At 06:36 PM 3/28/00 -0500, John Kelly wrote:
> We have come a long way in National course design despite some
>folks wanting to re-invent gymkhanas. Despite that, there was a glitch on
>last year's North course that was a trap for a beginner and he flipped.
>That part was a fast section followed by a three-cone slalom. And there was
>a bump at the third one. He flipped his E Stocker on the third one. Don't
>look for this on the map as the course was changed to solve another problem
>and we got the flipper deal instead. The good news is the driver was
>uninjured.
Not to take away from John's point here about 3 cone slaloms into
decreasing right hand turns, but I just have to set the record straight
here. As I remember it, there was a BIG ASS HOLE IN THE GROUND right at
that point, that got worse and worse as nationals went on. It was not
patched with the rest of them.
Found the quote from Paul Krucke (the guy with the VW Scirocco that flipped
at Nationals) typos and everything included:
-----
Coming through "Squiggle Alley" on the North course, I was proceeding as
planned and hit my braking zone as planned in a straight line between cones
#144 & #145. Car settled like normal, proceeded with easy to increasing
throttle around cone #146 into the right-hander. Everything felt good, I
was looking ahead to my setup point for the "Eve Turn" when with NO WARNING
and a snap the car went over. At no time was I or the car
'out-of-shape'. My only conclusion, based on conversations with workers in
that area from previous heats, coupled with the fact that it was the last
run group on the last day (read as-- deteriorating surface conditions), I
hit a bad spot of concrete, or dislodged rock/concrete which hooked a tire
THROWING the car over. It also did not help that that section was
slightly off camber with the drivers side down. There was NO mechanical
failure as previously thought, the damage to the right side strut area was
from the impact, the spring pearch is perfectly intact.
-----
Bumps are bad, very very bad....
--Darren
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