Pacific Raceway outside of Seattle Washington is a nice facility with a drag strip and a road course that get used as frequently as possible. The SCCA races on the road course and the NHRA has made Pacific Raceway one of their yearly tour stops for what seems like decades now. There’s lots of greenery out there with tall trees and a natural setting that is tough to find at most other tracks. That being said, when you are racing a car, you never want to have a clear view of the treetops because that means something has gone drastically wrong and in this video something does go drastically wrong for the driver of the Honda we’re riding in.
Back when I was in the SCCA racing world, people would rib us (particularly my drag racing friends) because we raced and old VW Rabbit that didn’t make a whole lot of hp. As you will see in this video, the Honda we’re riding in can clip along at about 120 on the main straight and it has plenty of zip for a little car. Such was the case with our VW and frankly, it is always easier to find trouble on the road course than on the drag strip because you have other people of varying skill levels trying to pass you or refusing to be passed by you that throw a wrench into the works sometimes.
In this case, the driver of the Honda was coming into a blind portion of the race track and he was making some pretty good steam. As he crests a hill and heads into a left hand turn, he can see smoke from a driver locking up the tires and the cars around him start to stack up. He picks the one piece of daylight that he can see and as he is heading for it, another guy just closes the door on him. This sends our man in the Honda off the course, up and embankment, and into a barrel roll wreck that sees him landing on the wheels , right side up.
We’re not sure there was anything this guy could have done differently to being on a less damaging outcome, what do you think?
SKIP TO 3:50 TO GET RIGHT INTO THE WRECK —- AGAIN, SKIP TO 3:50 FOR WRECK ACTION –
Sky. Ground. Ouch.
Sky. Ground. Ouch.
Repeat until stopped.
Don’t see much else the driver could have done to miss this. Everyone was trying to avoid smacking somebody else in the ass, and there ain’t room for everybody.
Exactly why I stick to AutoX. I CAN ONLY KILL CONES!!!
He’s lucky to not go over that dirt back on the right side. Lots of trees that would have shredded his car real bad. Looked like the dip shit brake checked the car in front of him.
Car directly in front wasn’t paying attention. He got screwed.
Avoidable contact. Hondaman seemingly had the wrong gearing for the long straight, which put him behind the Chevy in the first place.
But then, when the front car locked up for some unexplained reason (mechanical failure?), Hondaman only momentarily lifted (look at the tach and the brake light) and went for the easy pass, instead of braking hard. (Watch the brake light . . . Hondaman checks ’em right when the incident starts (indicates he recognized a problem), but doesn’t get back on ’em again until the Chevy pops out.
Chevyman was at fault as well, but it was foreseeable that he’d pop out instead of hitting the car in front.
Of course we have no idea who was climbing up the backside of Hondaman, nor is it fair to armchair quarterback from a recording when we know what’s about to happen.
very well said!!!