June Sprints Discussion

[Robert Mumm]

I stopped in to see Denny at the hospital today. He is truly lucky that he wasn't hurt much worse. He does credit the Hans Device for saving his life, and he will encourage any of you that don't have one to get one. Denny was in good spirits and looked great for someone who had back surgery yesterday and is lying on their back in a hospital bed. I'm sure he will be back racing next year. Denny is a great guy and a true friend and wish him a speedy recovery which I'm sure it will be as Denny likes doing things quickly.

[SStadel]

Jon, I don't take photos of wrecked cars, unless they're mine. I would assume Denny's injuries came from the g-forces of hitting the tire wall at high speed. He has a very good seat, has a good head rest, had a Hans on and there was no intrusion into the cockpit. The seat looked to have survived intact. There was quite a bit of inertia, certainly enough to cause lower spine fracture. It seems that with any high speed formula car crash the most common injury is lower back.

[billwald]

Great videos! Thanks for posting them Keith.

[Tifosi]

Data is showing an entry speed above 135 mph. Brakes and gravel slowed the car to 83 mph at impact. Max G was 5.77 and throttle was at 100% until 6 seconds after impact. Rev limiter kept rpm's below 6900.

Per Denny if you don't have a head and neck restraint why not? And if you have one and aren't using it ..... ????


Also the bead seat is undamaged. Denny sits on the floor and I'd bet if his butt had been in a seat his injuries would have been reduced.

[Al Craighead]

Glad to hear Denny is expected to make a full recovery. Hopefully some day in the near future I'll be talking to him at the track once again.

Cheers,

[Dale Carter]

For everyone's info. We had a throttle cable frey at the engine end and replaced it at the track thanks to Steve at One Formula. When we installed the new one we tried a few strokes on the cable and guess what? Throttle stuck wide open. We noticed a groove had been worn in the end of the housing that had sharp edges. The new cable being less worn and a few thousands bigger got stuck in the groove. Everybody check this. We ground the edges of the groove to get the cable to slide freely. Will eliminate the worn groove before next race. FYI

[smcqueen]

Is everyone using dual throttle return springs? I think there are still quite a few drivers relying on only the stock spring around the thottle body.

scott

[jcorsico]

Denny had a head on impact? Or the car backed into the tire wall?

I'm not trying to pry into a situation that everyone would like to forget; but I'm just curious as to how Denny's injuries were caused so that we can address any cockpit issues in our cars and avoid similar incidents in the future.

I have a cracked L5 vertebrae (that is never going to fully heal), so I understand the pain associated with lower back injuries. I hope Denny gets well soon.

Regards,
Jon

[Zambo]

As I passed Canada corner, it appears that Denny hit the tire wall head on. The car ended up pointed skyward with the nose pointed toward the sky. I'm not sure that modifying the cockpit could or would affect the injury.

I hope that Denny is getting better and he is back on the track soon. The race was a little less exciting with Denny on the sidelines.

Steve

[SStadel]

Like Steve said, it was a head on impact. Having the CDS on the car like Dave and Denny did, should help them reconstruct what happened.

Scott, we are currently running the factory double spring only. We do grease it and check it every race on all cars. We have not had an issue for some time, but I agree a secondary spring in another location is a good idea. Because of the amount of rotation of the throttle and the location, it is somewhat perplexing to come up with the ideal placement of the secondary spring. If you've got one and can put up a picture, I'd love to see it.

Like the Carter's, I too had my cable start to unravel and the end of the housing is getting worn. Lee Rackley had a very elaborate setup for the cable on his car. Maybe we can get Lee to post pictures of what he's done.

In the meantime, I'm sure Dave will be pouring over the car to find what the culprit was. It sounds like Denny will be coming home today, if everything goes well.

[CDS]

The 5+ G figure Dave quoted for the impact is the maximum that the Longitudinal accelerometer in their system will measure (it is optimized for inertial measurement, not as an "impact" recorder). In reality I am sure that the impact was far greater.

Dave I am emailing you about the question you sent to us on the data.

[Erik Skirmants]

I posted this on specracer.com and I usually don't get as "personal" here as we are not just internal / customer readers here...but what the heck:

I will throw in my "it's not just another race" comment. Anyone who has ever looked up on the pace lap knows that...holly crap...spectators! The carnival atmosphere...it has it all.

It was a blur for me and I am almost positive I never sat down Thursday, Friday and Saturday except to eat once a day. My family’s comments yesterday that it was “nice to see me” (after driving 18 hours straight through home and taking a 4 hour nap)... funny thing is I took them to the race for the first time in 4 years. I guess I need to work on my ability to unwind and at least enjoy the evenings without thinking of the 50 people who are going to say "gee Erik thanks a lot, I never saw you this weekend". If you want a challenge next year, trail me for a day...we start with a 5.1 mile run around the old Elkhart Lake circuit and then get to the hard part. If the phone rings you can be sure it is urgent and impossibly difficult to resolve. But helping great people is damn rewarding!!! With two classes, 100 cars, CSR, Prep Shops, vendors, partners and friends (who get screwed as I never see them) I have to plan my time well. But I also hate to walk away from someone I am chatting with; I have always thought that rude people suck!

My biggest regret is easily that my friend Tom Thrash and I had only spent 10 minutes together dozens and dozens of times; I never got to sit down and really get to know the great man so many of my other racing friends know he was. GOD BLESS, I will miss your smiling face and watching you do super human things behind the wheel of your RX7!!! With Denny's injury in one of our cars, loosing Tom and trying to ignore my family so I could work it was a damn blur...but still, it was THE SPRINTS!

.....so great job by all of the FE community. The annoucers comments that it looked like a spec racer race on lap three was nice (he may have said SM, but my brain changed it to SRF as they proved once again they are the king of packs).

To acknowledge Jon C's questions, obviously any lessons learned will be shared. But as someone who has been around these types of cars, including when they ran ovals, I think the seating position (lay down) and speeds are the primary risk factors. Throttles can hang up on all race cars; we just need to make sure that we add belts and suspenders to ours if that is what comes from this! Being a spec car I am happy to mandate overkill methods if that is better for all.

My prayers are with Denny for a speedy recovery!

[iamuwere]

I wish Denny well as well!


I, too, am interested in solutions to a secondary return spring that would be functional at returning a stuck cable as well as broken return spring. I have not seen a great solution yet, but have some ideas.

Ideas out there?

jim

[smcqueen]

Cold tires and cold brakes going out on Q2. I can't tell who is behind me (or in front depending on which way I was pointed), but thanks for not running over me. I kept the tires locked down which ruined the tires, but kept the car moving down track instead of into the walls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oURJZGEv7A

scott

[SStadel]

That would have been me and Matt Schneider. Matt was going by me when you decided to swap ends in a hurry. I was pretty sure I was going to stay clear but was glad for both you and Matt that he avoided your little dance!

[riderxracer]

I will be happy to post photos as soon as I can get my 11 yr old to show me how. Everyone welcome to look anytime or call me and I will explain. Keith I hope that it wasn't me passing in the kink, sorry if I did. Race was first time in 3 months that engine ran above 5740 rpm.


Lee Rackley FE # 79

(910) 214 - 2332

[dc]

Keith I hope that it wasn't me passing in the kink, sorry if I did...

Nope, it was an impatient FB driver who couldn't wait 3 seconds to make a safe pass.

[Tifosi]

Is vimeo a POS or is it just Me? I joined, I deleted old flash version, I installed latest version and nothing happens. I just wanted to watch KC's video to see who the culprit was...that info is handy on the pit wall sometimes ya know?

[Wren]

It's about 18 minutes in. It was the race for the lead in the FB race.

[Tifosi]

the thing never plays

[TimW]

Are you using IE6?

[Tifosi]

8

[TimW]

Must just be you...it works fine for me in IE8 on XP and in Safari & Firefox on Mac.

[Tifosi]

figures

[TimW]

Sorry. Both Vimeo & Viddler are great services, and better than YouTube which seems to have a lot of ad pollution. YouTube does have higher quality (the others will catch up) but the 10 minute limit is pretty useless for our videos. YouTube is losing $100M per year still according to rumors...interesting how the whole video hosting space will play out in the coming year. There will be some casualties.

Tim

[Tifosi]

Doesn't matter. Secret source has answered inquiry. Watch out list updated! Thanks.

[DennyM]

Hello to everyone! Thank you so much for your positive thoughts and kind words. I would like to thank the safety and corner crew for taking good care of me. My recovery is progressing very well and is ahead of schedule. I ended up having two titanium rods and eight screws installed to stabilize my back. A L5 vertebrae was made of donor bone and five vertebrae were fused. The surgeon and staff at Froedert did a very good job. I am expected to make a full recovery. A Dr. told me my golf swing would improve (as well as my sloppy posture). The FE held up unbelievably well. I personally do not see any need for chassis improvement. This being my 20th racing season and therefore having experienced my share of crashes, my thoughts as I saw the wall coming was that I would likely not survive. Then came the sudden stop, my hans tethers kicked in big time. I felt the inertia go from my head down and felt and heard my spine snap. I truly believe my hans saved my life (you must have one-please) and that my next weakest link is what broke. We are going to start working on the car including a complete strip down so we can laser the frame at the shop. Remarkably the frame appears to have very minor damage. Everything sheared off as designed, I'm sure. The crash box was destroyed. Thank you Enterprises for the crash box. I know it lessened the blow. I hope to see all of you at the Run-offs! I suppose I will be considered a "crasher" because I'm going to show up without an invitation! Thats ok, I was a rabid race fan before I was a participant. Thanks again, Denny.

[Al Craighead]

Awesome news about the recovery Denny. Looking forward to see you at the Runoffs.

[Purple Frog]

Denny,

I'm sorry you got to join our club... "Alive because of HANS", but it is damn sure better than the alternative.

Especially glad to hear about your recovery.

Maybe, telling your story, as did DaveW after his "big one" five years ago will convince more to get a device and use it.

[Zambo]

Great to hear that you are healing ahead of schedule!! Last time I saw the car, I thought there was going to be a lunar launch at Road America. But seriously; really, really great news Denny! I look forward to seeing you at the Runoffs.

All the best,
Steve