Bourdais has big accident during testing

[Dov]

Taken from Crapwagon/Cartfanatics.com:

Stolen from AR1
Bourdais totals car at Milwaukee Newman/Haas driver Sebastien Bourdais had a big accident today at Milwaukee. He is OK, but his car is totaled. The high cost of oval track racing continues. Yesterday Hunter-Reay was on a flyer when Roberto Gonzalez, driving substantially slower, unexpectedly pulled down into Ryan's line taking all the air off the front of the #4 car at the exact time all of the weight of the 4 car was transferred to the front of Ryan's car because Ryan had totally backed out of the throttle attempting to avoid Gonzalez. Ryan did an amazing job of not only avoiding Gonzalez but then keeping it off the wall riding out a pretty spectacular tank slapper with plumes of smoke. We imagine Ryan went to have a talk with Jimmy Vasser about schooling Gonzalez about not coming down on cars that are passing at warp speed. The EXACT same thing just happened to Bourdais in the exact same place (exit of T2) but this time it was Nelson Philippe that was the offender.

[drewdawg727]

tank slapper....?
i know that term too, i'm just retarted

[cartpix]

Phillip wasn't the cause of the spin, though. Here's a quote:

"I was probably going 150 mph when the back end of the car swapped ends between the first and second turns," said Bourdais. "There was no warning. It was a hard hit but fortunately I was okay. We were able to continue testing in the back up car until the rain came."

Jeff

[Amar7605]

Hee hee... ya gotta love the French for sticking together

[KC]

All of these guys can do the drive at a street course or road course. It's at a superspeedway that separates the men from the boys in these kinds of cars. The learning curve is very steep and the margin for error gets very small, especially when that error can result in a 75g impact with the immovable object. Hopefully the new guys all learn quickly and without any injury.

[paul-collins]

Superspeedway? Milwaukee?

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by paul-collins
Superspeedway? Milwaukee?

Nope. A minimum of two miles in length is, as far as I know, required in order for an oval to be called a superspeedway.

Still, it's fast enough to split cars in two or get people killed, so it deserves a fair amount of respect anyway.

[KC]

When the cars can exceed 200 mph on the track, then it might as well be a 2.5 mile speedway.

[codename_47]

That first article is weird....

It gives a sensationalist headline, explains little about it in the first sentance...then wanders off and reports on something else only barely relevant to the story...:confused:

Anyway....now that we KNOW the driver is fine, I just hope the car isn't a complete write off...chasis are precious in this day and age...

[jjspierx]

Originally posted by drewdawg727
tank slapper....?
i know that term too, i'm just retarted

Tank slapper is a term that derived from motorcycle terms. On a motorcylce, if you rear suspension binds up under cornering load, or after correcting a slide it can sometimes cause the handlebars to move violently and literally slap the fuel tank, hence tank slapper. At some point it was adapted to car terms. It's basically when a car is sliding and the driver corrects and the back end doesn't settle down, but instead snaps back in the opposite direction of the initial slide. It doesn't necessarily mean that the driver spun out or hit anything though. Now the tankslapper is not be confused with "death-wiggle". which is when a driver corrects a slide, and has to make several small rapid movements of the steering wheel because the back-end is still wiggling around on them, which usually occurs because the driver is slightly behind in his steering wheel corrections. Wow, I'm such a nerd.

[JohnSSC]

Wasn't Milwaukee where Mansell had his big off in '94?

The ovals (any type) generally separate the men from the boys. Makes you step back and think about the talent of Drivers like Mears, Foyt, Sullivan, both Michael and Mario Andretti who were fast on oval, street and road courses. More amazing was how they transitioned from one track to another.

It is one steep learning curve, for sure.

[JohnSSC]

I would also tend to disagree that the chassis are precious - Lola makes bunches of them - however they are not free nor can they be leased for a $1 per season. What is not bountiful are cheap, used Lola chassis'. From what I saw on Speed Channel's site, Sebastian pretty much dusted most of his chassis. You would be amazed at how they (the teams) can piece them back together, though.

Wonder if I can still get me one of them Dollar Tree Reynard's - you know, for the $1 lease. Now if I could get a Cosworth or even an old Offenhauser engine for a $1 I could build me a heck of an autocross car.

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by JohnSSC
Wasn't Milwaukee where Mansell had his big off in '94?

Not sure. He had a huge crash at Phoenix in 1993 though, that punched a hole in the wall and sent him to hospital.

[JohnSSC]

You are right! I was only off by one year and about 800 miles - not bad for someone my age....

[carsten66]

Hmm... in 94, I think, it was at the Indy where Mansell crashed...

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by carsten66
Hmm... in 94, I think, it was at the Indy where Mansell crashed...

Depends on how you define 'crash' - he was ran over by Dennis Vitolo in the race who parked his car on top of Mansell's in the warm-up lane

[macdaddy]

That image has been forever-engraved into my memory. I oft wonder exactly what transpired there - the television cameras never did pick up the accident.

[cartpix]

Originally posted by rustyfan
Depends on how you define 'crash' - he was ran over by Dennis Vitolo in the race who parked his car on top of Mansell's in the warm-up lane

I thought that incedent, was at Indy.

Jeff

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by cartpix
I thought that incedent, was at Indy.

Jeff

It was - as carsten66 said above, Mansell crashed in the 1994 Indy 500 and I just provided the details of the incident.

[macdaddy]

Could somebody refresh my memory, please? Did the "Vitolo-Thing" happen early, mid, or late-race? I think that Mansell was running pretty strongly at the time, up with the leaders, no? And I'm pretty sure that Vitolo took him out while the track was already under yellow.

[macdaddy]

(Like I mentioned, only the "image" is engraved to memory - not the "circumstances". I'm only capable of remembering one or two things per month, before I start to get dizzy).

[Kicking-back]

It was definitely under yellow.

[Jordi]

But really, how the hell did he get on top of Mansell?

[rustyfan]

Originally posted by Jordi
But really, how the hell did he get on top of Mansell?

My guess is that he slid backwards into the side of Mansell and was then sent up on top due to wheel-to-body contact.

Just a guess though.

[cartpix]

Originally posted by rustyfan
It was - as carsten66 said above, Mansell crashed in the 1994 Indy 500 and I just provided the details of the incident.

My bad, I didn't go far enopugh up the posts. I saw another post, of yours, talking about Phoenix & Milwauke. Duh!

Jeff