GT Mayhem in the wet...

I know driving in the wet is supposed to sort the men from the boys, but looking at the video from the link forwarded to me below, I can't quite help wondering whether it also identifies the idiots too. No offense meant to anyone that was involved, but hell, they just kept piling in.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JGTUxsv_bQ

Comments?

I hadn't realised that "Richard Head" was still competing at that level.
Cheers
Mike

That marshal/corner worker is damn lucky to live! Mayhem indeed!

It's seems pretty obvious to me that there was that much water on the track that the cars just aquaplaned. Probably a minor "river" running across the track near the exit to the corner. One minute you're in reasonable control in the wet, the next you encounter an unexpected "river". Totally different to a normal wet track. Even if you slow down to half racing speed because of waved yellows (if you could see them anyway in the conditions) you will still aquaplane. Once that happens you're just a passenger anyway......

Cheers

Wet track and all the tyres in the last few seconds of the clip were slicks - a sure way to lose cars

Ian

Russ,
In my limited experience of wet weather racing it seems that if you can drive hard enough to keep the tyres up to temperature then you can maintain an acceptable level of control, that video indicated a very wet day and tyre temps may never have been acheived, the river across track syndrome is something that you simply cant deal with, Winton has a corner as you approach the main straight that is notorious for its river !
You are right about being a passenger once things let go in the wet, I lost it at Phillip Island a couple of years ago and travelled about 200meters backwards on the grass at a section called "Haystacks" It was a sureal moment as cars were passing me on the track as I sailed serenley backwards, my Motec logger showed my speed as I left the tarmac as 180kmph, I felt extreemly lucky to survive

Iain

IanAnderson said:

Wet track and all the tyres in the last few seconds of the clip were slicks - a sure way to lose cars

Ian

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hmmm - I did'nt spot that Ian, but on slicks with what must have been one hell of a downpour I can easily see it would be a skating ring.

I can remember competing at the Isle-of-Man on Lherghy Frissell when there was a sudden rainfall on my way up in Dave Parker's R42 on Slicks.. It sure focuses the mind and I well remember aquaplaning on the way up at about 70mph - steering goes light, you sort of freeze and everything goes in slow motion, when in fact it probably happens in a split second.

Still, the journey down was even stranger, travelling back down in convoy, at about 25-30 mph, just down from 'gooseneck' and the R42 just snaps 90 degrees sideways. All I can see is flint wall passing across the windscreen in front and through the side window, I can see me approaching the back of Andrew Fordyce's GTD40, which I think had Roy Wing in it at the time. Fortunately it came back round in time and I collided with nothing, but I certainly was'nt going up again on slicks....!

Martin Weigold was following me down I think (on treaded tyres) and said it looked most strange afterwards, not as strange as it felt, believe me!

ps - Iain - just re-read your post and hell, 180Kmh backwards, now that sounds really scary!!!

Two Saleen S7s taking each other out is one of the saddest things I've ever seen. It looks like the weather cleared up by later in the video. Doesn't seem worth it to what, stay on a race schedule.

Iain Pretty said:

Russ,
In my limited experience of wet weather racing it seems that if you can drive hard enough to keep the tyres up to temperature then you can maintain an acceptable level of control, that video indicated a very wet day and tyre temps may never have been acheived, the river across track syndrome is something that you simply cant deal with, Winton has a corner as you approach the main straight that is notorious for its river !
You are right about being a passenger once things let go in the wet, I lost it at Phillip Island a couple of years ago and travelled about 200meters backwards on the grass at a section called "Haystacks" It was a sureal moment as cars were passing me on the track as I sailed serenley backwards, my Motec logger showed my speed as I left the tarmac as 180kmph, I felt extreemly lucky to survive

Iain

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You're right Iain, you've got to push hard in the wet to maintain temperatures. The effort is well worth while and you have to be constantly exploring the limits. I love the wet! It's the great leveller!

I particularly remember one race in my TR7V8, I qualified 9th fastest in the dry. As we assembled on the dummy grid it really hosed down. A veritable tropical storm, water everywhere. We were sent out and given two warm up laps instead of one, to familiarize ourselves with conditions. Most cars, including myself were on DOT race tyres. On the first warmup lap coming onto the start/finish straight I found one of these 'rivers'...... The track at that point is very narrow with armco on the edge of the seal and I became a passenger at maybe 100mph. The car went around seven times and a 240z just behind me went around four times.

We pirouetted down the track in tandem. Very spectacular and graceful, apparently. I remember having time to think 'when am I going to stop spinning...? When am I going to hit something....?' Neither of us had contact with anything and continued on. All this action was captured by a following Porker pilot with carcam.

On the second warmup lap I was seriously debating whether to pull into the pits instead of lining up on the grid, conditions were just so bloody dangerous. However I decided I needed to toughen up mentally and so formed up on grid 9. I went on to set fastest lap as I worked my way through to finish 2nd. Very stimulating, once you know where the rivers are you can cope with them. Just means you have to line youself up to go over them straight and hope you come out straightish on the other side! It's when you don't know they're there that you get caught out....Or if you catch a puddle on one side only. That can turn you around pretty quickly.....Never a dull moment in motorsport, I think that's why we do it.....

Cheers

Sound scary Russ, I dug out some video clips from the Phillip Island race If I can work out how to post on you tube I will share my moment

Iain

Here is the other extreme in rain driving talent

Rain Heroes on Vimeo

dmairspotter said:

Here is the other extreme in rain driving talent

Rain Heroes on Vimeo

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You're not wrong there!! - very impressive how they managed to avoid contact on several occasions. Definately not for the feint hearted.