Keith6110

iTrader: (5)

I've been keeping an eye on this thread since Monday after I heard the news. First of all, I'm so happy the drivers are fine and a little banged up. I know the feeling of a crash, I've rolled my old galant in winter of 09 on the highway going 70 in front of a tractor trailer. Scariest **** of my life.
No where as extreme as this, but man do you feel good getting out of the car and feeling the different parts of your body again.


Props to all the safety equipment used to keep you guys safe. You guys really did a great job on this build and from the track video, that evo ran very strong.
I cringe at all these videos at the initial slide off the track


Here's another one I found on youtube recently posted:






To this day I'm scared to drive in the snow or excessive rain. But I know you guys will get back on the track and give it another try.

EVOlutionary

iTrader: (38)

A couple ideas -

If it were not for the rain at the top and Rhys' motor being cold at the start he would have probably run a very LOW 9 minute run. If Dallenbach had not crashed, he would have probably run in the 8's. . .

Mentioning guardrails - after seeing all the different angles of this crash all I can ask is why the HELL is there not a guardrail at that particular corner??? You don't need one the whole course - but THAT corner seems like a rail would be only logical. . .

ratt_finkel

Tomorrow I'll respond accordingly. I'm super exhausted from all of this. Especially today. But so far I'm very disappointed in the direction this thread has turned. Not to mention the comments of fellow motorsports enthusiasts.

modernbeat

What? You don't remember a conversation you and I had back in February about this? And then one with Brianne last month? And then me reminding you 5 minutes before you got in the car?

Pikes Peak is not a place to practice. It's not a place to build skills. It's a place to demonstrate your mastery of skills and experience gained elsewhere. A history of autocross does not give you the skills and judgement to successfully compete at Pikes Peak.

Jason McDaniel

DaveK

iTrader: (21)

Rhys told me based on sector times he was anticipating that a 9:40 would be the perfect run, which assumed 25 seconds to connect the sections we don't get timed on during practice. I think that's probably a bit more than is needed, so assuming 15 seconds, that meant a 9:30 is doable in his machine (what a beast it is!). Most of us start out with the engines as cold as possible because of the overheating issues typically encountered.

I think based on qualifying times, the top Unlimited guys were shooting for 9:10s or so. Rhys really wasn't far off from them, but the Dacia and Dallenbach were certainly the only ones with a chance at those times. The RS200s were a bit off that mark and the Palatov was underpowered. The NSX should've just run in Time Attack sans aero where it was orig. entered for its first year on the hill.

Interesting idea about the break outs vs. prep rules - might just have some merit!

Dave

ninjacoco

I know I'm like the eighty millionth person to say it, but I'm glad both drivers made it back alive after that. Here's wishing both drivers a speedy recovery.

codgi

iTrader: (22)

^^ ditto glad everyone walked away safely, which by far is the most important thing. The key takeaway is that every type of motorsport is different and being skilled at driving/building cars for one type doesn't automatically translate to another. Some basics are applicable sure, but not all of them. You can never have enough safety and hopefully everyone will take away a good lesson from this and move forward.

05blue8

iTrader: (28)

Glad you guys are ok and definitely good interview. Good work KevinD on the build/cage and I have to say nice shirts too

speifer

Glad they are ok!

jerdeitzel

iTrader: (9)

I will be interested to see what comes of this.

J. Fast

Just wanted to throw a mention out there. For nearly two years I've been planning and building a car strictly for racing the peak and hill climb. After assesing this wreck in particular, I've decided I'm going to rip out the NASA style ladder bars in my doors that were the minimum rulebook cage spec requirement for my class and re-think the design. I've been building in line with the 2011/2012 rules. Along the way I took it upon myself to consult with hill racers, rally racers, and world challenge teams and made a few personal discretion improvements based on their knowledge and experience. Several things to note which caught my attention almost immediately after scrutinizing the crash photo's and the cage deformation which I'm going to address:

Ladder bars appear to be borderline sufficient in horizontal loading in an impact of this magnitude. I'm going to cut them out and go with a rally style "Xx".

I do not have a diagonal compression bar in place for passenger protection on my main hoop. I only have one diagnal and will be adding a second from the passenger side to make an "X" to evenly distibute the roof corners.

I'm lacking an overhead diagonal spanning from the main hoop and forward down tube on the roof that ties to the drivers side. In reviewing the pics I 'm convinced my roof overhead also needs to be an "X" vs only one required diagonal.

Looking at the impact it appears as though the cage was able to rack and buckle at the B pilliar due to the subsequent incomplete overhead "X" and main hoop "X" those two bars will be my immediate concern.

Currently, I'm running 1 1/4" corner tubes reinforcements and am thinking it would be most beneficial to increase my gusset and corner tube support diameter to 1 1/2".

My seats are floor mounted, after reviewing the tear away of the passenger seat I'm going to rip the floor mounts out and cage support both seats.

Lastly, I do not have a halo guarded seat on the passenger side and will be looking for a halo escape ring passenger seat given the condition of the passenger helmet and cage impact striations.

The last mention I wanted to make regarding the race is tire requirements. Observing the traction issues and burn in issues with some of the racers I think it should be mandatory to have atleast a second set of tires to run in the wet given evidence of a few racers driving on rollerskates. Also the type of tire allowed should be based on skill and experience given the progressive traction thresholds of racing slick tires.

I appreciate the criticisms of the professionals on this board and on special stage and their willingness and openess to provide criticims, share cage build exmples, impact photos and analysis, and racing experience. Given the circumstance of this wreck I truly greatly appreciate it! This wreck really hit home and opened my eye's to the sport and the inherent risk of racing. In learning from it, I'm going to go back into my cave to make improvements to my vehicle safety based on the data you've all discussed and provided. Truly, thanks!

To Jeremy and Yuri, hopefully when you heal you'll dust your shoulders off and get back on the horse. You have a great support system and hope that you will come back to the hill!

modernbeat

All this talk about tiered classes, tire and power based on skill and such is BS.

Like I said above, Pikes Peak is not a place for novices. You do not go to the Peak for experience. You do that at track days, time trials, rally events, road racing and other, smaller hillclimbs.

I hope that the PPIHC organization will start vetting their applicants and using the qualification process properly next year. The glut of inexperienced and novice participants this year hurt themselves and the more experienced competitors chances for a competitive event.

SamsonEvoX

Jeremy, the main thing is that you are ok. Most of us who care about how you and Yuri are doing, are just thankful that the injuries were held to a minimum. I personally thank God that you endured that horrific ordeal. I for the life of me cannot understand why some people have to be so cruel and mean spirited. Saw your interviews on the Today Show as well as Piers Morgan. Must have been tough to have to re-live the accident over and over again.

Blitz

iTrader: (11)

First, I just want to say how happy I am that both guys walked away from this. I remember watching the Canadian Grand Prix in 2007 when Robert Kubica went into a concrete barrier at like 180 mph and the car just disintegrated. I remember thinking "he's dead. No way anyone could survive that." Watching this video gives me the same gut reaction. So props to KevinD for building this cage. Even if it could have been even stronger, I doubt Jeremy and Yuri feel anything but gratitude for his work.

Second, in the MSNBC video it looks like there is a HANS device attached to Yuri's helmet. Were one/either of them wearing HANS devices?

SamsonEvoX

^ Yeah, they were wearing HANS devices. Certainly prevented neck basal skull injuries.