SO YOU CRASHED YOUR RACE CAR - NOW WHAT?
On Friday October 25, 2024, I was racing our S550 Mustang (that we call "Trigger") at the SCCA Time Trial Nationals, which is an event that has competition times taken over 4 days at a track called NCM. This was a new track to me so I was trying to learn the course, but lost my first 2 sessions Thursday to other cars spinning, crashing, or traffic. I literally could not afford to waste a single lap on track, as I had much to learn but this big car really falls off after lap 1, due to the way Yokohama A052 tires heat up.
After this first Friday session (below, my 4th total session) I had barely gotten 4 laps unencumbered with traffic or yellow flags, and was really trying to zero in on the leaders in my class. I was having a pretty good time up to that point, and was within reach of a win, if I had more time...
In the very next session, on lap 1, I crashed in Turn 17 and impacted the outside wall at about 40 mph, with the left front of the car taking the brunt of the impact, but also hitting the left rear as well.
From the moment that I crashed I knew that I needed to record this - as I had good data logging and video recorders going. My hope now is to share what I have learned in this incident, as well as the last 36 years of track events and Time Trial competition, and fixing crashed customers' cars at my shop - so others can learn from my mistakes and be prepared for this end result, should it happen to them. If you do track driving for long enough, it is a statistical probability you might "join the club".
This article will start moments after the crash and cover the exit from the car, unloading from the roll back, loading the busted car for the trip home, damage assessment, parts ordering, the in-house repairs and final alignment work on the fixed race car, then track testing. Hopefully we can ALL avoid using The Money Gun if this happens to you!
1. DURING AND RIGHT AFTER THE CRASH
Nobody ever wants to contact a barrier or another car when you are on a race track, but if it happens to you, there are things you can do to minimize damage to your body - which is your FIRST concern. WEAR THE RIGHT SAFETY GEAR. I was wearing a HANS device, had brand new Lifeline 6-point harnesses that I had tightened well, was in a FIA / SFI 3.2 A/5 racing suit / gloves / shoes, and I could see the crash coming for a couple of seconds. I knew it was going to be a hit.
It is easy to say this, but harder to do: DON'T TENSE UP! That's how you pull muscles or break bones.
The steering wheel can whip in your hands, so be ready for that (unhook your thumbs). The data from the impact showed a 2.5g shock, which in the grand scheme of things wasn't very high. This car regularly sees 2.0g stops and cornering, with sticky tires and big aero. What you need to worry about is 10-20g+ impact loads that last for more than a few milliseconds. That sort of BIG impact flings arms and legs around and can break bones, for sure, but a brain moving inside a skull can be a real problem at those loads. This is getting more attention lately from boxers and football players, ie: Traumatic Brain Injury
Not the case here, I never blacked out. After the impact on the left front corner and side of the car at around 35 mph, I still had some forward momentum. Once I found that I still had some steering and stopping power, I traveled a little further along the side of the track, to better clear a potential second car's impact zone. I traveled slowly straight along the wall, through the grass and away from the impact site. The video below shows the crash and the aftermath - I turned the video off right before the EMT and wrecker showed up, which took about 5 minutes.
In case I had slipped off in someone else's fluids, moving ahead clears me from a potential second racer, who might join the party. By all means try to NOT make another impact with anything solid. If you can keep the car OFF the racing line, and even the entire racing surface if possible (sometimes dry grass means getting to the edge of the track). Stop moving safely and quickly, of course.
Once the car was fully stopped, it was time to KILL THE POWER. I shut off every system by hitting the main Cartek battery isolator (kill switch), which we have located in three places - one in the center gauge panel (for me to use) and two more buttons on both the left and right sides of the dash, within easy reach of a corner worker (if I am incapacitated or if I get out in the hurry and forget to shut off the power). These buttons have the required "lightning bolt" decal, both inside and outside of the car.
Then it was time to LOOK FOR SMOKE, and while I did see some brake smoke from the left front, it went away quickly. I could tell by the smell it was just tire klag on the brakes. I had the fire suppression system pulls within reach - with pulls located at both lateral edges of the dash, so I or a corner worker could get to them from either side. Luckily I didn't have to discharge the Lifeline AFFF system.
Next up you need to let the corner workers you are OK with the universal RAISED ARM OUT THE WINDOW WITH A THUMBS UP! This is important to remember, as the nearest corner worker is also likely furiously waving YELLOW FLAGS until other cars on track are gone (black flagged) or otherwise clearly informed that that they have a crashed car ahead. DON'T LEAVE THEM HANGING - get that arm out, over and over, with a thumbs up each time until you hear an audible "THANK YOU - WE SEE YOU!" from the corner worker. And that is exactly what happened.
By all means STAY IN THE CAR and tighten your belts UNLESS the car is ON FIRE. If you smell or see fuel leaking, get ready to exit, otherwise stay belted in. Belted in keeps you protected if another racer goes off in the same spot and impacts you.
2. GETTING OUT OF THE CAR + AMBULANCE RIDE
After the wrecker arrived on scene, someone came to the door and asked me if I was OK. I was still belted in and helmet on. I had already done a quick assessment of arms, legs, and head in the 5 minutes I waited until they arrived arrive, and said I was fine and had no pain. Of course you will have BUCKETS of adrenaline flowing through your veins, so don't trust this feeling fully. You will need to re-assess how you feel with the EMTs.
Getting out of the car can be easy, or maybe not. In my case this caged car has a fully functional door that opens, but a head restraint style containment Sparco seat which makes things harder. It helps in my case if I can slide the seat back (Sparco sliders) to get out of the open door quickly. Once the wrecker and EMTs arrived I unstrapped harnesses and started to get out. The slider was jammed AND the door wouldn't open more than a few inches, as the front fender had been shoved back into the door. And as you can see, with the door closed my helmet will not fit through the side window opening (this is common in modern cars with high shoulder lines).
This type of "restricted exit" was clearly something I should have practiced. Removing the helmet and HANs inside the car, maybe blindfolded, then climb out the window with the seat in the normal position IS MUCH HARDER THAN IT SEEMS. What followed was a less than graceful exit - with the help of the track official we opened the door partially, I got my head and back out the now wider window opening, then we re-closed the door, I sat on the window sill, and shimmied my body out. I will work on practicing this before I go back out on track.
Then I was taken to go to the nearby ambulance where EMTs did a quick assessment and asked me to go to the nearby hospital for examination. I knew my body was fine, no soreness or double vision, and I never blacked out (unlike a previous crash 10 years earlier). I refused the hospital visit and had to fill out a form stating that. I really wanted to go help with the cleanup and make sure we got all of the pieces that broke off the car, but they will NOT let you. The track workers will load your car with the front or rear tow hooks that your car (hopefully) has.
3. HOW TO UNLOAD FROM THE ROLL BACK IN PITS
The ambulance got back to my paddock spot and dropped me off before the wrecker arrived. The first thing I did was FIND MY PHONE and call my wife. She was on site and a bit frantic, but I got her calmed down and asked her to meet me at our trailer. I quickly got out of my fire suit and Coolshirt vest and got ready for the dirty work to follow.
When the roll back wrecker arrived moments later I could finally see the extent of the damage - the left front corner was pretty smashy, and the left front suspension, wheel, and steering were pretty tanked. This National TT Championship event was over for me, which was a real gut punch.
We needed to remove the rear diffuser to get the car off the wrecker. I knew what tools were needed, and I along with some buddies got to work quickly. With the diffuser off, the wrecker driver slid and tilted the flat bed back and dumped the car onto the pavement near my trailer. Plop!
4. TIPS TO LOADING A BUSTED RACE CAR INTO YOUR TRAILER
The car would not roll, as the left front wheel and suspension was flopping around like a badly broken limb. With the car on the ground, it was time to figure out how to get this busted mess into our trailer, which was no small matter. This wide car barely fits between the fenders inside this 8'6" wide trailer, so we needed to get that left front wheel off. At this point I regretted not having a "slider plate" (a big plastic panel that you can slide a car around on) or a wheel dolly.
We took a full sized floor jack and got to work - but it was too low to slide under the side with the busted tire. Some other racers pitched in and within a few minutes we had the front bumper cover plastics removed, which gave us access to lift up on the front bumper beam. We put a jack stand on the bumper to secure everything and allow me to work.
In the future we might add some "pockets" and a slip-in jack pad on the side, to help get a car with a flat tire up off the ground - as the jack would not fit under the side skirt, and we couldn't exactly "drive up on a board" to get some height. With the front off the ground, I removed the camber plate from the strut tower, which dropped the rest of that corner's suspension down. Then after cutting a few zip ties and disconnecting one brake line, the whole front left wheel, brake, and suspension came off.
The wrecker driver brought back part of the splitter, so we were able to salvage some of the splitter strut parts and one "tunnel". The wheel was deformed and stuck around the brake rotor and caliper, so that was set aside with a hope that we could re-use some of these pieces during repairs.
To get the car to roll we ran to Harbor Freight and paid $64 for a pair of 1500 pound car dollies, placing one under the front subframe. That allowed the car to roll, and I actually drove the car about 20 feet towards the trailer like this (see video below left).
Once lined up with the trailer, we used a jack and the dolly to get the car up onto the ramp, and the trailer's winch to pull the car in. Without the winch it would have taken a LOT of strong backs to load this car (have done it that way for a friend and it was terrible). A winch is a MUST inside of any race car trailer - you will thank me later. Spend the $300 to get you an 8000-12000 pound winch with Nylon cord that runs off a 12V battery. It is worth every penny.
Now that the car was in the trailer we could strap it down, then load and secure all of the broken bits we removed - the wheel / strut / brake assembly, the diffuser, remains of the splitter, and all of our normal track gear.
5. ONCE HOME - ASSESS THE DAMAGE QUICKLY
After the long 700 mile, 11 hour tow back to Texas, I got out of the truck and rested for a full day - just didn't touch anything inside the trailer. I was frustrated from the crash and tired from the trip back.
JUST DON'T GET IN A FUNK!
Do not let depression or procrastination sink in. What you do NOT want to do is "let the car sit" while you lick your wounds and think about racing again. Look, even if you lose your nerve and get out of the sport (a very small but real chance, in some cases) you can never sell a wrecked race car for any amount of money. And even if the unibody or chassis is damaged beyond repair, it is always better to know that sooner rather than later, and start to part out the good stuff quickly.
I've had customers that crashed a race car only to leave them in the trailer for a year or two, or shove them in storage and forget about them. Once you do that you can lose the momentum to ever want to work on the car again. I've seen wrecked cars sold after letting them sit and fester, and it is always at a huge loss. By any means possible FIX THE CAR as soon as you can, or at least do a good assessment and figure out if the chassis is a write off.
Some buddies of mine ran an endurance car for ten years, but nearly 18 months after a crash that wiped out the chassis, it took some pressing timelines on their new race car build to force them to strip the usable safety gear and electronics off the wreck. YES, it hurts to look at a wrecked race car, especially one that is totaled and not rebuildable. Still, the sooner you can get the valuable bits off and junk or sell the chassis, the better it is for your soul.
On the Monday after I got back, I was in a real funk. We removed some busted parts from the trailer, took a look at what could be seen without unloading, and started ordering some parts. By the Tuesday after returning, I was getting pressure from the crew, so we had to unload the car. Unfortunately our facility doesn't have a "fancy paved parking area" yet, so that act took some plywood, some pushing, and a winch to pull the car over gravel and up the slight ramp and into the shop.
After 45 minutes of work doing this, it was in the shop. Getting the car quickly onto a lift, removing busted bits, and assessing the damage was VERY cathartic. We noted broken control arms and some other things right away, but as more pieces came off the more we realized how GOOD the actual chassis looked.
Sure, there are some obviously bent and busted parts, but in any impact the ENERGY from the crash has to be absorbed somewhere - like through the wheels, fenders, control arms, spindles, dampers, and other parts. These are at the extremities and easily replaced, unlike the subframe, chassis, firewall, cage, and other core structures inside the car.
Now it was time to look at all of the load paths from this crash. The control arms that broke, where do they mount to? The splitter and diffuser that came loose or broke off, how do those mounting points look? In a big impact the mass of the engine and transmission can bend or break mounts or mounting points, so those need to be looked at.
The video above was taken on day 2 and 3 of repairs and shows our assessment and some of the main fixes done over that 48 hour period. I will touch on some of those things from the video throughout this post.
continued below
On Friday October 25, 2024, I was racing our S550 Mustang (that we call "Trigger") at the SCCA Time Trial Nationals, which is an event that has competition times taken over 4 days at a track called NCM. This was a new track to me so I was trying to learn the course, but lost my first 2 sessions Thursday to other cars spinning, crashing, or traffic. I literally could not afford to waste a single lap on track, as I had much to learn but this big car really falls off after lap 1, due to the way Yokohama A052 tires heat up.
After this first Friday session (below, my 4th total session) I had barely gotten 4 laps unencumbered with traffic or yellow flags, and was really trying to zero in on the leaders in my class. I was having a pretty good time up to that point, and was within reach of a win, if I had more time...
In the very next session, on lap 1, I crashed in Turn 17 and impacted the outside wall at about 40 mph, with the left front of the car taking the brunt of the impact, but also hitting the left rear as well.
From the moment that I crashed I knew that I needed to record this - as I had good data logging and video recorders going. My hope now is to share what I have learned in this incident, as well as the last 36 years of track events and Time Trial competition, and fixing crashed customers' cars at my shop - so others can learn from my mistakes and be prepared for this end result, should it happen to them. If you do track driving for long enough, it is a statistical probability you might "join the club".
This article will start moments after the crash and cover the exit from the car, unloading from the roll back, loading the busted car for the trip home, damage assessment, parts ordering, the in-house repairs and final alignment work on the fixed race car, then track testing. Hopefully we can ALL avoid using The Money Gun if this happens to you!
1. DURING AND RIGHT AFTER THE CRASH
Nobody ever wants to contact a barrier or another car when you are on a race track, but if it happens to you, there are things you can do to minimize damage to your body - which is your FIRST concern. WEAR THE RIGHT SAFETY GEAR. I was wearing a HANS device, had brand new Lifeline 6-point harnesses that I had tightened well, was in a FIA / SFI 3.2 A/5 racing suit / gloves / shoes, and I could see the crash coming for a couple of seconds. I knew it was going to be a hit.
It is easy to say this, but harder to do: DON'T TENSE UP! That's how you pull muscles or break bones.
The steering wheel can whip in your hands, so be ready for that (unhook your thumbs). The data from the impact showed a 2.5g shock, which in the grand scheme of things wasn't very high. This car regularly sees 2.0g stops and cornering, with sticky tires and big aero. What you need to worry about is 10-20g+ impact loads that last for more than a few milliseconds. That sort of BIG impact flings arms and legs around and can break bones, for sure, but a brain moving inside a skull can be a real problem at those loads. This is getting more attention lately from boxers and football players, ie: Traumatic Brain Injury
Not the case here, I never blacked out. After the impact on the left front corner and side of the car at around 35 mph, I still had some forward momentum. Once I found that I still had some steering and stopping power, I traveled a little further along the side of the track, to better clear a potential second car's impact zone. I traveled slowly straight along the wall, through the grass and away from the impact site. The video below shows the crash and the aftermath - I turned the video off right before the EMT and wrecker showed up, which took about 5 minutes.
In case I had slipped off in someone else's fluids, moving ahead clears me from a potential second racer, who might join the party. By all means try to NOT make another impact with anything solid. If you can keep the car OFF the racing line, and even the entire racing surface if possible (sometimes dry grass means getting to the edge of the track). Stop moving safely and quickly, of course.
Once the car was fully stopped, it was time to KILL THE POWER. I shut off every system by hitting the main Cartek battery isolator (kill switch), which we have located in three places - one in the center gauge panel (for me to use) and two more buttons on both the left and right sides of the dash, within easy reach of a corner worker (if I am incapacitated or if I get out in the hurry and forget to shut off the power). These buttons have the required "lightning bolt" decal, both inside and outside of the car.
Then it was time to LOOK FOR SMOKE, and while I did see some brake smoke from the left front, it went away quickly. I could tell by the smell it was just tire klag on the brakes. I had the fire suppression system pulls within reach - with pulls located at both lateral edges of the dash, so I or a corner worker could get to them from either side. Luckily I didn't have to discharge the Lifeline AFFF system.
Next up you need to let the corner workers you are OK with the universal RAISED ARM OUT THE WINDOW WITH A THUMBS UP! This is important to remember, as the nearest corner worker is also likely furiously waving YELLOW FLAGS until other cars on track are gone (black flagged) or otherwise clearly informed that that they have a crashed car ahead. DON'T LEAVE THEM HANGING - get that arm out, over and over, with a thumbs up each time until you hear an audible "THANK YOU - WE SEE YOU!" from the corner worker. And that is exactly what happened.
By all means STAY IN THE CAR and tighten your belts UNLESS the car is ON FIRE. If you smell or see fuel leaking, get ready to exit, otherwise stay belted in. Belted in keeps you protected if another racer goes off in the same spot and impacts you.
2. GETTING OUT OF THE CAR + AMBULANCE RIDE
After the wrecker arrived on scene, someone came to the door and asked me if I was OK. I was still belted in and helmet on. I had already done a quick assessment of arms, legs, and head in the 5 minutes I waited until they arrived arrive, and said I was fine and had no pain. Of course you will have BUCKETS of adrenaline flowing through your veins, so don't trust this feeling fully. You will need to re-assess how you feel with the EMTs.
Getting out of the car can be easy, or maybe not. In my case this caged car has a fully functional door that opens, but a head restraint style containment Sparco seat which makes things harder. It helps in my case if I can slide the seat back (Sparco sliders) to get out of the open door quickly. Once the wrecker and EMTs arrived I unstrapped harnesses and started to get out. The slider was jammed AND the door wouldn't open more than a few inches, as the front fender had been shoved back into the door. And as you can see, with the door closed my helmet will not fit through the side window opening (this is common in modern cars with high shoulder lines).
This type of "restricted exit" was clearly something I should have practiced. Removing the helmet and HANs inside the car, maybe blindfolded, then climb out the window with the seat in the normal position IS MUCH HARDER THAN IT SEEMS. What followed was a less than graceful exit - with the help of the track official we opened the door partially, I got my head and back out the now wider window opening, then we re-closed the door, I sat on the window sill, and shimmied my body out. I will work on practicing this before I go back out on track.
Then I was taken to go to the nearby ambulance where EMTs did a quick assessment and asked me to go to the nearby hospital for examination. I knew my body was fine, no soreness or double vision, and I never blacked out (unlike a previous crash 10 years earlier). I refused the hospital visit and had to fill out a form stating that. I really wanted to go help with the cleanup and make sure we got all of the pieces that broke off the car, but they will NOT let you. The track workers will load your car with the front or rear tow hooks that your car (hopefully) has.
3. HOW TO UNLOAD FROM THE ROLL BACK IN PITS
The ambulance got back to my paddock spot and dropped me off before the wrecker arrived. The first thing I did was FIND MY PHONE and call my wife. She was on site and a bit frantic, but I got her calmed down and asked her to meet me at our trailer. I quickly got out of my fire suit and Coolshirt vest and got ready for the dirty work to follow.
When the roll back wrecker arrived moments later I could finally see the extent of the damage - the left front corner was pretty smashy, and the left front suspension, wheel, and steering were pretty tanked. This National TT Championship event was over for me, which was a real gut punch.
We needed to remove the rear diffuser to get the car off the wrecker. I knew what tools were needed, and I along with some buddies got to work quickly. With the diffuser off, the wrecker driver slid and tilted the flat bed back and dumped the car onto the pavement near my trailer. Plop!
4. TIPS TO LOADING A BUSTED RACE CAR INTO YOUR TRAILER
The car would not roll, as the left front wheel and suspension was flopping around like a badly broken limb. With the car on the ground, it was time to figure out how to get this busted mess into our trailer, which was no small matter. This wide car barely fits between the fenders inside this 8'6" wide trailer, so we needed to get that left front wheel off. At this point I regretted not having a "slider plate" (a big plastic panel that you can slide a car around on) or a wheel dolly.
We took a full sized floor jack and got to work - but it was too low to slide under the side with the busted tire. Some other racers pitched in and within a few minutes we had the front bumper cover plastics removed, which gave us access to lift up on the front bumper beam. We put a jack stand on the bumper to secure everything and allow me to work.
In the future we might add some "pockets" and a slip-in jack pad on the side, to help get a car with a flat tire up off the ground - as the jack would not fit under the side skirt, and we couldn't exactly "drive up on a board" to get some height. With the front off the ground, I removed the camber plate from the strut tower, which dropped the rest of that corner's suspension down. Then after cutting a few zip ties and disconnecting one brake line, the whole front left wheel, brake, and suspension came off.
The wrecker driver brought back part of the splitter, so we were able to salvage some of the splitter strut parts and one "tunnel". The wheel was deformed and stuck around the brake rotor and caliper, so that was set aside with a hope that we could re-use some of these pieces during repairs.
To get the car to roll we ran to Harbor Freight and paid $64 for a pair of 1500 pound car dollies, placing one under the front subframe. That allowed the car to roll, and I actually drove the car about 20 feet towards the trailer like this (see video below left).
Once lined up with the trailer, we used a jack and the dolly to get the car up onto the ramp, and the trailer's winch to pull the car in. Without the winch it would have taken a LOT of strong backs to load this car (have done it that way for a friend and it was terrible). A winch is a MUST inside of any race car trailer - you will thank me later. Spend the $300 to get you an 8000-12000 pound winch with Nylon cord that runs off a 12V battery. It is worth every penny.
Now that the car was in the trailer we could strap it down, then load and secure all of the broken bits we removed - the wheel / strut / brake assembly, the diffuser, remains of the splitter, and all of our normal track gear.
5. ONCE HOME - ASSESS THE DAMAGE QUICKLY
After the long 700 mile, 11 hour tow back to Texas, I got out of the truck and rested for a full day - just didn't touch anything inside the trailer. I was frustrated from the crash and tired from the trip back.
JUST DON'T GET IN A FUNK!
Do not let depression or procrastination sink in. What you do NOT want to do is "let the car sit" while you lick your wounds and think about racing again. Look, even if you lose your nerve and get out of the sport (a very small but real chance, in some cases) you can never sell a wrecked race car for any amount of money. And even if the unibody or chassis is damaged beyond repair, it is always better to know that sooner rather than later, and start to part out the good stuff quickly.
I've had customers that crashed a race car only to leave them in the trailer for a year or two, or shove them in storage and forget about them. Once you do that you can lose the momentum to ever want to work on the car again. I've seen wrecked cars sold after letting them sit and fester, and it is always at a huge loss. By any means possible FIX THE CAR as soon as you can, or at least do a good assessment and figure out if the chassis is a write off.
Some buddies of mine ran an endurance car for ten years, but nearly 18 months after a crash that wiped out the chassis, it took some pressing timelines on their new race car build to force them to strip the usable safety gear and electronics off the wreck. YES, it hurts to look at a wrecked race car, especially one that is totaled and not rebuildable. Still, the sooner you can get the valuable bits off and junk or sell the chassis, the better it is for your soul.
On the Monday after I got back, I was in a real funk. We removed some busted parts from the trailer, took a look at what could be seen without unloading, and started ordering some parts. By the Tuesday after returning, I was getting pressure from the crew, so we had to unload the car. Unfortunately our facility doesn't have a "fancy paved parking area" yet, so that act took some plywood, some pushing, and a winch to pull the car over gravel and up the slight ramp and into the shop.
After 45 minutes of work doing this, it was in the shop. Getting the car quickly onto a lift, removing busted bits, and assessing the damage was VERY cathartic. We noted broken control arms and some other things right away, but as more pieces came off the more we realized how GOOD the actual chassis looked.
Sure, there are some obviously bent and busted parts, but in any impact the ENERGY from the crash has to be absorbed somewhere - like through the wheels, fenders, control arms, spindles, dampers, and other parts. These are at the extremities and easily replaced, unlike the subframe, chassis, firewall, cage, and other core structures inside the car.
Now it was time to look at all of the load paths from this crash. The control arms that broke, where do they mount to? The splitter and diffuser that came loose or broke off, how do those mounting points look? In a big impact the mass of the engine and transmission can bend or break mounts or mounting points, so those need to be looked at.
The video above was taken on day 2 and 3 of repairs and shows our assessment and some of the main fixes done over that 48 hour period. I will touch on some of those things from the video throughout this post.
continued below
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