Sorry about your crash Eric, you are a super driver and still sh_ _ happens!!! Way to not get hurt!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you have seen the RM cars, Cullen has a good idea to give your car to Chuck and the boys to fix, they would spray off the mud, put a Dart Auto decal on the windsheild and call it good! Well they would give it a good alignment and corner balance first.

Just kiddin guys, wish I could make it to CO for your 4 race deal in July, I have to focus on getting to Miller. Actually watching the American Lemans race at Miller as I type. We should be able to put on a better show than these guys, more passing etc....Can't wait, it will be fun to hang out with everybody and not work on my car!

Hope to see you at MMP Eric, let me know if I can help.

One picture that I took shows the severity of this crash...it didn't bend the front frame, it ripped it off the shock tower.

That just makes it easier to weld on a new front section?

Seriously, glad you are ok. It is amazing how quickly it can all go wrong even when it is all "under control"

Guys, I'll take a closer look at it tomorrow, but I don't think the car is salvageable - the center roof bar bore the brunt of the impact, and bent the header bar down about 1/2". The rear hatch didn't break, but the rear of the body is torqued so that the hatch has a 2" gap on one side. The doors open close & look undamaged - The cage held up well. I will take some more pictures tomorrow & post them up. I have no impacts on my helmet from the roll cage - Hanksville builds a strong, roomy cage!

Here's a copy of the post from the MW NASA forum with more details:

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Thanks for the thoughts & support, guys!

A few things:

- I want to apologize to the guys I cost track time, especially Graoup B qualifying .

-I want to thank all those who helped, and there are many, so I apologize if I've left anyone out:
-My wife for being cool, calm and collected (she arrived at the track almost simultaniously with my accident). Amazingly, we remain in love on great terms, and she still supports all this (had a long talk!)
-Those who helped me build such a safe car - Jim & Kelby Hartman, Ray Freundt, and my father, among others. I have not a single scratch, bruise or injury. I am mildly sore over my shoulders, but not even to the point that I need a Motrin for it. I am in more pain after my saturday morning workouts.
-NASA for their commitment to safety. As a medical professional, I recognize good work in this area. Everything was done efficiently, and professionally. I credit the head & neck restraint mandated by NASA (as part of the complete safety system) for my lack of injury, or even soreness.
-My NASA family, for their support & care. I have never received such a heart-felt hug as Sarah Sigglekow gave me when she found I was OK. Mark even looked a bit jealous . Dave & Bryan gave me a lot of good support & feedback as well.
-The 944 Spec gang, Ray Freunt of 944 Raceworks, and Nick Miller of Bennington Motorsports in particular, who donated use of the 944 Spec rental car so I could complete the weekend. Ray may regret this, as I finished 2nd Sunday, one spot ahead of him :oops:

A few other details. Unfortunately, I didn't have the Trackmate or the video going that session . Based on data from the day before, I would have been going about 80MPH when at the point I first started to slip. I would estimate that I "hit the hay" at 50-60MPH. I'll post up some pictures of the accident site later.

I will be back, at Blackhawk. The car will be parted out - it's done, but served me well.

Unfortunately, this will take Nationals out of the budget this year :cry:
Overall thoough I'm very thankful, and will have more respect for changing conditions in the future!

Thanks for the thoughts, guys! It's a lot of work to go so quickly, but hopefully, much can be reused. I may buy my old car back - sold that to build the series to a guy who wanted a fully developed car, but he now has to sell it d/t job loss (after one race with it )

Here's a pic from the build of the bar that took most of the load (impact on the roof was right over my head). I did it this way, as I sometimes carry passengers while instructing:



Here is the view I had exiting the track. Those are my tracks. What's hard to see is where they separate a bit as I attempted to turn the car, and then had the sinking feeling that I had no traction, and best not spin it, but auger straight in. You can see standing water and mud on the right. Unfortunately, no video or telemetry on that session, but Trackmate data from the day before indicates about 80 MPH at this point on the track.



Here's the haybales (backup by guardrail), after they were fixed. The linear divot off on the left beyond the wall was were my front bumper augured in - the nose dropped enough after "launch" that it did not slide at all, but stuffed it in, all in one place. As Ray Freunt said "like lawn dart"



I still feel fine today - consider me a big advocate for Head & Neck restaints, and roomy rollcages!

Eric, I'm sorry to hear about your crash. Glad to hear you're ok. It does sound like the roof bar was a good idea - I'll add the roof bar to the list of optional bars for my cages. Please let me know if there is anything that I can do to help.

Hank