Many times, people get a funny feeling that something bad is going to happen in the near future. Call it a premonition or vision, but they know. When you do get the feeling that things are not going to be good, I think you need to pay attention and act.
Acting can take various forms, from not doing what doesn’t feel right to being more careful knowing that there could be problems. This discussion is all about recognizing when that feeling comes upon you and acting on it. It’s a bit serious, but then again, some things in life are.
I’ve had it happen to me. I raced Karts for about five years, and the last year I raced, I was running a summer road racing series in Savannah, Georgia, at the Roebling Road course. About two weeks before the next races, I had the strong feeling something was going to go wrong. Up to that point, I had never had a crash or gotten hurt racing, but this felt different.
So, I went anyway—without my Karts—and helped my friends with their efforts. I was asked many times, “Why aren’t you racing?” My answer was just that I didn’t want to, and I didn’t have to. It’s as simple as that.
Did anything happen? Yes, in a race I would have been running in, it rained, but only down in turn 1 at the end of a long dry straightaway. It was a very fast, wide-open 4G turn, and all of the participants went off track, some crashing into other Karts and drivers. My good friend Terry whom I was helping hit another Kart, flipped, and broke his collarbone. I had to take him to the hospital.
Would I have been in that one? Yes. Would I have been hurt? I don’t know. All I do know is I wasn’t involved. I had made a tough decision, and it probably paid off. I guess we’ll never know. Here is another example.
I really like watching films showing Aryton Senna, the F1 driver who died in a crash in 1994. I think he might just be the greatest race driver of all time, and I liked who he was as a person. I have watched documentaries of his life, and I especially studied the parts showing the weekend of his last race, and the morning of that race. Looking at his demeanor and his face, I am convinced he knew something bad was going to happen.
Fellow driver Roland Ratzenberger had died in a violent crash just the day before. The F1 doctor, Sid Watkins, was a good friend of Ayrtons, and had been aware of his concerns. He was quoted as saying essentially, Aryton, you don’t have to do this. We can just go fishing. Senna replied, you know that I have to do it. He felt he owed his fans, sponsors, and team the race. I believe in making that decision, he was going against his better judgment. We’ll never know.
But now you are reading this, and you might have your own special feelings before a big race. Or, you might have repeated symptoms of concussion as we have related in an earlier story. If you have second thoughts and think it might be better to not race for whatever the reason, I am here to tell you that you don’t have to.
I sincerely hope that if and when the time comes, you will have the courage to just say no, to walk away. Reconsider what you are doing and maybe do it a different way. Jeff Vochaska, who I mentioned in my concussion story, did just that. He stopped driving and became a car owner and crew chief. He is still enjoying the sport, so no one can say he quit. He just does it in a different way.
Right now, Junior—and if you don’t know whom I am talking about find another sport—is deciding what to do with his racing future. By the time you read this, he will have decided. The direction he takes will speak to our current and future short-track drivers and influence how they decide their future.
We really don’t know how many racers at short tracks across the country are affected by concussions, but as we spread awareness of this problem and especially its symptoms, maybe more of you will make an informed decision to just say no.
We really don’t know how many other drivers have had that funny feeling, but said yes when they should have said no. The decision that is ultimately made affects not only you as a driver, it affects your entire family, your fans, and your fellow participants. No one wants to see anything bad happen to anyone.
Racing is like all sports, and as such, will not last forever for any of us who drive, or play fullback, or pitcher or forward guard. Playing has its limits physically. We need to understand that, accept it, and be willing and ready to move on when it comes time to quit. I hope you will have the courage.
If you have comments or questions about this or anything racing related, send them to my email address: chassisrd@aol.com or mail can be sent to Circle Track, Senior Tech Editor, 1821 E. Dyer Rd., Ste. 150, Santa Ana, CA 92705.
CTRP-170100-QA-01
This is Bob back in 1988 during a practice for a one-off race at New Smyrna, which he won. He never lifted from the green flag on. We would not recommend racing Karts on a track with concrete walls. He was hitting speeds upwards of 100mph with basically no protection.
CT Needs More Detail
Hello Circle Track Staff,
I have been involved in racing since 1964, enjoy reading everything you print, overall, and think it’s terrific! I would like to point out in some of your articles on articles like bumpsteer, roll centers, and more tend to be written for engineering grads.
Many of the folks looking into this stuff haven’t the background to really comprehend it. Secondly, several of the articles are left open ended without explaining exactly how to make the adjustments necessary.
A good example here was the piece done on brakes and rotors. You mentioned everything there is to it except the principle of bias, balance bars and their installation, adjustment, fluid pressure and such. It would have been a great idea to also have given where to obtain the heat paint for checking the rotor temps.
Don Alford
Don,
Thanks for pointing that out. Funny thing, we have started to put more detail into the subject matter we present. I recently have written shorter “how to” articles explaining in detail how to accomplish the things we tout as being important to your cars performance.
The two brake articles that were in the September issue were the result of asking industry brake experts questions about the use and maintenance of racing brake systems. You are correct, we should have asked them about balance bars and brake-line pressure bias on different types of cars.
There is a division between explaining theory and explaining how to accomplish what the theory is trying to get you to do. I promise to be more diligent in the future as to how I explain things and more thorough by not leaving anything out. Take a look at our next few issues, and you can see where I do more step-by-step explanation of how to make the theory work.
Years Ago it Was Better
I just got Circle Track Magazine yesterday in the mail. I’m not a stock-car driver, but I am an auto-racing fan. I started off in 1968 going to Lancaster Speedway, and from there, numerous race tracks within a two- to three-hour drive from Buffalo, New York. I still go, and most of the people I meet at the racetrack are much younger. If you mention Holland Speedway, they say they don’t like it as it has only one middle groove. Spencer Speedway, they say, is too flat to race side by side. They have never seen Lancaster when it was a separate speedway from the drag strip nor have they ever been to Cayuga Speedway.
My point, back in the late ’60s to early ’70s every one of these tracks had side-by-side racing, and the drivers were more gentlemenly racers. The Modified cars came with very wide racing rubber, and although they had a side crash bar, it was usually flush against the body. If you made contact with another car, someone went airborne, and quite a few times ended up flying out of the speedway.
The Late Models with full bodies still had much wider rubber that extended outside the body. These cars also could get airborne if they touched wheels. I believe they raced more cautiously because of what might happen, and they also had racing rubber that controlled the cars a lot better than today.
Then, the Modified cars came up with a side nerf bar that extended out to match the outside wheel. Once this happened, the drivers could make side contact without having to worry about flipping and drove them more like Late Models. Then, you had the tire width reduced both on Open Wheel and Late Model cars. That change was supposed to save on the cost of a set of tires by what, a hundred dollars, making it more affordable to the race teams. Nobody slowed down, and it effectively killed side-by-side racing as I saw it. The guys that tried it, ended up causing major accidents.
I went to Spencer Speedway recently, and ended up talking to a guy who used to help out Richie Evans with his race cars. I mentioned that they change to smaller width tires, while saving some tire costs and ended up with what looked like thousands of dollars in damaged race cars. He agreed, and said it started what I would call freight-train racing, and a great reduction in the number of race cars due to crash costs. Neither of us understands it.
All the drivers coming up through the ranks are dirtier drivers than back in the ’60s, but it’s the rules themselves that have caused such a change in the racing action—not necessarily for the better. At Martinsville back when the Modified cars ran the day, before the NASCAR stock cars raced on Sunday, Geoff Bodine put a set of his Modified tires on his Late Model and knocked off a couple of seconds in his lap times. He said, “Now that’s the way a stock car should be”. NASCAR promptly told him to mind his own business or go back to running Modifieds. Whether or not you agree with me, I’m not sure. But as a fan watching the races for the past 40-some years, this is what I have seen from the bleachers.
Chet Olen
Buffalo, New York
Chet,
I do agree with you. The changes made to the cars and tire size did have an effect on the racing. But I believe the officiating has a lot to do with the way modern drivers act. It’s a lot like raising children, if you allow bad behavior, or don’t correct it early on, immediately, and especially consistently, it just gets worse.
Today’s promoters are so worried about losing racers, they put up with bad driving and even intentional assault with a race car. No other way to put it. I just witnessed an incident at a local speedway where one team’s spotter told one of the driver’s mothers, during a race, that his driver was going to put him out. And he did just that a few laps later. The officials were told before it happened and said, “We’re watching it”. Afterwards, they did nothing. Now, the team who was intentionally crashed and others who witnessed it might not come back. So much for not wanting to lose competitors, right?
Loose-In Problem
What could it be the problem when you get loose in after 15 to 20 laps? The temperature split is good, and the tire temps are fine. It happens on both new and used tires.
Garrett
Garrett,
This is something that would take some checking into. I’ll offer some of my thoughts. Loose-in usually happens when the left rear tire looses grip. It often comes as a result of a LR shock that has too much rebound resistance. But your loose-in doesn’t come until after 15 to 20 laps.
It could still be shocks. If the right front shock works to control movement on entry braking, turning left, and the rise in banking, then the car would be fine until it stopped working. If that shock were to fade from heat after that length of time, the quicker movement of the RF on entry would take more load off the LR tire than before, causing the loose-in condition.
You don’t mention what type of shocks you are running, so it’s hard to diagnose this problem with so little information. But logically, it has to be associated with a change caused by heat or function. Springs don’t change that fast, and tires usually won’t cause this type of problem, especially when you say the temperatures are fine.
If you are running a twin-tube shock on the RF, you might want to change to a gas-pressure shock that can handle heat more efficiently. Or, if you are running gas-pressure shocks, maybe the pressure you are running in the RF shock is insufficient to prevent cavitations. These are just a few of my thoughts.
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