joemoia

Sounds like a pretty bad crash, but apparently he only suffered a concussion

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...ured-in-crash/


http://motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=305429

B-ras

The second article suggests that he'll actually race this weekend. Wow.

varkwso

He is a bit competitive

Sounds like a massive crash. Lucky the split was behind him in stead of through him...

PA Z06

When I was there for the opening day, a vette crashed in almost the same spot, needless to say it made me roll on the throttle a lil bit easier the rest of the day.

Mikelly

From one of the other sites (Rennlist) there's a member there who said track officials were already working on extending the armco further down track to give more separation from pit in and the track...

Those of you who remember when VIR re-opened, think back to the constant changes made to improve safety there fort he first 18 months...

They'll use that same strategy here.
Mike

John Shiels

If his bell got rung hard enough he'll be saying "Hi to my dog at home" instead of Hi to my wife and family. Hope he is OK

TLGunman

Found this on another site...the front half:

John Shiels

[QUOTE=TLGunman;1566891501]Found this on another site...the front half:

Wow riding with lady luck Wonder how his family takes looking at that?

95jersey

I know that turn pretty well. I just came from a 3 day weekend at Thunderbolt. That turn is definately the scariest on the track, with the least room for error and run-off. You come out of a slow 180 degree double, then full throttle through the esses. In my C6Z, I was taking this turn with 3rd gear pinned then as the days progressed 4th gear. Even 3rd gear pinned in a 7.0L is no joke. To make it more interesting, at the apex there is a concrete mound (somewhat like the concrete rumble strips at the Glen bus stop) but raising progressively as you get closer to the apex (like a bubble). If you try and apex to tight, you get the full brunt of the mound that is probably several inches high at it's center. It will definately throw the right side of the car airborn and make for a hair rasing ride if your suspension can hang on to the violence it creates. If you aviod the concrete mound, then you run out of room very quickly as you track out at 100+mph. So, the trick here is the apex using the mound, but just enought that you have enough room to track out, but not too much that you hit the highest part of the mound and unsettle your car.

I was watching cars hit this mound and go through this corner the entire weekend, and I can tell you if I had the stock leafs, it would have been a MESS. Those LG coil overs continue to amaze me as without them, I would have never been able to aggresively take this corner and put 2 wheels as deep into the mound as I did.

I knew going through this corner that it would be interesting and cause trouble in a real race. If 2 go side by side and one hits too much of the mound, things are going to get interesting. I must say it was a very sneaky little trick the track designers played. This track is full of interesting little tricks that are appopriately placed just to screw with the driver's momentume and this corner and the mound are just one of them.

gbvette62

I was looking forward to seeing Pruett Sunday. I crewed for a privateer Trans-Am/IMSA GTO team back in the 80's, when Scott raced for Roush in the Trans-Am and GTO series. Besides be a very talented road racer, I remember him as always being friendly and pleasent. He's always been one of my favorites. Glad to hear he's ok!

The comment in the motorsports.com article about the safety crews ability and time needed to arrive, scares me a bit. I was at NJMP to crew a car at the SVRA event Aug. 8-10 and was concerned then about the time required for the safety crews to reach an incident. It also seemed to take forever to clean the track and remove the cars after something happened. One of our half hour practice sessions was stopped after 10 minutes to clear 2 cars off the track after a minor shunt and was never restarted because it took so long to remove them.

I've never understood why NASCAR (who also own Daytona Prototype) has never had a permanent, traveling medical/safety team for any of their series. NHRA, CART/IRL and F1 all do, heck, even the SCCA had a small, traveling team for the Trans-Am in recent years. Well, I guess I do know why, MONEY!

It sounds like they haven't gotten the grass to grow there yet and that the dust may have contributed to Pruett's crash. The lack of grass appears to still be causing a potentially dangerous situation with dust when cars go off. Hopefully this will be corrected soon.

folsomlarry

That's scary. I just saw him last weekend at Infineon, signing autographs for everyone and just enjoying himself. He's one of our drivers who seems to be fast in whatever he drives. Glad he is came out of this in good shape.

Larry

Everett Ogilvie

Huge fan here, hope he is OK. He has to be one of the most competitive drivers there is.

Hardcorvette

He was very fortunate indeed.

joemoia

He's been cleared to race:

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...1/newsletter01

Wicked Weasel

well that sucks. The guy that destroyed his vette in that spot was with us. Luckily him and the instructor walked away with only a few minor bruises. He made a mistake with the point by and of course that cost him alot.

I went over that area all day and the Penske setup didnt seem to mind it. It has more travel than some other setups so getting 2 tires up high wasnt an issue because the other 2 were on the track. I did keep the car straight in that area without lifting or adding more acceleration. I figured keeping everything smooth and constant with no adjustments was the best way to conquer it.

Sucks that is the 3rd car I know about in the exact same spot. I saw a few other cars make it to the dirt before spinning which probably saved their cars.