What A Race Car Crash Does To Your Brain


Cliff notes.

- 5 year racer
- stays on racing line during a brake down
- car crash
- can't think straight for months.

 

I just don't get being unable to pull off the track. If the car was losing power and struggling that much, why was it in the racing line at all?

 

^The only thing I'll say to that is you don't always react how you think you will in an unfamiliar, stressful situation.

I wrecked my motorcycle at the track Just over 9 years ago, came off the bike around 70. Woke up face down in the grass, visor ripped off the helmet, and was apparently unconscious long enough they stopped the session. I went home and went to bed that night, got up in the morning and went to the doc. Other than a sore neck, back, and hip........I didn't really have any typical symptoms................especially not all this failing sobriety, pregnancy hormones this guy is talking about.

However after about 2 weeks I was diagnosed with "Post-Concussion Syndrome." Unbelievable headaches, nausea, etc. To the point I was put on amitriptyline and 3000mg of Ibuprofen a day to try to keep the pain in check. That lasted for about 2.5-3 months.

After that, the now ex-wife asked me to stop playing with motorcycles and go back to cars.

I obliged her.

 

His first mistake was driving a NSF car. The team I race with at CMP is good friends with the NSF team. I swear every race something goes wrong with whatever car they are driving. Hell I was stupid enough one time to go out in the NSF to see if it was still having problems, they thought they fixed whatever the issue was and could not reproduce it in the pits. I happened to be standing around in my gear and so they grabbed me and sent me out. I think I made it about half a lap before I lost power and pulled off to wait to be towed.

 

I get that, and I understand the driver was focused on trying to get the car restarted, etc...but I guess that's my point. You drill those behaviors into your head so that you aren't trying to make decisions in that stressful moment.

 

First, a slowing car being hit by two others once again makes me stay far from LeMons.

Second, racing involves risk, but racing cars with no thought for crash structures should involve a great deal of foresight.

 

What makes you think that Lemons is any more unsafe then any other form of W2W racing? I have seen far worse crashes in spec miata races within the first minutes of races.

 

Most W2W has some minimum level of requirements to be on track, and people take it at least a little bit seriously. LeMons comes off as a frat party on track in sometimes under-prepared cars, with people who's qualifications are the ability to drive a car. Track days are sketchy too, but at least you're not going wheel to wheel.

That said, I don't race wheel to wheel, so I could easily be wrong

 

go play in NFL.

 

The problem with Lemons is that there are way too many cars on track at one. IIRC there were 230 at the one Sears Point race I did. I could easily see that if the car died unexpectedly, there may well not have been enough space through traffic to get it off the track.

--Ian

 

the major concern is that the drivers are relativity uneducated in the ways of race car etiquette. A minority of people driving wouldn't know what a racing Line is, or where to go when the red flag is waving. It;s unnerving to be driving with a large group of people that are educated (like with NASA or SCCA) and then throwing your hat into the ring with lemoners`. I find myself asking "where is he going" quite a lot while driving in lemons races.

 

Just gotta watch out for that invisible fire...