Road Atlanta Wrapup

This isn’t the post I had originally planned on writing to start my new direction, but as so often happens, life intercedes and takes you off in new and unexpected (sometimes unwanted) directions. As you may or may not be aware, I was driving at an event at Road Atlanta this weekend. My MR2 wasn’t ready, however, so I accepted a friend’s offer to drive his car. He had a 2002 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS, so it was a car I was somewhat familiar with, given that my daily driver is a WRX. This is also the same car I drove at CMP back in October after I lost my engine.

I stayed in DE1 for this event even though I had been signed off for DE2 in part because of the fact that I’d never been to Road Atlanta before and I wanted to have someone show me the track and partly because I signed up back in July after the Charlotte event, well before I was signed off. Interestingly enough, I was assigned the same instructor I had for the October event. That made things a lot easier, as I didn’t have to run through my previous experience with him.

Apart from being stuck in a lot of traffic and languishing behind slow drivers (70mph on the back straight? Seriously?), Saturday was relatively uneventful. I was absolutely amazed by the course, however. It’s virtually impossible to describe how much the elevation changes on the course affect the way it drives. I liken it to a challenging golf course. There’s just something about it that intimidates you every time you play it.

Sunday was a lot better and, for the most part, I saw a lot of open track and was able to make some good passes and start trying to take corners off line. My instructor left around 3:30, so a friend (who is also an instructor) jumped in the car. Before he left, however, he told me that he didn’t ever want to see me registered for DE1 again. He said I’m way too fast for that group. Anyway, another friend jumped in the car for the last DE1 only session. He was impressed because I was running almost identical lap times as he was. I was also hitting the curbs in turn 3 a lot harder than he was.

The final session of the weekend was a combined DE1-DE2 session. I ran this solo, and was having a blast chasing down the DE2 drivers. Once the corvettes and really fast cars screamed by me, I was pretty much just running my line. Everything was going well and then it happened. I jumped the gators in three as I had done every time through. The rear of the car stepped out to the left. Again, nothing unusual. It did that every time. However, when I turned in for turn four, the rear of the car snapped around to the right and the car shot off course to the left. This would’ve been fine except for two facts: 1) there wasn’t much run-off on the outside of the track there and 2) the track is ringed by reinforced concrete barriers there. No tire barriers, no gravel, just a patch of grass and then a concrete wall. I was traveling between 80 and 85 mph when the car smashed into the wall head first. I hit so hard that the wall was pushed back about 18 inches and it cracked the wall. I spun around and came to rest pointing back up the track on race line.

My friend that owns the car was working turn three and got to watch all of this unfold. Because of the angle at which I was stopped, he couldn’t tell if I was moving, and had to wonder if I was even alive. Amazingly, as bad as the impact was, I only sustained minor bruising to my shins where I hit the dash. Needless to say, the car was a total loss. I found out later that I hit hard enough to pop a spark plug out of the engine. When the medics checked me out, my blood pressure was 150/110. Nobody in the room so much as raised an eyebrow at that number. Naturally, some people have asked me if I will continue to race. The answer is an emphatic yes. If I could, I would go back to that very same track next weekend. I will not let this keep me from utilizing the talents that God gave me. Speaking of God, I know that it is only because of His graces that I survived such a massive impact, so please offer a prayer or two of thanksgiving for keeping me safe.