged back from the brink of wreckage by their drivers. Well, just to show you that not all of these situations end up in the favor of the driver, here’s a clip from Gimli Dragway up in Manitoba, Canada. As you will see in the video, the car does not launch right and rather than lift, the driver decides that he is going to drive the car. That was unfortunately not the right call because despite a heroic effort, the little Opel GT ends up on the roof. That being said, the guy almost saved it and we didn’t think he had any shot at all.
While it is tough to tell in the video, it seems like the car lands with the wheels turned to the left when the front end touches down from the wheelstand that had it careening toward the centerline of the track. Right off the hit of the throttle the car was heading in the wrong direction and while it is easy to sit here and armchair QB the situation, if the driver would have just shut the car off and coasted at that point he would have been fine. We get it though. You are in the heat of the moment, battling down the track, adrenaline is pumping, and the only thing on your mind if getting down ahead of the other guy.
It is not often you see a car get up on the same pair of wheels TWICE in the same run, but it sure did here!
Pull your belts right and press play!
Your version of what happened isn\’t actual. On the launch one of the heim-ends on the 4-bar pulled out,causing him to take off to the right. He did lift,but as he tried to bring it back the backend kicked out causing the car to turn sideways. He almost had it. Was almost stopped, then like in slow motion it wiggle/wobbled side to side then rolled over on it\’s roof and slid to a stop. (driver un-injured).
I was the announcer that day watched the entire event unfold.
Being that the Opels are very short and narrow they can be a hand full at the best of times. The driver in this case was a very experienced one have raced for over 20 yrs. with the same car.