Very well put. And you can see their behavior in parking lots (where they think they can park in the fire lane and run in for a minute) on the sidelines at kid's ball games, or allowing their child's outrageous behavior in public to go without correction.
Back to the thread, I wouldn't post pics of a DE mishap... But I would expect and could care less that someone would of mine.

The only thing I'm more ambivalent about is my utter ambivalence.:p

They were described to me as blue shrubs :).

Really? I have yet to see a crash at a DE due to mechanical failure. That's not to say I haven't seen mechanical failure, but it hasn't caused a crash. Every single crash I've seen has involved driver error. And I'll bet my car that the vast majority of those errors involves ego.

I have worked the grid/steward position at our events on the east coast. People have gotten a little snotty with the lookover we do on the cars before they head out on the track. We have found many a helmet, hood or HANS unlatched. Our region (due to some arrangement with the flaggers) doesn't allow Go Pros or anything else suctioned to the glass. (Glued is OK). People get really pissy when you have them take it down. One guy had a giant GPS data logger. It was like a mini laptop almost. Anyway, last event, a guy broke a splitter off a GT3 and ran it over. It kicked up and smashed the glass of the car behind. If there was a suctioned cupped device, it would have been a projectile at 100+. Yow.

Common decency comes with not posting these photos. Do many folks take photos? Of course. Banged up cars on the internet let people gloat about rich guys with egos breaking their toys. I have seen many ego driven crashes, I have also seen people just in over their head and not have the capacity/seat time to deal with situations just yet.

You car DE peeps are uptight. Bikes come back in several pieces on the crash truck and lowball bids for it are part of the fun. ( after learning that the rider is okay or not too bad off )
A friend in florida had his come back in the bucket of a backhoe, and that made for a great photo op.

As the saying goes " no matter how you crash, you always land on your wallet"

Go Pros and such . Many groups are now requiring that they be safety wired or otherwise teathered to the bike.

Of course, there is a lot less money involved with the bikes. I've seen bumper damage on cars cost enough to buy a six pack of R6's.

I know, I know - "don't bring anything to the track that you can't afford to throw off a cliff". I'm admittedly pretty close to that, with my old '72 track rat, but most certainly are not.

I love it - I've actually not heard that one before.

My wife tells me motorcycle track days are "out"; reasoning that I'm at an age now where my wallet heals faster than my body, where in the early days of our marriage, it was the other way around.

Incredibly, I still see these suction-cupped onto windshields, bumpers, fenders, doors - you name it. The day one comes off in front of me is the day I violate the rules and publish "crash" video to YouTube - a colonoscopy filmed with the guy's very own camera.

Better attached things fly out of cars. Case in point the tip of my very expensive B&B exhaust when it detached at Sebring during a DE back in 1996 and bounced off the hood of an M3 only to destroy his windshield and by "ricochet" almost affecting the structural integrity of my face.

In one of the vintage racing organizations i participate with, they invite a group of racers from the old world and man, their cars litter the track with spings, lids, etc. I had an ugly close call when I broke a cv at very high speed after hitting a chunk that came out of one of their cars.

(sidebar: not fun to break a CV at 140MPH barreling down the tri-oval at Daytona :O )

Get out there and ride a track.
I know of a a bunch who started in their fifties and of a couple who are still grinding pucks into their seventies.

It is a heck of alot safer than the street.
Cars and carts are just not the same as reaching out and touching the track as you glide along through a corner.

I have, but you are correct, most of the time it is EGO, generally in the Instructors group of someone with a new Turbo. I was at one event where an instructor, hit a wall, in a 911, but had a case of MOTOR OIL in the truck, needless to say, he wasn't the only one to get any damage in that incident.

Which is why I have a dedicated Track car and we have Rental Track cars
The big problem can be getting EVENT insurance, our Dark Side DEs are very clear that it is DRIVERS EDUCATION, not a Racing event, this is what keeps the insurance rates down, as competitive events are more expensive to insure, which means the cost more. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1346192544.jpg

Oh, you have no idea how dearly I would love to take the old 900 SS out for a track day. Or, better yet, a dedicated track bike, so I wouldn't feel bad about tearing up all the nice carbon fiber bits on the Duc.

Alas, such is not to be. My wife is a wonderful person, who has been putting up with me and my shenanigans for almost 30 years now. Many, many of my adventures are what one would consider "risky" (climbing Mt. Rainier, being dropped off by bush plane in the wilderness to hunt for weeks at a time, untold solo back packing trips through the Cascades, Olympics, and other ranges, hunting "dangerous" big game, and on and on). She is the poster child for the "long suffering" wife, sitting quietly at home, wondering...

She has never said "no". Never put her foot down. She still hasn't, but she has asked "please don't". She would never stop me or get in my way in any way - "please don't" is as far as it will ever get. I respect her and love her with all of my heart. Her "please don't" - just once in oh so many years - resonates with me in a way that I suppose guys who suffer endless "I won't let you's" and "you can't's" might not understand. It terrifies her in a way nothing she has ever seen me do ever has, and that means something to me. I can have one unchecked item on my bucket list, I guess. She's checked so many others...

I saw a car totaled at the Glen when the aftermarket rim comletely sheared in a high speed corner so it does happen. What got me out of doing these was always worring about getting hit by another driver, not wrecking. There is no protection against that.

That makes perfect sense. It may not be rational but matters of the heart do not need to be.

Your solo back country hikes would really scare me. Several years ago I went for a day trip in Nevada. Up the Alien hwy and over Ely, then back home to Vegas. I saw a "park" called lunar crater ( volcanic crater) and thought it may be interesting. I drive what seems like several miles off the hwy and get to the crater. It did look pretty neat and there were some paths down into it. I started to make my way down whem I stopped and listened to the quiet. It dawned on me that no one would would hear or see me if something went wrong. A turned ankle would be bad, a broken leg could be fatal. I turned around and headed back to my truck.


I like waving to the corner workers at the track, knowing they are the ones coming to get me. After my first big crash a few years back, I always thumbs up the track marshal at pit out. I figure he/she may be the last person I communicate with, ever.

You haven't been to many DEs then. I've seen countless oil lines burst and the next 10 cars all go off or crash because of it, but yes the majority are driver induced.

Blown radiator hoses and coolant puked out of an overheating car driven by an inattentive pilot have caused more than their share of crash damage to the next car to arrive at the slick. I classify that as a mechanical failure accident.

Yeah, and like I said, for all she has put up with from me, I can certainly concede this one.

I know it's weird, but I find a lot of peace and solace in the fact that I'm completely on my own. That, and a certain clarity of thought, and deliberateness of action. Much like a DE, but in extremely slow motion. :D


Yup. It's always good kharma to be good to those who are helping us have our fun, and who may very well be the ones saving our unlucky asses, or the last ones we ever got to wave at.

Speaking of crashes and their causes, I've seen a mix of both mechanicals and cranials. I had an old Alfa coup blow a head gasket in front of me going around turn two at Pacific Raceways one day, spewing anti-freeze all over the track in front of me. That was a pretty wild ride for me; as close as I've come to completely tossing it. Had a brand new Focus SVT (or whatever) explode the right front hub (again, right in front of me) going up the hill around turn six, also at Pacific. Totaled that little Focus, and its driver was darn lucky to escape unscathed. I was about half a lap behind (or in front of) and old TR6 that disembowled itself going through 5A/5B at Pacific, leaving recognizable pieces of connecting rod, bearing caps, and about eight quarts of oil all over the track. The next several cars through there were toast. Then there was the Formula Vee that split its tranny in half, leaving blue Swepco just out of sight over the hill in turn seven. A first day out, just completed M3/LS6 car spun on it, caught a berm, and rolled several times. And on and on... Plenty of mechanicals.

Granted, I've seen lots of brain farts as well. Probably an even split between the two, actually. Or, no - if we count all of the spins and harmless "offs", the brain farts win the day. I haven't seen many "harmless" (beyond the initial failure) mechanicals, though. There is usually a lot more damage about to happen to the car that just had something fail and, unfortunately, those behind it.

I've probably done 50 or 60 track days, so maybe no veteran, but hardly a rookie either. I've only ever seen a big fluid spill once, and in fact was involved in it. 4 or 5 of us in a train and the lead guy sheared a coolant line, IIRC. If you know Mosport, by any chance, this was at the bottom of 4, preparing for 5, which is the hairpin. We all got nice and squiggly, but because everyone was driving sanely nobody crashed. We all pitted in for a debrief and cleanup, but no carnage.

I do the steward job just before you get out to the pit out guy. I get a lot of thumbs up and give it to my peers. I never thought that was the reason. That's heavy.

We all like happy endings.

My "home" track, Pacific Raceways, is notoriously unforgiving. Very little to no runoff in any of the corners, to where it has not kept up with certification to host any event for the big kids. I've seen too many damaged cars towed out of there that would have only required a change of shorts at other venues.

Fortunately, we now have a new track in the town of Shelton, WA, known as Ridge Motorsports Park. The place is freakin' awesome. I've only been there twice, but the sheer magnitude of the "nothing to hit" is very confidence inspiring. Hopefully it makes Pacific step up their game a bit...