VIR-Spin.jpg

I had Falken Azinis on the car. They were new in the beginning of the season, but this was late in the season.
The way I do SouthBend, I keep my foot full throttle and left foot brake before I make the left hander down the hill. Well, I hit the apex, but tracked out too far due to 2 things.
#1 this was lap 1 or 2
#2 the Azinis did not have the grip needed to do the turn at 100-110 since they were too old

On exit, I dipped 1 tire which sucked the other 3 off the track (no prob) I settled the car and was about to pull back on track when I launched into the air... about 3 times. VIR is beautiful, and there is TONS of runoff, but nobody ever talks about the bumpy fields and/or drainage ditches )

My drivers side rear tire blew off the bead and imploded inside the wheel well. and I begun to spin uncontrollably. My drivers door was aiming directly at the tire wall! Luckily, and unexplainably, the car missed the wall by millimeters (as seen in the photo above). I did skim the tire wall, just enough to get tire smudge on my bumper and turn signal.

After not being able to get the car started and having to get towed in, I also noticed that my clutch hose was severed in half... BTW, I drove the car to VIR for this event from Washington DC!

I ended up borrowing a hose from a SM buddy and popping the tire back onto the car and filling it with air.

Hey, that's racing, right! )

Dave