A few people already know about this, but I want to share the information with the rest of my friends on this site. Everyone knows about the mishap with my 03 Cobra. Unfortunately I defied the odds of "lightning striking twice". I was near the end of Sunday's NASA race at BeaveRun when the back end of my R caught fire. I pulled off track out of the way as quickly as I could. By the time I stopped, my harness was unbuckled and the driver's compartment was "notably toasty". I pulled the fire system and immediately rushed from the car. NASA has a 10 second rule to evacuate a car - I did it in 5 (max). There was a major blaze at the back end with a huge cloud of dark smoke. Dean can testify to how wicked it looked. The sad thing is that the car burned for nearly 10 minutes. The safety response was "poor". It's best if I don't get overemotional about that. There was a fire truck at the track, but no water in it. The cornerworkers either walked or drove over with hand held extinguishers (most weren't even foam or quality ones). I now have an even greater appreciation for guys like Carson and his safety crew at Road America. They would have been all over that thing and had it out in no time. From NASA's perspective, Lawrence and his crew were great about handling the incident.
To give you an idea of how bad it was, the tail wing, rear bumper and rear lexan window melted. The spare wheel well buckled and the rear tires blew from the heat. The bushings are a gooey mess and the diff cooler is toast. We tore off what we could in the paddock (wing, trunk lid, bumper, fuel cell) and left it for the dumpster. When Jeremy went to unbolt the fuel cell, he saw the fuel line was clearly disconnected prior to the filter. Spraying gas on a hot diff is not a good thing and needless to say the cause of the blaze.
Luckily all the damage (except smoke) seems confined to the back end only (rear of the diff/wheels). It is repairable, though it will take time and $$$. I may be done for the season, but then it will give me time to reassess where I go from here. Obviously it has not been a good year for me so far.
To give you an idea of how bad it was, the tail wing, rear bumper and rear lexan window melted. The spare wheel well buckled and the rear tires blew from the heat. The bushings are a gooey mess and the diff cooler is toast. We tore off what we could in the paddock (wing, trunk lid, bumper, fuel cell) and left it for the dumpster. When Jeremy went to unbolt the fuel cell, he saw the fuel line was clearly disconnected prior to the filter. Spraying gas on a hot diff is not a good thing and needless to say the cause of the blaze.
Luckily all the damage (except smoke) seems confined to the back end only (rear of the diff/wheels). It is repairable, though it will take time and $$$. I may be done for the season, but then it will give me time to reassess where I go from here. Obviously it has not been a good year for me so far.
