E30 Race Car wreck, time for major surgery

[Lance Racing]

Missed a spinning car at 125mph, but then got into my own spin after avoiding the first car, then getting hit by another E30. This was a spec race for E30s.

After 6 years of racing we knew eventually we'd get caught up in something. We had a solid 6 years with the car before this. The E30 did it's job though, it can take a hit.

Here's the YouTube video, one full lap, then the hit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0mo_krsz04

and the car on the trailer:

[browntown]

glad you're okay, the whole video I was saying to myself the car infront of you sure does like driving on the shoulder. post the part of the video where you say how you really feel :-)

[clavinZERO]

"DAMNIT"

new car coming? or repairs? nice to see a bunch of e30s on the track though. hope your are ok too Lance!

[Kruzen]

Ouch. glad you're ok lance, 'tis a small scratch :)

[benDASHDASH]

trailer it to the picnic, and then

x99

[Rachel B]

ouch

[B0ND]

That'll buff out...

Seriously though, glad you didn't get hurt

[backtrail69]

Too bad that had to happen, I watched that video when you sent it around with the newsletter. Good thing it was e30 on e30 impact...or things could have been worse...since most bumpers are right at e30 hood levels...

[Mike325]

Wow man, glad you are ok.

[Il Duce]

That'll buff out...

That's such an asshole comment to make. No offense B0ND... I've said that before myself... I'm just sure that it's not what he wants to hear right now.

Glad you're ok man! Good luck w/ the next project. Hopefully not too many performance parts will need to be replaced. Could be worse I guess.

[fporro]

Wow man, glad you are ok.

^ same here, your health is most important.

[Lance Racing]

Yea, the video stops right before the REAL cussing starts. LOL.

Actually, I've been mentally prepared for this for a long time and I was pissed off for only about 10 seconds. It's a risk you take every time you go out. So my first thought after the impact was just see if it would move under it's own power, which it did. Then I wanted to just get it down to Turn 3a where there is some run-off I could park it so I wouldn't bring out a full course yellow which would screw up everyone else's race. Well the car seemed to have air in the left front tire, so I nursed it past Turn 3a and all the way back to the pits at about 30 miles an hour. Something in the cooling system broke, so by the time I was pulling off track I was pretty low on coolant and the temp needle was rising. Sometimes the tow track can do more damage trying to pick up a wrecked car to move it, so I wanted to get it back to the paddock under it's own power without a tow if possible.

If it is still on the trailer on June 10 I was thinking about bringing it, just so people could see how well an E30 takes a hit. But it will probably be back down at Auburn Foreign Car having the engine pulled and other things like that in preparation for delivery to Haury's Collision where they will perform the major surgery.

[Lance Racing]

"That'll buff out..."

no worries, we were making the same jokes back in the paddock. It's a race car, these things can happen.

Now if the same thing happened to my pristine E30 M3, I'd be in a much worse mood. One reason I bought the E30 race was to take the much rarer E30 M3 off the track to avoid hurting it.

You have to be able to walk away from a race car. i.e. financially be able to write it off. It is one reason I race a regular E30, rather than race an E30 M3. Much cheaper to build, much easier to write off. Not that I'm looking to walk away from this car if I don't have to.

For me, if we can fix this car, I hopefully will have the car back racing in early August. And I'll be a few bills shorter in the process. If the car were totalled and I had to build a new car, then the financial hit is obviously higher, and I'd be done racing for the year and look to rebound for the 2008 season.

I'll add, all of the safety gear worked as designed. That included 5-point belts, race seat and HANS fitted to my helmet. Because I was almost sitting still when the impact occured, I really didn't have a quick G-force deceleration. I didn't have any pains the next day.

[Erick]

Damn that sucks, but I cant say I'm exactly sorry for the loss of a metal bumper. :p

Everything else.... sucks, but you're taking it pretty well. I know the feeling because wrecking my car is something that stays in the back of my head everytime I drive to an event.

[Dave]

Ouch. Glad you are ok and the car is repairable.