We allowed to dicuss the Todd Wilkes case yet?

[Billzilla]

Given that a well sorted car could probably carry over 200km/h into turn one and still stay on the black stuff (by which I mean wiping off speed through the corner)

FWIW in the Sports 1300 class we go into turn one at about 210km/h - 220km/h and we don't lift off the throttle.
It's pretty scary going around the corner at that speed. I don't think there's a road cars that could manage it unless, as you say, they slow down pretty quickly as they go into the corner.
I haven't tried it but I know that if I hit the stoppers at the turn-in point and went straight ahead I could stop easily before the wall.

[hotgemini]

I've had a customer try running into turn one flat at 200+ and by steering from the passenger seat with my right hand whilst holding down the kill switch with my left hand I stayed on the black bit without too much hassle, because its so long you've got a lot of time to scrub off speed without using up too much of the available track width.

You could stop before hitting the wall, I could stop before hitting the wall, Fatboy could stop before hitting the wall then pull a fully sik drift on the way back to the pits but that isn't to say that the vast majority of my customerfolk would stop before hitting the tyre barriers which protect the wall.

[Billzilla]

Nah, I mean really straight ahead, into the wall that Todd hit.
My racer stop really well - at that ~220km/h I hit the stoppers for turn two at about the 80 marker. It'll also do it from about 70, but it's getting scary.

[Jim]

The crown would top 200 down EC but there was no way I could do t1 at that, I was slowing down to about 180ish and even then the seat cover was well puckered.

[AndyMac]

As for repercussions. Eastern Creek cancelled their scheduled twlight track day for tommorrow night, and also the Decemeber Meeting organized by the same mob.

[chino]

Just to clarify Grinno's post, from what I remember, Todd's car didn't roll, it just couldn't stop in time.

From the footage I saw, the car appeared to pitch onto on side after the tyres locked, before hitting the barrier. It may have been the anlge though. But I wasn't really paying that much attention at the time.

[jesus]

lets not be posting any footage anyone may or may not have

[carcrazy]

I never knew him but i was a fan, I was saddened to see them play the crash on tv, personally i think thats quite disrepectfull to his memory and his family.

I hope those who are to blame are brought to justice but one question has always remained in my mind.

Why did the drivers agree to drive straight at a wall? Did they have guns to their heads?

[Revhead]

Simon, the thought hadn't even crossed my mind. I don't even like watching it...

[Glenno]

As I belive the judge/coroner stated "The terminal speed event was poorly concieved"

There were claims that they hadn't even had a chance to drive the track surely if that was the case why not ask for a low speed practice lap? If the reply was no and you still had concerns then why run in the event?

[7nut]

My PRB's also foot to the floor stuff from the start of the straight to the braking point on turn 2 on its road tyres, with only 88kw's of 4age I'm only doing approx 185 on entry and still carrying 170 when I start braking for T2.

I question using turn one as a slow down corner especially if they were trying for max speed, some of the sedans would get fairly iffy if your committed to the corner at full tilt and suddenly come off the gas.

I think the whole concept was rather iffy....

Cams have been cracking down at the sprint events this year already with scrutineering, we'll all be log booked next

[hungry6]

As far as i can remember there were a group of bikes that did the terminal velocities before the cars and the bikes in all sort of trouble pulling up before the waterfill barriers.
As for T.W he was well and trully flying along and he did brake at the "markers" where all the previous ppls have hit the picks, but the amount of speed he had required a much longer braking distance, from the video you can clearly see that he was trying to wipe off speed by taking out the xmas tree and the water barriers.
But on another note, willowbank officials turned T.W away on the previous week to the infamous crash, stating that there is no way that he would be allowed to run their track until he fitted a chute and a host of other safety items.

[Nafe]

I didn't know the bloke, but he seemed like a good guy, and obviously didn't deserve to go the way he did. On the other hand, I question his motives for hurling a car with that much potential speed towards a concrete wall......

[Babalouie]

Given that a well sorted car could probably carry over 200km/h into turn one and still stay on the black stuff (by which I mean wiping off speed through the corner) it amazes me that you would take that horribly short piece of road leading to a concrete wall in preference. Whoever was responsible for that decision should imho have been held liable for the result, now if that means a cams official losing his position and the CAMS insurance policy being hit with a huge payout, then imho it is the right outcome.

I've done a couple of thousand laps instructing around the creek and the thought of having a customer fail to turn into turn one and having to try and stop in that distance worries me enough to keep me very much on my toes.

I think the reason why they blocked off turn 1 was that they were holding some other type of event at Turn 2, so there were cars lined up on the straight after turn 1.

[Q]

A few people have questioned why anyone would drive toward a solid wall.
I agree - Good Question.
So lets break it down as it happened....

- Prior to the event, Todd used this map to prepare
MAP

-On the morning of the event, [as discussed] the braking area was changed.

-On the morning of the event, the organisers were running late and ran a minimal drivers briefing. Instructions were:
- no practise runs,
- get off the track as quick as possible to let the next person through.

Hmmmm Stay with me for a moment....

- Have any of our experienced racers here actually held up a race event whilst they walked a track ? ...assessing if they were happy to race on it ?
Very rarely would this happen - and certainly NEVER with a group of amateur racers.

- And here is the problem....
There is reasonable expectation by an amateur racer that a race track altered by CAMS is suitable to race on.

- Nobody took the time to measure the length of the braking areas and do the calculations.
After the accident, I asked a number of VERY experienced drag racers "how long is the braking area at Willowbank ?"
Do you know what ? NOBODY could answer the question !
[ I measured it in the 993 .....500m]

- If experienced drag racers could not answer the question, how could any of the amateur drivers on the day measure it and know if it was adequate ?

......and that is how you end up driving toward a solid wall.