I already told Greg A. and Phil P., since they were going to run with us at the VIR enduro, but I rolled the Golf today on a stage of the Rally Tennessee. It looks like we'll rebuild with the new shell but it's a big bummer for all involved. Cameron looked like a kid with a broken toy at Christmas...
It was a classic case of a little error with big consequences. We had some people who know about crashing rally cars look at it and it increasingly looks like gravel on the outside of the exit of a fast corner (like 85ish) led to oversteer, which hooked the right rear in the ditch (or at the edge of, probably) and tripped Pablo into a diagonal kind of roll. He bounced off of the co-driver's roof edge, mostly toward the rear, then valuted onto the driver's side nose and top of the A-pillar.
Chris Schimmel's cage didn't budge and that vertical element that we put in the door took the full load above me in compression. I had an almost gentle trip, with not so much as a bruise - thanks winged Recaro, Isaac, and full-face helmet (to keep the glass out of my face, thank you). The Isaac pins slowed my exit by about a second. I don't even remember pulling them.
One lesson - if your window nets mount between the cage and roof or pillars, it is possible for them to be crushed in a rollover, making it hard to releast them. Take a look at yours, since this is probably a bigger problem in IT cars than in other classes, where cages can be tied to the pillars.
K
It was a classic case of a little error with big consequences. We had some people who know about crashing rally cars look at it and it increasingly looks like gravel on the outside of the exit of a fast corner (like 85ish) led to oversteer, which hooked the right rear in the ditch (or at the edge of, probably) and tripped Pablo into a diagonal kind of roll. He bounced off of the co-driver's roof edge, mostly toward the rear, then valuted onto the driver's side nose and top of the A-pillar.
Chris Schimmel's cage didn't budge and that vertical element that we put in the door took the full load above me in compression. I had an almost gentle trip, with not so much as a bruise - thanks winged Recaro, Isaac, and full-face helmet (to keep the glass out of my face, thank you). The Isaac pins slowed my exit by about a second. I don't even remember pulling them.
One lesson - if your window nets mount between the cage and roof or pillars, it is possible for them to be crushed in a rollover, making it hard to releast them. Take a look at yours, since this is probably a bigger problem in IT cars than in other classes, where cages can be tied to the pillars.
K
