There seems to be a belief that some areas of the track are "impossible to hit." Your driver seems to have proven this wrong. I saw him lose it and then spin into the grass and I am still not sure how it happened or how he got to that wall.
Hey guys- I'm the driver of Travis' race car that had the wreck. I am really, REALLY sorry that you all had to suffer at the hands of my misfortune. I have been playing it over and over again in my head and I still don't really know what happened. All I know is I went for the brakes at the end of the straight before T10 and there was nothing. I don't know if I was the victim of some sort of freak brake failure, or if I just carried so much more speed through T8-9 than ever before (damn it felt good, like I finally got that sequence "right") that when I stabbed the brakes they just locked up and I didn't realize it (very aggressive brake compound), but all I know is that in an instant of jamming the brake pedal and nothing was happening, I was off the track and approaching the wall VERY quickly. I think I tried to steer clear left but the car spun instead and I watched in the rear view mirror as to my horror I saw white concrete barrier coming towards me. I stuck my head to the seat, held on to the wheel tight, closed my eyes and said to myself, "$#%!, this is really going to hurt!" I've never felt an impact like that to my body in all my 32 years. When the corner workers and safety crew showed up my head down to my tailbone was tingling and in pain. When I told them that, it immediately triggered them to go into full-on safety first mode and they wouldn't get me get out of the car. Obviously it look them a while to get me out, as they removed the roof and then pulled me up and out on a backboard. I was pretty scared but could feel my feet which was a good sign in my mind. They released me from the hospital the next day and I've been resting at home since. I read about Chris Albin and it sounds like he had it a LOT worse than me. I think if I had hit front end first, I could be in Chris' shoes or worse. I'm told I moved the wall 18" and broke it or something.
So, why are there not tires or some sort of soft barriers around all of HPT? Hallett has it as someone mentioned above, and there are rarely cars that are complete losses except when they get flipped over the wall or something. Is it partially cosmetics? Is it just cost? I'm thankful to be okay and it's not like I can change the past, but I do wonder what shape myself and Travis' car would be in now if I had the same off into a tire wall.
Lastly- Scott or whoever was directly behind me, did you guys see any tire smoke? Did I lock it up or just go off? I have in-car video from 4 cars back, but I can't really tell anything.
That video and pictures are here if anyone is curious:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12263689@N00/
Again, I am really sorry to everyone that ran in Group 6 and had their one-and-only track time on Sunday basically ruined
Ben