What can I say? this was not my best race.
The trip to Mosport was fine, my flights were on time, I made it to the hotel fine, Henry made it on time too. We left Toronto around 5:30 AM and were at the track before 7:00AM. We found the transporter, unpacked the car, put on the practice wheels and got ready for the event.
Henry drove first in the touring group. I rode with him, and it helped being able to see the track in person. I've read a number of descriptions of it, and I have watched the movie on the Upper Canada PCA site. Still, nothing is better than seeing it yourself. Henry drove some easy laps and the track seemed to be good. When his session ended I checked the car then got ready to drive.
Out on the track the car felt good. It's been a number of years since I had driven on a new track and it was very different from what I was used to. My goals for the session (indeed the day) were modest, don't hit anything, go slow, and learn the track. I expected to be the slowest car out there. On the track there were one or two people who were even worse than I was, so I passed then and started learning the track for real.
I was doing laps going a little faster each time. The track surface was good, an while I had no idea of the line, I was at least learning which corner went where. So far so good. I saw a car come up behind me, no reason to try and race, so I stayed outside, didn't get on the power exiting the corner, and I let the car pass. It was Ron Savenor, the guy who beat me at Watkins Glen last month. I'm not as fast as Ron, but maybe I can follow him to learn the line. I try and follow Ron around the track, and it works great, I went five seconds faster than my previous lap.
By the time I got onto the front straight, Ron was gone but I think I remember enough to continue the pace. OK, power on hard on the front straight. Brake, find the turn in point, turn in, ease the power on, and drive the car to the track out point exiting T1. Accelerate hard up to turn two, a difficult double apex, blind entrance, down hill left with negative camber. I place the car where I think it should be to crest the hill.
As I crested the hill I realized that I was in trouble. I was going too fast, and I was too far to the right. Here's where it all goes bad. As I came over the hill and saw my predicament. I felt the rear of the car get light. I need to move the car to the left, but it feels like it wants to spin. What to do? I decide to drive straight, try to slow, then make the corner. However, I ran out of track surface and drove onto the grass. The tire wall on the outside corner is getting closer. What can I do? I try to ease the car to the left to avoid the wall and drive parallel to the wall. Unfortunately, I'm still going too fast and the car won't turn. At this point I sort of give up and put both feet in. Right before impact I tried desperately to turn the car and I ended up spinning it into the wall, passenger side rear first. The impact snapped the car around into the right, impacting the entire right side of the car. When the dust settled, the car was still running and I was against the wall. I waited about 30 seconds, then I tried driving the car around the track back to the paddock. It actually drove OK so I motored slowly around and pulled in.
The stewards were waiting for me. I told them what happened, went to medical to get checked out, and filled out some forms describing what happened.
The car doesn't look so good:
The car seems to drive OK, I drove it home from the transport pick up point. The frame is probably OK, maybe a little bent. I will need a fender, door, rear quarter panel, both bumpers and lots of paint work. As I will be suspended from club racing for 13 months I guess I have time to decide what to do.
Barry