Was today at Road America - wow!

 

Damn O_O Im glad to see both drivers are okay.

 

Nice! Sharing.

 

Fuuuu, gravel is not slowing him down at all.

 

Damn that mazda got rocked.

 

Hot damn that would suck.

 

blown line?

 

The report was that the camaro's brake pedal went to the floor and he had to pump them back up but by then it was too late. I think Gunter just screwed up and missed his braking point...

 

I'm inclined to agree... aweful lot of tire smoke off of the wheels for non-functional brakes.

Pretty spectactular how the Camaro flipped all the way over the fence, glad there wasn't a grandstand there.

 

I dunno, you can see his nose dip, but not much braking going on. Then he's off the crappy brakes, pumps it, and slams it down again, probably expecting the same thing, and they locked up instead.

 

I had 3 catastrophic brake failures last year, on one I had some pressure but the other two I had zero pressure. If the tracks didn't have massive run-off I'd be in a similar situation. On of those failures was about 110mph and I went off track, and across the other-side of the track. My brakes are great now but it took a while to work of the confidence to not check-up on the pedal on every straight-away. Have you ever gone through the grass at 110mph, sideway, dodging flag stands?

 

^What were the reasons for the brake failures in your case?

 

1. One was extreme pad taper on XP12's. The backing plates bent so much that it looked like I had 6+mm of pad, the reality was that the center area of the pad was gone and it was backing plate on rotor, with lots of pad showing on the edges. Does that make sense?
   
2. I just put the TS Corrado kit on and a local Miata shop gave me hell for requesting DTC-60's so he gave me 30's thinking I would be none the wiser and happier in the long-run. The pedal was soft and spongy, like the garbage pedal I was accustomed to with "sport brakes" and Carbotechs. During the 4th lap of the second session I managed to get the 1200*f MOT pad up to 1800*f and it shredded and melted pad material all over the place and I lost total brake pressure. I had to hammer-off brake pad material with a chisel to get the new pad to fit in the caliper. DTC-30 is a dirt-track pad, not a roadrace pad. Some people run them in the rear on a Miata, I melt them in the rear too. I broke the park-brake cable trying to slow the car. If either of these failures occurred at a track in the NE or any track with walls I would definitely destroyed the car all 3-times and probably be seriously injured.
   
3. The second failure was from a mushroomed caliper piston that was holding the pad against the rotor during the DTC-30 disaster on the 3rd session of the day, it would not retract into the bore. One caliper went to 600*f+ so I had to replace it no matter what. This was "the big one". I went off at about 110mph, crossed the track on the far side, dodges the flag stand, and kept it out of the hay bails. I broke the park-brake cable earlier that day, I took a few months off after this excursion.

Now I have very, very big-rotors all the way around, the right pad compound, new bearings with good grease, and no more brake failures. Before the VERY VERY VERY big rotors my caliper temps were 440f/500r rear, with the rears boiling on the cool down lap and after parking. After getting the TSE brakes with the M-Tuned rear caliper adapter my temps are 290*f/310*f rear on a hard-braking track. I feel soooo much safer now.

 

That definitely puts into perspective how important a good braking system is for track use.

Seems like the 2 most scary things that could happen on the track mechanical wise is a stuck throttle and loss of brakes... well I guess there are probably 1000 things that would all equally suck. But those two seem like they would be common.

 

Yeah, look at the rear angle from around 2:25. It does look like maybe he got on a little late, but - using the brake lights as an indicator - I think Curly's explanation does make some sense.

Pretty damn scary never the less... If he hadn't been okay to walk away on his own, who knows how long it would have taken rescue workers to get to him?

 

Watching nascar try to run there was comical

 

Goooood weekend.

Nascar at Infineon is epic!

 

Yewouch.

Anyone remember that 350Z that made it way the **** off of Mid-Ohio...as in past the kitty litter, over the tire wall and over 2 or 3 fences?

 

If you watch all of the video and see the driver interview (starting at 3:10), I used to work with the engineer that's sitting right next to him (guy with the glasses). Lol, some good face time for him. Since he's left he's worked in Nascar (Penske) and now he works for Pratt & Miller I think.

Anyways, just a fun fact (not really...).

 

Remember McNish at Le Mans...