[richard350z]

Here's a description of what happened from someone who saw it. I was at the Big Track at Willow Springs at the same time, and it is right next door to Streets of Willow.

"I saw you guys ripping around turn 7,8 and 9 while I was in the pits at Streets. There seemed to be some some heavy firepower at the Speedventures meet this weekend!

As for the Speedtrial event next door, all in all a pretty good event. I was running Muellers aligment along with his now famous bushing and swaybar setup and the car moved along quite nicely. I need some coilovers now! Help Johnny M.!
The weekend was not without incident though. On the last run of the day, one of the intermediate driving group students lost control of his STI on the front straight trying to avoid a large piece of plastic fender lining that had fallen off another car. The poor guy managed to find one of the only walls at Streets (a reinforced concrete safety barrier 3/4's down the front sraight) and hit it head on.
Unfortunately, his airbag did not go off because he had it removed in place of a race style wheel. He, along with his passenger were only wearing 3 point belts. His passenger, a young girl had slid under her seatbelt (submarined) and was twisted into the footwell when rescue crews arrived. All in all, she was ok. The driver was airlifted to a local hospital in critical but 'hopeful' condition with severe trauma to his face. His steering wheel was crushed. The entire front of the car to the firewall was crushed.
It was a sad way to end what was a good track day.
Things we can learn front this:
1. if you put 2 wheels off, ride it out. DO NOT TRY AND CORRECT IT! Get off the gas and steer straight until the car has set itself, then renter.
2. if you insist on putting a silly race wheel in your street car, buy a set of 4,5 or 6 point harnesses.

Be safe, have fun."

Let's hope the driver and passenger are OK.

[crypsatir]

damn, that sucks at least the passenger is alright

[RadarOnPaws]

Too bad. It's easy to criticize but most of us aren't professional drivers and it's surprising (and a testament to the driver instructors) that more incidents don't happen on track days.

Hope they both recover fully.

[Rev]

I would guess they were wearing helmets ... 'severe trauma' to the face for some reason, leads me to believe they weren't ...

[SubyFi]

Here's the pic I posted on another thread. They say this is the wall he hit near the end of the front straight.

[Gramicci101]

Doesn't have to be a full-face helmet, just snell 95 rated. A lot of those are open face helmets.

[richard350z]

I use an open face helmet. Maybe it's time to move up to a full-face helmet. But I still have my airbag, and a 4-point harness. Yikes!

[Rev]

Originally Posted by SubyFi

Here's the pic I posted on another thread. They say this is the wall he hit near the end of the front straight.

Interesting ... the pic in the first post shows the car the other way around

[dgribble]

Originally Posted by SubyFi

Here's the pic I posted on another thread. They say this is the wall he hit near the end of the front straight.

I've never been to any track before but why is that wall right there when there seems to be open space ahead? I would think that if they ran off the road then the worst would be that they run into the field? Instead that wall is there. Why is that?

[SubyFi]

It's an angled wall. I don't know what it is protecting. Now that I think of it, that's really close to the track! The driving line is hug the left edge and then make that right turn in the clockwise direction. Counter-clockwise it's hug the right side before getting into the skid pad with a left turn.

Track map (note the wall locations, there's another before turn 3):


BTW 2 more pix here:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=800116