importance of safety equipment....

[Grape]

that car was going 60 by the time it got in the air, or less.

[Darren M]

I'm impressed the camera kept rolling!

[JohnTheAggie]

Rusty Griswold: Wow dad, we must have jumped that rail by like 50 yards.
Clark: Nothing to be proud of Russ...
[pauses as Rusty walks away]
Clark: [proudly] ... 50 yards...

[Mach1]

On board video from this. Looks like he didn't slow down at all before hitting the berm.

Thanks for posting that video, I wonder if there was anything he could have done to save it.

[aggie97]

Thanks for posting that video, I wonder if there was anything he could have done to save it.

Nope. doubt that is the first car to do that at willow springs either...maybe not that far out, but won't be the last for sure.

[Mach1]

He mentioned losing a tire, how often does that happen? Failures like that scare the shit out of me.

[Murph Tang]

He mentioned losing a tire, how often does that happen? Failures like that scare the shit out of me.

I had the front right tire come apart on me as I started coming down the bank before braking at TWS.

Pucked on that one.

Pretty much covered the track with my little pieces RA-1! Session over!

[jw33]

We had a front right tire blow at TMS in on the back strech in between 2-3 right before going into the infield section, probably 70-80MPH in that place for our car. Our driver ended up going through the cones and said he thought the motor or transmission had blowed up.

[aggie97]

He mentioned losing a tire, how often does that happen? Failures like that scare the shit out of me.

Don't think the tire delam'd....he did miss his first Apex on that Double Apex turn by about 2 feet which probably put him too far track left for his usual exit and then 2 tires off for his one way ticket to fame. One thing I have learned in my years of track time is that I leave myself some "wiggle" room now. Driving out to edge of the paving EVERYWHERE leaves no room for error. Probably why i haven't gone much faster in the last couple of years!?

Now, I don't know which lap that was but I have had an RA-1 leave the rim at apex of T7 at TWS on my second lap. I got held up on lap one and couldn't get heat/pressure in the tire. I used to start around 18lbs cold on hot days, 21 on colder days aiming for 31 hot. Turned in and loaded it with nearly 2G of lateral load and rolled it off the rim and started a wild ride that tore the hell out of my splitter and diffuser....all of which had 2 laps. I have pictures of my car in the keyhole at Mid Ohio that show you could put your finger in between the tire bead and lip of the rim...at 31-32lbs of pressure. I think that is the reason why toyo recommends 40 hot....so the tire stays on the rim!

Granted I wasn't there, but from the video, this was all driver error IMHO. It happens. Sucks that he paid a big price but it happens.