I was at a lapping day yesterday on the big track at Mosport. A younger person showed up with a really trick Skyline. The cars was mint, big huge fenders, huge intercooler, Enkei racing wheels etc. The driver had an experienced driver take him around for 2 laps to show him the track. The experienced driver warned him about the track all the way around for the 2 laps. The young guy then went out on the track.............he made it out pit exit, through turn 2, through turn 3 and then destroyed the car in turn 4. Tore the whole left side of the car up, and most of the nose and tail. He hit so hard that the recaro drivers seat had a 45 degree bend from the base to the top of the back of the seat! Very expensive driving lesson indeed. The moral of the story is.............Dont learn at Mosport, learn at an autocross the to Shannonville or Dunnville, then after you have some experience the big track at Mosport.

 

Agreed. Some people forget that the best modification to any car (track or street) is the driver. Thanks for the reminder 01Racing.

 

jeeez... at least have some time to learn the car AT that track before you go bonkers at high speed.

I hate to see a Skyline or any nice car take a hit that hard...

lol at your sig...

 

I've lived and learned in that fashion. Long time ago I thought I was mario andretti and sure enough, my first lapping session, I hit the gravel trap every lap.

 

I have yet to be at a weekend at Mosport without seeing a wreck...

 

I was at Mosport 2 weeks ago doing some instructing, and 1st thing in the morning, in the 1st run group about 5 minutes in a Porsche Carrera hit the turn 9 wall head on and hard..........hard enough to buckle the passenger rear fender. It was one of the "experienced" drivers to boot!

 

at least he didn't kill himself... another all looks and nothing else
thanks for the reminder
any pics? lol

 

The last 2 times at a school there, it was instructors who crashed. I really need to get a cage in the car...I'm starting to get worried as my speeds are increasing there. The ****-happens factor scares me...the odds are stacking against me the more times I go.

Guess you instruct for PCA?

 

I dont instruct for PCA. I instruct with individuals who rent the track for their small groups, usually 15 cars or less, or sometimes for individuals for are part of a lapping day.

 

Expensive mistakes, such a shame. You'd think people would try to lap at less than 100% their first time out?? Sad to hear.

 

Gotcha. I did a day like that last year with John Mahler. Expensive but tons of seat time.

 

Yes, it amazes me that people go out in a high performance car and think that just because the car is high performance, they are. I've even seen this happen in autocross - years ago when I first started doing solo, a new racer in a late model stock civic went out, first lap at her first real event (she'd done the new drivers school, just like I had), and crashed the car into a light standard at Race City on the first turn - car was a write-off, though she was just shaken up. Hard lesson to learn about working up to the limit (yours and the car's'), rather than shooting for all the marbles right off the bat. And that's true on the street, on a (relatively) flat and easy track like Race City, or at Mosport. Its also true that when at the track, sometimes $#!+ just happens - even to experienced drivers - seen that too :P

 

I too have seen the results of too fast too soon, combined with too much car for the driver / unbalanced mods (high HP on tires and suspension not up to the task). There was thousnds of dollars in damage, but it was fixable, and thankfully there were no injuries.

It would seem to me that the lesson there is that an inexperianced driver should not go out in a super fast car and try to 10/10 right away. 7/10 is a much better starting point, then let the speed gradually build as you improve.

 

The problem arises from the fact that they dont think they are near the limit of the car or themselves until its way too late. The most common thing said after the crash is "I wasent even pushing it".

 

i was sitting at a traffic light when i was rear ended by a guy running from the police doing around 70 mph. So yeah, sit does happen!

 

I have to agree with Al absolutely. I have been lucky to have raced at many tracks from Quebec to Alberta to B.C. to California and I can honestly say that Mosport is the 1 track in North America that demands that you respect it. Tremblant has some issues but has been largely neutered with the safety improvements, Seattle has the bus stop chicane with its launching pads for corner curbs and the esses at Road Atlanta will always get your focus (as well as the last turn coming on to the front straight), but Mosport is the most risk/ reward based track in North America.

Al is right. To many people do not respect the track and the potential risks. There is too many times when I have also heard, "No issues until it snapped away". That is the same as at many other tracks but the results of a loss of control at Mosport versus Shannonville is the difference between going into a gravel trap at 100 kmh versus tagging a wall at 180 kmh. One embarasses the other hurts.

Personally I would not go faster than a 1:50 at Mosport without full race safety equipment. Nothing scares me more than some newbie lapping at Mosport and banging up the straight at 240 kmh in a bone stock street car. I usually hear the ticking of the time bomb... The guy in the Skyline just pulled the pin on the grenade sooner than most.

Creep up on your speed slowly at Mosport. I hate hearing about these type of things.

Eric

 

One other thing to remember is that just because someone is an instructor doesn't make them "God". In any professional Race Driving School if you are an instructor and you crash..... bam, zoom you are gone and black listed. Very few Solo 1 or 2 instructors have a ton of race time at Mosport.

For example I must have over 200 hours racing at Mosport and over 200 hours of testing and lapping and I still learn something new each weekend.

Eric

 

Yup, I have a friend who wrote off his 318i at Mosport. He was an instructor at the time and the car was "race prepped". I asked him what went wrong and he said simply "too much, too soon."

Experience is only useful if you learn from it.

 

turn 4? Isn't that the conti bridge where the track crests and the car looses weight momentarily?

 

[
It would seem to me that the lesson there is that an inexperianced driver should not go out in a super fast car and try to 10/10 right away. 7/10 is a much better starting point, then let the speed gradually build as you improve.[/QUOTE]

Mosport should be the last place for a beginer....It's just way to fast. To go there and and just try and stay at 7/10ths is hard to do. Like Al said first your going along fine then your in the armorguard or laying on your roof at turn #8, I fell sorry for the kid though...Tough way to learn going off at turn #4.

You are right and I understand what your saying, the problem is Mosport is so wide and fast it begs you to go faster and thats when a unexperianced driver gets into trouble.

 

Sure is. FUUUUUUN turn.

But now I'm getting scared. :o

 

LOL...Turn #4 is a great spot on the track to get scard...but don't, just be smart.

 

Shane don't be scared, just be smart (stolen from Jim). Look at my in-car video's. I don't even try to take 4 flat until my tires are warm, the track is clean and the track itself is hot. Then you get proper mechanical grip and you can take 4 almost flat, LOL.

The skill and experience help in judging conditions to determine when it is safe to take a turn like 4 flat and when to lift and when to lift and left foot brake and finally when to lift and right foot brake.

As well as the above, you need to know what lines to take to get the car into the proper braking spot for 5. I personally use about 3 lines through 4 depending on conditions and competitors. In fact I have passed a number of cars around the outside of 4 with a big lift before the crest and flat on the throttle over the crest to get proper rearward weight transfer. Then you need to take an inside line for 5A and use the steep up-pitch of the rightside of the track to slow the car down, crab around 5A apex curbing and swing onto the normal racing line for 5B.

See, its not easy. If it was easy everyone could do it, but it must be easy, I can drive fast at Mosport! LOL.

 

Enough about 4, lets talk about taking 1 flat. I can almost do it!!!

Last attempt resulted in 4 tank slappers, a brown stain in my shorts and a pulled muscle in my right forearm. ROFL.....

 

Last attempt resulted in 4 tank slappers, a brown stain in my shorts and a pulled muscle in my right forearm. ROFL.....[/QUOTE]

Tank slapper? We racing bikes now? I've done a few of those....But not at Mosport...Thank God!