What caused this spin?

[Darren]

Sounded/looked like the back end started stepping out because he was on the throttle too early, and he reacted by steering into it a little, but then lifted for some strange reason.  Notice the tire noise, then it stopped (and the rotation paused), then it started squealing again when he went both feet in.

[Marty Kocse]

Phokaioglaukos wrote:

Marty, it is Stephan who is French. Astrid, his wife, drives too. I didn't know he was a dentist. Nice guy and good attitude about pranging his car.

Stephan and Astrid, that's right. I'm terrible with names. They were next to me last year at Shenandoah in their brand new 997.

They both have pretty good attitudes about the whole DE thing so I'm sure taping the car up and running another session was not too big a deal for either of them. Although, if they had the choice, I'm sure they would have rather NOT hit the tire wall. Hopefully, it's not too bad.

[jakp993]

I agree, seems the driver was wide of the apex and got into the throttle too early.  The compression at the apex provides significant incremental traction and the driver missed it.

I also agree that there seemed to be no reaction to the spin.  Once it got started, it kept going.

However, it's pretty easy to be an arm chair quarterback.  Seeing the driver's hands would be helpful to determined what really happened.

Jack

[Racingswh]

I think he needs to practice a little of what's in the video Darren posted.  I am curious as to what his last ride was.   

It would be hard for me to get comfortable smashing up new GT3's.  It makes me wince when I hear it hit when I watch it.    


Didn't he have a green 996 with the factory aerokit on it? 

[Phokaioglaukos]

Racingswh wrote:

Didn't he have a green 996 with the factory aerokit on it?

He had a dark colored 997 last year. It was at SP with a for sale sign on it.

[Mike Andrews]

Larry Herman wrote:

My assessment is more in line with Tony. I feel that the driver apexed too early, which runs you through a larger mid-corner bump and probably didn't unwind the wheel as they picked up the accelerator. The track has a few undulations after that which can also cause the back to step out if you are trying to "hold the wheel". It would have been nice to see their hands.

One thing that I can say for certain is that the driver was way over their head. That was a silly place to spin, no where near trackout, and they did not react at all to the slide. Once the car started coming around, there was no change in the yaw at all. It looked like once they finally realized that they were spinning, they just locked up the brakes. IMHO, for a black group driver that should have been a little bobble, and on their merry way, not a spin into the tires.

I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express... so I know the answer :dude:



Based on what I could see of the video I think the point in Larry's reply is the most significant contributor to the spin. He may have been early, and wide and the sun may have been in his eyes but each of those (well, the first two anyway) by themselves are correctable. if you aren't unwinding the wheel as you crest the ridge in the track your car will come around when you are pushing it's limit.

[Phokaioglaukos]

I'm with Larry and Mike on this. For another set of views, here is the thread the driver started on Rennlist: http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/sh...p?t=344977

[Racingswh]

I didn't read it all but they are very nice to him over on the Rennlist forum.  Good to hear it wasn't as bad as it sounded.

[Hammerin Hank]

Throttle oversteer + slow hands is what caused it to hook. The skidpad and few hundred hours in a kart will fix that....

[JIMK]

Ok this student won't offer any insight other than these videos keep making me lean closer to my monitor and turning my head to see "down track" further :-)