Snetterton 2012 - Test day crash
Qualifying
Well this is becoming a habit, I spent the Friday test day avoiding a lot of spinners in front of me, I think in 4 consecutive laps I was behind 4 different spinners on three different corners... I think it might be personal.. or people just dont like the sight of a red car in their Mirrors. Even with all of that playing out on the Friday I could never have predicted what happened on the last lap of the qualifying session.
Basically the qualifying session yielded one of the biggest accidents of the sesason, again happening right in front of me, but not on a corner, or a slipery part of the track but on the dryest straightest part of the snetterton track.... the start finish line, no not at the start of the session, but at the end, when we were all doing about 110mph. I am becoming paranoid as it seems almost too big a coinsidence that this keeps happening right in front of me and they keep trying to test my ability to avoid accidents (it is either coincidence, or a lot of people are conspiring to get me involved in an accident (that one is for the conspiricy therorists amoungst you)).
Here is the video of me avoiding the carnage and creating some very bad flat spots on 4 tyres.
Well this is becoming a habit, I spent the Friday test day avoiding a lot of spinners in front of me, I think in 4 consecutive laps I was behind 4 different spinners on three different corners... I think it might be personal.. or people just dont like the sight of a red car in their Mirrors. Even with all of that playing out on the Friday I could never have predicted what happened on the last lap of the qualifying session.
Basically the qualifying session yielded one of the biggest accidents of the sesason, again happening right in front of me, but not on a corner, or a slipery part of the track but on the dryest straightest part of the snetterton track.... the start finish line, no not at the start of the session, but at the end, when we were all doing about 110mph. I am becoming paranoid as it seems almost too big a coinsidence that this keeps happening right in front of me and they keep trying to test my ability to avoid accidents (it is either coincidence, or a lot of people are conspiring to get me involved in an accident (that one is for the conspiricy therorists amoungst you)).
Here is the video of me avoiding the carnage and creating some very bad flat spots on 4 tyres.
So what do i think happend ?
Well from pulling the pieces together it would appear that there was a car (who will remain namless) who crossed the line and slowed down just as the 4 of us were flat out approaching hte line.
The problem was that in slowing down he drifted in front of the first car. This meant that Matthew Lawrence was forced to break hard with Andres Sinclair so close behind he could not take full avoidance from Matthew, and clipped his back end spinning matthew around so fast he actually hit the back of the nameless car, mean while Andres heads off towards the grass, and the third car of the 4 (Tony Mingoia) was left with no where to go and no option but to crash into Matthew Lawrence's spinning car.
Meanwhile, I stood on the breaks in order to gain time for the situation to play out and to see if i could find a way out... which i managed to do as the gap opened between the two spinning sets of cars (Andres on the left and Tony/Matthew in front).
What is strange is how clear everything is in my mind, they say everything slows down when you are in danger, and it is so true, i recall everything from the instinctive reaction to stand on the breaks, the concious question of which way are they going to play out, to the instinctive removal of the foot from the break to allow me to steer once i had decided how to get out of the problem.
The strongest memory is that of coming off the break to drive round the accident directly in front and at the same time seeing the parts of shattered lenses glistening in the sun above my car as i drove under the debris in the air....
I have to say it was the strangest experience of all, but above all no one was hurt and no one missed the race the following day... Thanks to the support of the Caterham mechanics....
Well from pulling the pieces together it would appear that there was a car (who will remain namless) who crossed the line and slowed down just as the 4 of us were flat out approaching hte line.
The problem was that in slowing down he drifted in front of the first car. This meant that Matthew Lawrence was forced to break hard with Andres Sinclair so close behind he could not take full avoidance from Matthew, and clipped his back end spinning matthew around so fast he actually hit the back of the nameless car, mean while Andres heads off towards the grass, and the third car of the 4 (Tony Mingoia) was left with no where to go and no option but to crash into Matthew Lawrence's spinning car.
Meanwhile, I stood on the breaks in order to gain time for the situation to play out and to see if i could find a way out... which i managed to do as the gap opened between the two spinning sets of cars (Andres on the left and Tony/Matthew in front).
What is strange is how clear everything is in my mind, they say everything slows down when you are in danger, and it is so true, i recall everything from the instinctive reaction to stand on the breaks, the concious question of which way are they going to play out, to the instinctive removal of the foot from the break to allow me to steer once i had decided how to get out of the problem.
The strongest memory is that of coming off the break to drive round the accident directly in front and at the same time seeing the parts of shattered lenses glistening in the sun above my car as i drove under the debris in the air....
I have to say it was the strangest experience of all, but above all no one was hurt and no one missed the race the following day... Thanks to the support of the Caterham mechanics....
Race day
Well, desptite yesterdays incident I did manage to qualify in 4th position.
First starting in 4th, we managed to get around to the second corner, where a major incident happened again, causing a red flag, and a restart.
The video below shows my main race, and shows how starting in 4th i battled up to third, and despite some strong defending I managed to break the tow distance for a couple of laps, but gear change (missed 3rd and got 5th instead) meant the distance was lost, and on the last lap i dropped from a Podium to 5th place.
I will appologise for the last lap ... mmmm.... temper tantrum and language you hear (so if you are offended, dont watch the video).
With all of that said, i have to say after the initial disapointment at myself for mucking things up, I did really enjoy the battles, and the hard fought race was such great fun to be a part of.
Enjoy the video!!
First starting in 4th, we managed to get around to the second corner, where a major incident happened again, causing a red flag, and a restart.
The video below shows my main race, and shows how starting in 4th i battled up to third, and despite some strong defending I managed to break the tow distance for a couple of laps, but gear change (missed 3rd and got 5th instead) meant the distance was lost, and on the last lap i dropped from a Podium to 5th place.
I will appologise for the last lap ... mmmm.... temper tantrum and language you hear (so if you are offended, dont watch the video).
With all of that said, i have to say after the initial disapointment at myself for mucking things up, I did really enjoy the battles, and the hard fought race was such great fun to be a part of.
Enjoy the video!!