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Tag Archives: accident

Brands Hatch – How it looked from my seat (Race 2)

08 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

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Tags

accident, brands hatch, crash, formula vee, marshals, race, report

jh 1

And then came the crash…

Race 2

My usual start took me forward a few rows and the car felt good, although still lacking power.

I was still in ‘safety’ mode so not trying anything daft, and I’d got myself into a pack of about nine cars, so that took a bit of restraint. I’d taken to dropping to third gear for Paddock as the engine seemed to handle the revs ok, and I was still getting that flat spot in fourth.

Neil Aldridge had an absolutely terrible lap and dropped right from the front of our pack and I had a great run on him into Paddock around the outside.

As I’d committed, Vaughn Jones cut from the outside line to the inside to make a move on the cars ahead, and spun on the inside of the corner just ahead of Neil.

I saw all of this and moved another cars width to the left so that I was right on the edge of the track and Neil had plenty of room to also move left as Vaughn’s spin took him across the track.

Unfortunately Vaughn either clipped Neil or he had to dive left more to avoid him, and I was directly alongside and going past.

crash a

Neil sideswiped me wheel to wheel, causing us both to spin with him now in the gravel.

I could hear his throttle fully open as he slammed into me again, his airborne rear wheel ripping a hole through the aluminium side panel inches from my head, this hard impact sending me off at a tangent across the track to the infield.

crash c

I was on the grass with the engine still running, looking very carefully at my right rear wheel where it felt like the main impact had been.

I knew the front would be bent, so wasn’t paying much attention to it as I eased the car forwards, and it was heading in a straightish line. I cruised up to Druids and was starting to think I could crawl around and pick up points, until I dabbed the brakes and the car slewed left and over the gravel.

I knew it was race over for me, and remembering how they’d red flagged qualifying when Bill Garner pulled off at that exact spot I was eager to get the car to a safe place where they wouldn’t stop the race.

I pointed left towards the marshal post and a group of marshals there were signalling crossing their hands in front of them in the ‘no’ gesture, so I pointed to the right, to the infield of the hairpin to a dirt road that would take me behind the barrier.

I should note that all this time I couldn’t see behind me, as the crest of the road meant all I could see was the top of Paddock Hill, 300+ metres away, so there was no way I could make out any cars. Everything else was hidden in the dip.

Still pointing to the infield, I looked at the marshals who were pointing repeatedly to the spot I was looking to go.

point

I gave a jab of throttle and crossed the track and into the refuge area – but as I ran up the curb on the infield I saw the pack stream past me in my mirrors. Close. VERY close.

I was fuming.

You can hear me, dripping with sarcastic rage, say “I don’t think they should have told me to do that!”, before getting out and stropping around a bit, moaning to the spectators about what had just happened.

SJN Photography miserable

A red flag came out for Neil and the marshals came over to help me.

I asked why they’d told me to cross the track when the leaders were that close and they told me they’d been saying “No – don’t go!” and were actually pointing to the approaching pack of cars and not telling me to go…

So we’d simply miscommunicated – not surprising as there are no pre-arranged hand signals between us, and, as demonstrated here, it could all be misinterpreted. I shouldn’t have used the marshals as my eyes when I couldn’t see – they already do a hard enough job and I shouldn’t have assumed we were on the same wave length.

It’s definitely not their fault, and do a brilliant job keeping us safe.

I also realise that this incident will look Very Bad to everyone, and on the TV coverage, so wanted to at least get my side of things across! Another lesson learned, and luckily no harm done.

I’ll do a separate damage report, but we do still hope to make Croft.

Thanks for sticking with this very long write-up!

IMG_20180421_134226

Warts and all: My Donington crash…

17 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Technique, Uncategorized

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Tags

accident, cold tyres, crash footage, formula vee, mistake, onboard video, oops

Warts and all: My Donington crash…

buxton202_zpsl8eplizd

You may have noticed a distinct lack of footage from my qualifying ‘incident’ at Donington.

I’ve already made it clear it was totally my mistake, and I was an idiot – even if you can put a lot of that down to inexperience and/or bad luck.  But there is a problem with onboard footage, sometimes…

You may remember a video from a few years back where a Porsche 944 driver got crucified after seemingly pushing another car into the pit wall at Cadwell Park?  Everyone wanted his blood, but a few voices pointed out that the 944 could just as easily have been trying to pull into the pits, and it was all a totally innocent mistake.  The point is, the camera won’t always show you the truth.

We are all competitive on track, and all want to win – but (I hope) it would be extremey rare that any of us want to actually make anyone else crash.  It’s expensive, won’t win you any friends, and people can die.

When I looked back over my footage of that first lap of qualifying, the camera shows I dived up the inside of Buxton in an impossible move, and took him out.

Of course, I know this isn’t what happened, but without having you feel that I was at maximum braking trying my best just not to hit Buxton, it doesn’t look good. 

Then there’s the adrenalin factor – when you’re on track everything happens slowly and you just react to it.  Looking back at the footage it’s not always clear that you did have time to assess the situation – in this case that I wasn’t going to stop in time, so angled the car hoping I’d pull it all up before I even got to the corner.

Anyway, I promised you warts and all on this blog, and the fact is I should have braked earlier or got my tyres up to temp sooner, and this wouldn’t have happened.

So here’s the full onboard camera footage from that lap:

I love Donington Park – but it hates me!

21 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Rules & Regulations, Uncategorized

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Tags

2016, accident, clerk of course, crash, donington park, formula vee, gravel trap

I love Donington Park – but it hates me!

So far at Donington I’ve managed 3 corners before the engine seized in my first ever Vee drive, qualified badly after a spin losing my fastest lap plus my last one, caught a few feet of air in a crash and demolished my wrist in the first race, and then ran out of petrol whilst flying in the second race.

So this year had to yeild a bit of luck, right?

I’ve never done the National track layout before, so studied many hours of onboard footage to find braking and turning points, and decided to dial them right back to get my required 3 minimum safe laps in to qualify.

I cruised out onto the track, easing back into things as I tried to get a feel for some of the changes we’ve made to rear ride height on the car over Winter, and to just generally get my head back into driving a racecar.

Straight away I was moving past people not yet even thinking about getting my tyres up to temperature on the out-lap. I came onto the back straight and as we approached my newly learned braking zone, Ian Buxton passed me, I hit the brakes nice and early to follow him through the chicane, but as soon as he slammed on his brakes in front of me I knew I was in trouble.

Maybe he’d got his tyres and brakes up to temperature, but I could tell there was no way I was possibly going to stop before I smashed into the back of him. I was at that ‘floaty’ point on the brakes – after exceeding traction but before locking up (which is where you want to be on a fast lap on the limit) – but maximum braking is pretty useless when your overall traction levels are about half what they should be.

I threw the car to the right hoping I could pull it up before he came across on the racing line, or hoping he’d run wide himself, but Buxton didn’t stand much chance and my left front hit his side, spinning him around as I carried us both deep into the gravel trap… Not even one lap completed.

Understandably, he wasn’t impressed, and probably assumed I’d made a crazy dive down the inside. As I undid my belts I heard footsteps pounding through the gravel towards me.

Ian had a bit of a (well deserved) shout at me and then stomped off where the marshalls led him to safety. I got out and took my helmet off (this might not be the wisest move under the circumstances!) and tried to diffuse things with an apology as we waited for the snatch vehicle to drag our cars out of the gravel.

When they did, both cars looked relatively unscathed, other than being full of gravel. In hindsight, I should have jumped back in and got back on track to try and get the laps in to qualify, but didn’t think of that.

I drove the car back and legged it up to race control to see what I could do about getting the laps in so I could race, and they said I could follow the course car around during the lunch break, and then be allowed to start from the back of the grid for both races.

I went back down to the garage to pick gravel out of the poor pebble-dashed Sheane and then heard my name over the tannoy being called back up to see the Clerk of the Course. Uh-oh.

Remembering school time visits to the Headmasters Office, I slunk into the room and was asked to explain what happened.

I held my hands up to it all straight away – said exactly what had happened, and reiterated that I wasn’t trying to be stupid and was still cruising around, as far as I was concerned, but cocked up.

Then they moved on to the events after we were in the gravel trap – and it became clear that they Do Not Want any fisticuffs or threatening at the track side! This was clearly big no-no, so make a big note of that in case you end up tangling with another car!

It wasn’t anything to do with Ian Buxton, and I fully understood (and deserved!) his reaction, and so made sure they understood that I wasn’t threatened or intimidated by him etc. He had a few words in anger – I wasn’t scared for my life – there was no harm done, as far as I was concerned. I was just glad I hadn’t killed his car or hurt him!

I heard them call Ian up to the office after me, and we were both allowed to race, so I think I handled it all ok for the both of us.

We then just had to do a Drive Of Shame behind a pace car for 3 laps at hot road hatchback pace…

Oh, and Ian absolutely stormed through the grid in race 1 to finish in 6th with the fastest lap. That probably helped smooth things over for when we did shake hands later in the day.

Although he did still quip that he could have won that if it wasn’t for me!

Fair point, well made, Ian. Sorry…

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