Copied from my website blog-

This past weekend we lost one of our RX-8 racecars. The yellow/blue/silver #98 car was entered in NASA's PTD class and running with the Blitz group at Pueblo Motorsports Park.



For those that not familiar, this is a pretty decent club track in Pueblo Colorado and was recently repaved. Track layout and other info can be found here- Pueblo Motorsports, CO - Official Website , While its has always been a fun track, turn 10, which leads onto the drag strip has always been an issue. In the past cars would spin to the inside and tap the wall. The track was repaved earlier this year, and the surface is still somewhat green and slick. Turn 10 was widened and this should have helped with the past issues in that corener, but the bleach box, or "burnout box", is right where the cars tend to be mid-corner, and is very very slick and treacherous. In three consecutive club races with three different organizations- SCCA, NASA, and RMVR, there have been cars into the wall at turn 10, one of which was the GRID-1 RX-8.




Our weekend started with us arriving at the track at 6:30 AM. While we were unloading the rain came pouring down. Fortunately it only lasted about 45 minutes. The sun broke and the track surface dried out, but it was still a bit slippery and of course off-track the surface was nice slick mud. This was what would prove to be our demise...




The driver elected to go ahead and run qualifying even though the track was still slick and cars going off in the previous sessions had brought mud onto the track. Our session was no better, with several cars off in the first couple of laps. Our friend Bruce went off in Turn 9 in his C5 Corvette, gathered up the car and continued. The next lap the driver of our RX8 also went off in turn 9, and this is where the errors started. One of the first tenets a driver is taught is that when you go off track, you get control of the car, evaluate what went wrong- overheated tires, oil on track, broken car, etc.- then get back under way. Unfortunately, this is not what happened. The driver stayed in the throttle while he was off course and came back on track with muddy, cold tires. In the short straight between 9 and 10 he did not lower his speed or change his normal line to account for the muddy, wet, and cold tires.On corner exit the car was slipping to the outside, the driver corrected and the car snapped into the wall, taking the front end of the car off. The driver is ok except for bruises to himself and his pride, but the car is a write-off.




We loaded the car into the trailer and headed home.




There are lots of lessons to be learned from this weekend, but cheif among them is that no matter how good you are or experienced you think you are, the basics cannot be forgotten. They exist and are the basics for a reason. When you ignore them or forget them or otherwise pretend they dont exist things will happen- thats why they are the basics! Cars can be rebuilt or scrapped and new ones built, but it sucks when the whole thing could have been avoided, and should have been. This is an incident which should not have happened. The driver told me later that he was not settled in the car and was wound up and felt rushed. He admitted he had been off track several times in the session prior to the accident. These things to me mean the driver should have come in sooner. It also means the corner workers and race control was sorely lacking. When a car goes 4 off in practice of qualifying in a club race weekend it should be black flagged and brought in, especially in poor track conditions. If it goes off several times in just a few laps, the driver should be brought in and lectured by the stewards.

At any rate, a fresh RX-8 has been acquired-



and will be delivered in a few days to be transformed into the "new" RX-8. Fortunately, many of the parts we need survived, and the rest can be had fairly quickly. We hope to have the car ready in time for Mid-Ohio, which is just a few weeks away.



Cheers!

Don Walker

original link- Yeah, this is as bad as it looks… « Grid-1 Motorsports

 

That's painful to look at.

 

Ouch.

 

An awful sight, Don. I'm glad the driver is fine.

 

Bugger ! Glad to hear that a new car will take its place .

 

Damn that does look bad...was there any sort of insurance on the vehicle?

 

Aww that sucks. glad to hear a new car is on the way though.

 

wow ..... this thread almost got me sick.

 

glad to see yall getting back into another 8.... damn that sucks...

 

That sucks Don, sorry to hear that.

 

Glad the driver is okay, that must have been some hit...

 

damn D--i bet your mother would not want to hear your language then
Crap happens on the racetrack but when it didnt have too....welll......
Glad all are ok and the car obviously took a hard lick--but you can see how strong the chassis is in thos pics.
Come back stronger faster and better..

 

Not in this case, as the renter is a friend who I know is going to make good on it.

I dont really get upset about things like this, too many years in racing I guess. Seen a lot of really bad things happen, some avoidable, some not.

I will be parting the replacement car next week, so if you guys or your buddys need parts please feel free to hit me up.

Also, I am making a run of 3-piece sway bars for the FD and RX-8, so if anyone has a need again, please reach out.

 

Dammmmmn! Super glad the driver is okay.

As for the new RX8... I think it's a good thing you guys got your hands on it. It needs to get rid of that ugly look.

 

Don,

I sent a message on Facebook but I'll say it again... Really sad to see this happen the same weekend I was driving it on TV. I had some great memories in it If you think it can be clipped I know someone that owns a body shop that may be interested in a caged 8 so let me know before you crush it!
Was the racekeeper running at the time?

Stephen

Oh and PM me about those wheels on the doner car if you want to get rid of them. I can't stand the ones I have on my street RX8. And is that really the exhaust hanging below that bumper?

 

Stephen you will be the first person I will sell the wheels too, let me get better pics and I will send them to you.

I will definitely let you know before I crush it/sell it. I looked closer today and think it can be clipped because when I checked today the subframe has not moved much if any, so that becomes a matter of cutting out and replacing sheetmetal that hold the body panels etc in place and make them look right. It just LOOKS really bad. The floor is not wrinkled etc and if you were sitting in the car with the windsheild foggy you would not know the car has been wrecked. The doors still open like they always have.

Cheers!

 

Yup, first thing I noticed after I saw my name was that the windshield wasn't broken. Defintely a GOOD sign.

Stephen

 

Indeed a painful sight!

 

that sucks. glad no one was hurt. i like the new 8 except for those ugly stripes. im digging the rear bumper, exhaust and wheels

 

It wont look anything like that in a few weeks...

World Challenge only allows the Mazdaspeed (or replica) bodywork, we use RPF1 wheels, and our exhaust is specifically made for the series....

Oh, and it will be repainted in our livery.

 

Those remote reserviors don't kill you on points under the current PTD suspension rules?

 

possibly but this car only runs local stuff and we are literally the only two PTD cars out there. The other car is completely PTD/PTC legal and thats the one we use when it matters.

 

Ok, thought maybe you had some secret recipe I wanted to use Motons back when I was building my car but the odd PT suspension rules meant I couldn't really use a remote reservior and stay in PTD. So I went with Ohlins which are still good.

 

Pm me if you are selling any part of the exhaust from the crashed car. Sad to see a crumpled 8, but good to hear everyone is okay.