Byron (Bmyth)
Intermediate Member
Username: Bmyth
Post Number: 1197
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 3:37 pm: | |
This is a story that re-posted on the NSX boards... pretty telling story about the infamous Silver State blast across nevada in 1997...
************
This past weekend's Silver State was intense. Three people are in the
hospital. Junior Wilson went off the road at 200mph in his pantera. A
monster
mustang in front of us flipped at 170-175 after loosing a tire. Rick Doria
blew a tire at 210mph which tore the front left side of the car off. And
several other cars were damaged due to tire failures.
Due to rule changes the fast target speed without a fire supression
system
is now 150 with a tech speed of 165mph. Twelve of us were in this class
with
the mustang and a couple of other cars in front of us running the 165
class.
About 50 miles out we caught a Doug Rippie vette. He was doing about 100mph
when we went by him at 165mph. The guy had seen us coming because he had
signaled with is turn signal, but as we went by he point to the ground with
his arm out the window. I knew something was up, but also knew I had not
missed a flag anywhere. So I was on full alert. Turned out he had a scanner
and knew the mustang in front of us had crashed. I slowed somewhat and sure
enough a couple of miles further the course workers were waving red in the
middle of the road. Our whole 150mph class was red flagged so the
ambulances
could get on the road to go to the crash.
Steve Corzonkoff, a good friend of mind was 1/4 mile in front of the
mustang and saw the whole thing in his rear view mirror. The guy had a
blowout and the rear of the car started swerving. The fish tail got worse
and
the car went slightly off the road, then shot 30 feet up in the air when
the
air got under it. Later we learned the car had caught fire and the driver
pulled the navigator out. Between them they had broken ribs, legs, wrists,
arms and ankles.
We were restarted after a 1 1/2 hour delay from 31.5 miles from the
finish
line. This was by for our wildest and scariest Silver State ever. We had to
accelerate up to 150+ mph in order to average 150mph, but we started just
before the narrows. And after the narrows are the "dips" which have gotten
much worse. We were hauling ass through the narrows....that was not to bad,
but Lorelei closed her eyes as usual. What really got my attention was
going
air borned six times back to back at 155-150mph of which we came down
slightly sideways twice. We bottomed out VERY hard twice. I thought I had
torn the bottom of the car off. Lorelei can be seen bouncing off the
overhead of the car in the "in car video" and you can hear her head hitting
the roof. It was a hand full to keep the car straight and I would not have
wanted to go through there at 1mph faster. The road has become to **cking
rough for people to risk their life at the higher speeds. We have no plans
to
participate in the Silver State again.
Junior Wilson , Rick Doria and Kelly Sievers started last in the
unlimited
class. Only Kelly finished with an average of 187.66 mph. Rick only got 10
miles before the front left tire blew. He and I watched his in car later
that
day and he was very lucky. He was running about 210mph and just moved the
ar
over to the right to set up for a left hand turn, when the tire blew. The
tire did not blow it exploded and instantly moved the car over a lane to
the
left. If it had blown a few seconds earlier or later the car would have
gone
off the road. The remains of the tire ate everything from the windshield to
the front spoiler. The left side of the car is gone. Actually ,I think Rick
is lucky that the tire blew . I do not think he would have made it through
the "dips" and kept the car on the road.
Junior has compound fractures of the leg and will require back surgery.
He
bounced off. the road in the dips after the narrows at 200mph. The same
**cking area that caused us trouble. Rick stopped by the hospital and spoke
to Junior Sunday nite. In the dips the car went air borned and came down
slightly side ways which shot the car off the road.
There nothing left of Junior's car but the roll cage. No tires, no body
panels, no suspension nothing but a crushed engine and a cocoon of a cage.
The mustang was more intact but completely burned out. It's amazing thes
people are still alive.
How did we do? Depends on the review, if there is one. We currently have
a
fourth place.We were told at the restart that the distance to the finish
line
was 31.5 miles by the timing and scoring people that handled the restart.
We
were within .15 of a second of nailing our target speed at the finish
line,after risking life and limb, which would have given us 1st place.
Unfortunately the lady who did the calculations later that nite assumed we
restarted at 33 miles out. The right hand not talking to the left.
I really don't care. There are more important things in life and I feel
lucky that we were unscathed and no one was killed. |