What do you do when this happens??
- Thread starter Doc Bro
- Start date
betamotorsports
New member
1. The tow truck is the new pace car.
2. Add 2 points to the Infinity driver's competition license and give him a 12 month probation.
3. Call Allstate.
2. Add 2 points to the Infinity driver's competition license and give him a 12 month probation.
3. Call Allstate.
The first - and only - time I ever drove a pace car, it was a brand new VW Scirocco 16v, off of the lot owned by a longtime racer and friend of NW region. I did the lap and in this case, the pace car exited the track by running straight after S/F, where the track turned sharp left. (It was an airport circuit.) Since I was "running away" from the grid getting the green behind me, rather than turning off, I went tearing off into the distance...
...and discovered that (a) I was going really fast on a really short, dead-end access road, and (b) when I stepped on the brakes, they green-faded completely to nothing. Whee! I barely made the right into the paddock area, luckily where there were no people, cars, etc.
K
...and discovered that (a) I was going really fast on a really short, dead-end access road, and (b) when I stepped on the brakes, they green-faded completely to nothing. Whee! I barely made the right into the paddock area, luckily where there were no people, cars, etc.
K
lateapex911
Super Moderator
In a deluge soaked race in New Hampshire in August of 04, I had moved into the lead when a full course yellow came out. At the time, NHIS was sponsored by Chevy, so the pace car was some big old Chevy SS boat.
I have it on video, and near the end of the yellow, the pace car takes the last turn a bit aggressively...and goes off the track on the outside. He returns and ducks into the pits, none the worse for wear other than being mud and grass covered. Too funny. I wonder who was driving it that day??
I have it on video, and near the end of the yellow, the pace car takes the last turn a bit aggressively...and goes off the track on the outside. He returns and ducks into the pits, none the worse for wear other than being mud and grass covered. Too funny. I wonder who was driving it that day??
Wreckerboy
New member
The joys and hazards of pace car duty.....
* Pace car at BeaveRun, a track I had seen nothing of but the front straight since arriving a few hours earlier. Going up the hill prior to the back straight, I was amazed to discover an "extra" turn back there and went off roading. Fortunately the field did not follow my example.
* Watkins Glen in the rain, in October. About half way down the sole of the show my left hand (stuck out the window to slow the field down) started to cramp spectacularly. By the time we got back to the false grid I could no longer move my fingers.
* Bridgehampton, Echo Valley, headed from 6 up to 7 when a stuffed animal on my dashboard (don't ask) went sailing out the window, and was carefully run over by the entire field, and then station 6 called it in as "wounded."
* Summit Point, when somebody provided a stretched Porsche SUV limo as pace car, and discovering it would just barely fit through T5 and into the carousel
* Pocono South in a friend's '65 Pontiac Bonneville that could not make the hairpin and was driven two off in an attempt to do so without turning it into a K turn exercise.
* Pace car at BeaveRun, a track I had seen nothing of but the front straight since arriving a few hours earlier. Going up the hill prior to the back straight, I was amazed to discover an "extra" turn back there and went off roading. Fortunately the field did not follow my example.
* Watkins Glen in the rain, in October. About half way down the sole of the show my left hand (stuck out the window to slow the field down) started to cramp spectacularly. By the time we got back to the false grid I could no longer move my fingers.
* Bridgehampton, Echo Valley, headed from 6 up to 7 when a stuffed animal on my dashboard (don't ask) went sailing out the window, and was carefully run over by the entire field, and then station 6 called it in as "wounded."
* Summit Point, when somebody provided a stretched Porsche SUV limo as pace car, and discovering it would just barely fit through T5 and into the carousel
* Pocono South in a friend's '65 Pontiac Bonneville that could not make the hairpin and was driven two off in an attempt to do so without turning it into a K turn exercise.
StephenB
New member
I wonder who was driving it that day??
I promise jake it was not my brother or myself!! Not that you would ever think that
Stephen
PS: Funny video, I saw that floating around sometime last year, I wonder who pays for all that damage?
sperry
New member
Through the magic of YouTube insight, I found this thread!
I'm the driver of the car in the video. The race was a Reno Region SCCA Track Trials event at Reno-Fernley Raceway. So it wasn't an actual race, but we still run a pace lap or two to let everyone recon the track and settle into their cars before going green. Plus, starting in order based on qualifying means the fastest cars out front have less traffic when trying to set their best hot lap.
When the pace car went off, I slowed down to make sure the driver was okay. When I was passing him, he was already climbing out of the car and talking on the radio to race control (I wonder how that conversation went...
). Once past the crashed car, I actually maintained less than the normal pace speed, since there was only one more flag stand between the field and pit-in. I wanted to give race control enough time to sort out what had happened and black flag the field w/o having to make a second lap of the track... but alas, race control didn't think to bring us in until I was back down to T1 which is when the black flag came out, so I ended up being the pace car for a second lap.
In hindsight, I probably could have just brought the whole field into the hot pits right away... but who knows if everyone else would have followed me. It would have sucked to lose my track position if they had decided to leave the field out there.
I believe the SCCA's insurance policy ended up paying for the repairs to the pace car. The car was repaired relatively quickly, and has been back in action for the last two seasons. It needed two new wheels/tires, front and rear suspension on the left side, a bumper, and a bunch of body work and paint.