One of my co-workers went to the TMS track event this past weekend and he told me someone put their Black evo into the guardrail. He said it looked totaled. Anyone know who this was? Just curious how it happened, cuz my coworker said he was in grid so he didn't get to see it happen.

 

"TMS" = "Texas Motor Speedway"?

Do they have anything other than an oval up there? I checked out the "driving schools" section of their site and didn't see any reference to any "run what ya brung" kind of events. Do you know what kind of event it was.

 

If your talking about TWS, that unfortunately was me. Launched her over the inside railing of T2 at about 60. It took out most everything on the front and driver's side. It was my first time there, but an instructor (not mine) hit the same rail on saturday with his Z.

I'm fine, and my instructor is fine. But I'm afraid the Evo is headed for the scrap heap. No pics yet, I'm hoping to get some tomorrow.

I was kinda disappointed no other TX Evos made it out. There was a pretty large STI contingent there.

 

Oh, dude, major condolences.

This was with The Driver's Edge? I've gotten the impression that they were the safest organization out there. And you're saying at least two cars were wrecked? Wow.

It probably sucks to talk about this, but can you give us a little play-by-play of how it went down? Did you get out of shape coming down off the banking?

Regarding other Evos: I was almost out there with you. But I was just up there two weeks prior with NASA and fundage has been running a little low lately, so I sat this one out.

 

Yeah it was with the Driver's Edge. It was just a freaky weekend I guess. Everyone was stunned, and they were almost considering canceling the weekend, because they had never had so many incidents. They ended up coning off turn 1 & 2 into a single lane about 15 feet from the edge of the track with a standing yellow and something like a 40mph speed limit for the rest of Sunday.

As for the detail, I'll give you what my instructor filled out. Mine's the same but he has more detail.


"I had a 'Green' Student with a late model EVO, he was one of my 'Top 10' green students, right out of the box he was smooth and drove the lines very well. As a result we were one of the fastest cars in the green group. Mid to late thru the second session on Sunday morning, we approached T1, we passed a couple cars fairly late prior to entering T1, this of course resulted in a tad bit more speed, but this did not cause any alarm, we braked, then scrubbed off some additional speed while cornering up to and thru T2. Mid to late thru T2 we were carry enough speed that the car started to slightly drift sideways towards the right side of track as we approached the track out yellow concrete. The drift was slow and felt controlled. At this point I still was not alarmed.

As this point it appears that we will likely drop two tires off right side of the track, right at "track out", I tell student to 'keep it straight' he does, but then only the right rear tire dropped off track, and got grabbed by the edge of the asphalt, which immediately rotated the car about 40-45 degrees counter clockwise, our car never changed direction after that. Student got on the brakes just after we shot across the track and entered the 'wet grass'.

The car did not react to braking due to the wet grass, and the car did not react to any steering inputs, again, due to the wet grass. Somewhere between 60 and 70 mph we hit guard rail at about 40-45 degrees, nose first, this then turns car parallel to rail, the first impact appears to have bend several rail posts (metal I-beams, or simply moves them underground due to wet soils) which then causes the railing to lean in, which of coarse creates a baby ramp, then the car climbs up and over the railing, track officials later tell me the there is a 30-40 foot of railing that is not damaged, therefore, car was air born for 30-40 feet before it landed, again on top of the railing.


Anyhow, after our air born flight we land on the rail, slightly right of the centerline car, car progresses over the rail, eventually the car falls off the railing 'out side' the track, coming to a halt on the drivers side, with the passenger front wheel still hanging on to the railing. Such that most of the car weight is resting on driver side taillight and front passenger wheel.
The car is still running and in gear, you can hear, the clatter of the gears grinding in the tranny. We shut it down, and we both climb out. Everybody walks away, dazed but no real injuries."


The biggest problem was that off course everything was wet, so you had no chance of slowing down. If the grass was dry and there were tires lining the rail, the weekend would have had far fewer major incidents. The incident with the the Z was the driver usually went out on slicks, but had left his street tires on, and had proceeded to drive as he usually does on his slicks.

I can't express how grateful I am to everyone who was there that weekend. Everyone was so kind and helpful, one guy who lives in Ft. Worth even gave me a free tow to Austin.

 

wow that's a amazing detailed story, made me feel like I was there.

sorry about your evo, does your insurance cover track events like this?

 

It's supposed to and so far I've got a claim for it. It's being evaluated today and I imagine more than likely it will be totalled. I'm guessing I'll get a few more calls at that point trying to deny coverage, but I think they'll still cover it. Most likely they'll dump me as soon as they do however.

 

OMG.

I've done that "tire hook" a couple of times going into low speed corners. It does rotate the car quickly.

I really appreciate the detail. I felt kind of bad asking, but hoped I could learn something. Prior to your story I never really worried about putting a couple of tires off at those "track out" areas. Now I gotta do some more thinking about how I handle them. That could have been me.

Keep us posted on the insurance thing (if you don't mind).

Glad you're OK!

Good luck!

 

Wow, at first I wondered how you could hit a rail in 2 (I'm assuming that you were running counter-clockwise from the description), but dropping the wheel and shooting across the track, I can visualize it clearly. Wow.

Glad to hear you and your instructor are alright, and that no corner or other workers were hurt in any way either.

Good luck with the insurance.

 

I'm really sorry to hear about your accident. I'm glad that both you and your instructor are okay. If you don't mind, I'd really like to hear how things go with insurance regarding your vehicle. Although I've been to TWS, I always feel a bit hesitant about whether I'm actually covered.

Again, sorry about your car, hope everything goes okay and hope that this doesn't make you stay out of DE.

 

There's a thread here at corner-carvers:

http://forums.corner-carvers.com/showthread.php?t=19427

Pics inside.. it was started by the instructor riding in the car.

 

Oh, man....

Every time I get more detail about this, I keep thinking, "That could have been me."

He even got his car at CarMax. Just like me.

 

Thanks for the link to the corner carvers forum. I was hoping there was a pic of the car up on the guard rail.

Update: The EVO is officially dead. Cracked the engine block, and put a hole in the transmission. They didn't even look into how bad the frame was tweaked at that point. Allstate hasn't asked any more questions since I first called them about it, and the only problem so far seem to be with the registration (bought it used and the original owner is still on file with the state).

I've talked with Rick at Driver's Edge, and he's begun talking with the other clubs that use the track to have TWS push back the guardrail (there's a good 50 feet of grass behind it). He has gotten TWS to agree to line the rail with tires in the meantime however.

The big questions for me now is what to get next. I really want another Evo, but I'm also considering the Scooby. They seem to show up in droves to autoX and track days, where Evo owners seem to keep their cars in the garage wiping them down with diapers. Maybe its the fear of the warranty being voided and they're waiting to 30K miles

However I think I'd be better served with a spec miata and a weekend at Bondurant. I was there 14 years ago and it was worth every penny. Teaching fundamentals to increase your reaction time, correct for push and oversteer.

 

The only reason I'm not at more track days is the cost. Also, with Spokes losing TechRidge as their AutoX site, it's a little more difficult for me to make the events. I live up in Leander, so driving down to the AlamoDome, A&M, or wherever the next event is (down by S.A. somewhere) is quite a commitment just for an AutoX event.

My car just ticked over 36k yesterday... looking at the warranty book I realized that the powertrain warranty is actually 5yr/60k. That is, if I still even have a warranty on my car.

 

Actually there're some track regular EVOs out there and you just happened to be at TWS with the wrong club .

Just kidding, Rick is a nice guy and TDE event is perfect for novice student .

Sorry to hear about your accident, I'm glad both you and your instructor walk out w/out a scratch. Hope to see you back at the track soon.