[Wichita-SCCA] Auto-x finish gone wrong

[Greg Laws]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Harrison" <jimh_mic at msn.com>
To: <wichita-scca at wichitascca.org>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 11:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Wichita-SCCA] Auto-x finish gone wrong


> HAve you all looked at these vidoes?
> http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3197431&page=4
> If I'm looking correctly the finish is before the last turn? I don't
> understand how this happened.
>

Thanks Jim.  Seeing the four videos of the event helped sort it out in my 
mind.  None of the videos included the actual accident but each of the four 
shows a different portion of the course and one can piece the course design 
together.

First off, this is a crappy surface and wet to boot but that didn't effect 
the cause of the accident.  The finish lights seemed to be well back from 
the end of the coned course just as they should have been.  Shortly after 
the finish lights, the course turned left in a smooth radius due to space 
limitations so I imagine that the drivers would tend to continue around the 
corner at speed (roughly mid-2nd gear) and then slow down within the 
following straight.  This straight section was pointed at the exit gate and 
the distance was fairly short but we in the Wichita Region have had numerous 
events with shutdown as short or shorter, speeds as high or higher.  At the 
exit gate there was a tee intersection with an access road going to the left 
and right.  The paddock cars were parked along far side of the access road. 
It was clearly quite easy to slow down to a stop at the exit gate, and then 
turn right or left onto the access road as desired.  After seeing the video 
several times I can't honestly say that it would have set off any alarm 
bells in my mind if I had been there.  It wasn't the best but one makes do 
with what one has and stopping before the exit gate would have been well 
within the capability of any competent driver in any mechanically solid car 
regardless of speed on course.

Where the design of the shutdown got into trouble was that it didn't allow 
for the "what if" question.  What if the driver is not competent and fumbles 
the clutch/brake pedal?  What if we have a car that experiences sudden brake 
failure?  Where is he going to end up if that happens?  The answer with this 
shutdown design is that a car would have nowhere to go but through the exit 
gate and straight across the access road into the cars and any people who 
might be around at the moment if either of those things happened ... and one 
of them did.

The accident, as I understand it, happened when the driver reached for the 
brake and got the clutch pedal in an unfamiliar car.  The car failed to stop 
and he went sailing through the exit gate to slam into the parked cars lined 
up along the access road, directly across from the access gate.  The only 
good thing is that the paddock cars probably protected the stadium bleachers 
from damage because that's where he would have ended up if they hadn't been 
there.

I want to be perfectly clear on the point that I now believe that this 
accident was caused by a combination of factors.  The major factor was that 
the driver fumbled the pedals and then panicked.  The lesser but still 
contribituting factor was that the design of the shutdown did not allow for 
this or a similar problem to occur while still keeping within a zone of 
safety.

One Monday morning quarterback idea would have changed the course design 
after the finish to include the original left turn but then quickly add a 
right turn to shoot the cars down track, followed by a U-turn back and only 
then to the exit gate.  I suspect that this or something similar is what the 
event officials switched to after the collision.  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT THEY 
CONTINUED THE EVENT AFTER THAT SMASH UP?  Unbelievable.  I would have shut 
it down and also would have gotten out cameras and video cameras to document 
everything.  Then witness statements and so on.  This one will end up in the 
courts, guaranteed.

Of course I can say this now but the truth is that I myself failed to shut 
down an event where I was chairman that, in looking back on it now, still 
sends shivers down my spine.  I even got the "Event of the Year" trophy for 
that event which was the Riverfest solo of 1986.  We were on Main Street in 
downtown Wichita.  The street looked wide enough but turned out to be slick 
and treacherous with oil and road use.  There were two close calls.  One was 
where a sports racer lost fluid in his hydraulic clutch and couldn't 
disengage his clutch.  This became a problem because the cars were required 
to stop before proceeding into the alley that went to the bank's parking 
garage.  The driver had to overpower the engine with his brakes and the 
sports racer came to a shuddering stop so violent that the front portion of 
his hood (hinged at the front) flew open.  The scary part was that the 
corner worker stood directly in front of this car with his hand up during 
the entire incident even when the car ended up only three feet from his 
ankles!  That incident got my nerves on edge but no one was hurt and the 
event went on.

Where it really got hairy was when a girl in a ... Camaro? Mustang? 
something of that nature ... lost control in mid-track and looped the car. 
She ended up parked straight into the curb with the front bumper hanging 
over the curb and the front wheels almost but not quite touching the curb. 
No harm, no foul you say?  True, but this was a Riverfest event and there 
were spectators lining the curbs on both sides of the street for four 
blocks.  We had flag lines to keep them back but that was the only 
protection there was.  The Greg Laws of thirty years ago just wasn't 
experienced enough to realize that the situation was a time bomb and never 
should have been staged in the first place.  The event continued.  All that 
I can say now is that I lucked out and that the folks in this collision 
situation didn't.

Enjoy,
Greg Laws