
“Warning: Auto racing is dangerous. All forms of motorized sports are dangerous. No product can protect the user against all possible or foreseeable accidents, even ones at low speed. No warranty is expressed or implied regarding this product’s ability to prevent users from injury or death. The user assumes all risks.”
The helmet you purchased has some similar warning on the side of the box. A warning that many glaze over before putting on their new helmet and heading out to their autocross or track day.
Everybody knows motorsports is dangerous. Even if in the back of their mind they hope it will never happen to them.
The last sentence in the warning is the most important, and probably the least considered: The user assumes all risks.
Drivers in all forms of motorsport, from autocross to road racing, all take the risk to win. You can manage risk by getting all the best safety gear, going to the top racing school, and doing all the right things to buy down the risk of crashing.
You can do it all right, but if you do it for long enough, you’ll crash your car. Crashing can be anything as minor as a bent-up fender or bumper from another car to totaling your race car in a wall.
There are three types of crashes.
- You make a mistake.
- Somebody else makes a mistake.
- None of the above.
The first is self-explanatory. You’ve run out of talent or misjudged a situation, and mistakes are compounding until it results in your car meeting a wall or another car.
This type of crash is hard to admit to because of ego sometimes. I always respect drivers who are willing to take responsibility for their actions. Drivers who are willing to admit they made an error learn from it and become better drivers who never repeat it again.
The second type of crash is frustrating. Somebody else is at fault, and your car has bent metal as a result.
The other driver created situation number one for himself, and you’re taken along for the ride as a result. The frustrating part of this is that you may not have done anything wrong, but your car now needs repairs. You got the short end of the stick in this situation, but in the end, it is part of the risk we all take for the shot to win.
The third type of crash is where an individual is not the cause of the crash. It is more of an act of God, something that nobody could have prevented in that moment.
It can be anything from a mechanical problem--something that breaks on your car and causes you to lose control—or an earthquake that swallows the car whole.
Or it can be a racing incident ruled by the racing stewards as not really having a driver who caused it, just a situation of circumstance that resulted in a crash.
In all three of these situations, the driver has assumed all risks. When a driver puts wheels on track, he or she is accepting the risk whether they know it or not.
If you are willing to risk it all for the glory of winning, you deal with the consequences of losing. The consequences of losing can be a harsh reality as you pick up the pieces of your race car on the side of the track.
Photo credit: James Ray
My crash was the second kind. Another driver pushed my car off a straightaway, sending me into a concrete wall.
SCCA reviewed the incident and quickly found the other driver at fault. My newly built E46-chassis M3 met its untimely death just weeks after being completed.
In some crashes, there is a point of no return where you know your car will hit the wall. Remember to take both hands off the steering wheel and cross them on your chest. This will prevent the steering wheel from breaking your thumbs and wrists during the jarring impact.
It is equally important to take both feet off the pedals for the same safety reasons. If you have crossed the point of no return, “two feet in” won’t make a difference anymore. You want to protect your limbs and let the harnesses or seat take the load.
When my car hit the Jersey barrier, I had my arms crossed, but my right foot was still on the brake pedal. This mistake caused a huge amount of force to travel through my foot on impact with the concrete and broke several bones in my right foot.
It’s a minor injury in the grand scheme of things, but five months later I’m stuck in a cast and hobbling on crutches. The hands-off and feet-off rule will help prevent injury.
The risks of crashing include physical and financial consequences. After my crash, some people suggested starting a GoFundMe to help rebuild my car. It is my belief that crowdfunding is for true emergencies or life-threatening situations.
There was recently an emergency vehicle volunteer at Thunderhill who was injured while assisting a driver on track. He sustained serious injuries and is looking at a long road for recovery, and the motorsport community was more than happy to pitch in, raising more than $38,000 to help his recovery.
This type of cause is the real reason crowdfunding exists. Not to panhandle the community to rebuild bent metal from a first-world hobby.
Being able to participate in this sport and walking away from a big crash is a privilege in itself.
Blog to be continued.
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