Funny Motorsport Videos...

[horizenjob]

Wow that guy really goes flying...

[MiataSteve]

More scary than "funny". I think its time to put the face shield back on.

[brucesallen]

More scary than "funny". I think its time to put the face shield back on.

Totally

[dradernh]

More scary than "funny". I think its time to put the face shield back on.

Wow, terrifying, really - if that deer had started its bound a foot or so earlier, it would have come right through the windshield.

More interestingly, there's a lot going on there. A small herd of deer move across the track from left to right starting at the 12-second mark, so the driver had plenty of opportunity to see that it might get exciting down there. Before he passes the red car, he's got his hands at 8:30 & 4:30, after which he moves his right hand to 3:00 for the pass before taking it off the wheel to wave. Then it goes onto the gearshift, where it stays, while (presumably) he begins braking. At that point, the deer must've been saying "I've got this sucka right where I want him!", 'cause even if the driver had picked up what was happening (which doesn't appear to be the case), he had no control over the wheel with which to take evasive action. This should not have happened.

[paultg]

More scary than "funny". I think its time to put the face shield back on.

Wow, terrifying, really - if that deer had started its bound a foot or so earlier, it would have come right through the windshield.

More interestingly, there's a lot going on there. A small herd of deer move across the track from left to right starting at the 12-second mark, so the driver had plenty of opportunity to see that it might get exciting down there. Before he passes the red car, he's got his hands at 8:30 & 4:30, after which he moves his right hand to 3:00 for the pass before taking it off the wheel to wave. Then it goes onto the gearshift, where it stays, while (presumably) he begins braking. At that point, the deer must've been saying "I've got this sucka right where I want him!", 'cause even if the driver had picked up what was happening (which doesn't appear to be the case), he had no control over the wheel with which to take evasive action. This should not have happened.

I couldn't disagree more. "Evasive action" at those speeds could have resulted in a loss of control of the car, impact with a wall, or another car (like the one he had just passed), and you have no idea if there is another car behind him going well over 100 mph down the straight. I thought he did a very good job of slowing the car down and maintaining the line of direction he was heading, essentially preventing the incident from being much worse for himself or anyone around him.

Paul G.

[Stynger]

I couldn't disagree more. "Evasive action" at those speeds could have resulted in a loss of control of the car, impact with a wall, or another car (like the one he had just passed), and you have no idea if there is another car behind him going well over 100 mph down the straight. I thought he did a very good job of slowing the car down and maintaining the line of direction he was heading, essentially preventing the incident from being much worse for himself or anyone around him.

Paul G.

I agree.

I don't see a herd of deer. I see cars taking the right hander at the end of the straight.
Wouldn't the flag station caution drivers of deer on track?
Looked to me like he didn't take his eye off the road when waving, he was about to down shif for the corner, probably looking ahead. He didn't stand a chance.
He did a great job slowing down and staying straight and predictable for the cars behind him.
Evasive action? What could he have done?

[dradernh]

If you run the video at 1080P/fullscreen, you'll see the deer. There are three of them - the first appears around start/finish & is tiny on the video due to the distance, and last is quite clear. Their being plainly visible to the driver & well down the track is why I suggest this didn't need to happen, assuming that if the driver had picked them up while he was between start/finish & the access road on the right, he would have had his hands in a better position & have slowed sufficiently that he would have noticed the doe on his right. This is speculation. The video doesn't make clear if the flagman was signaling or not.

I wasn't suggesting that the driver should have taken evasive action, just that due to the positioning of his hands, he couldn't even if he wanted to. He could have braked hard, though, but there's no indication that he did. The red car may well have been in the way of his moving the car to the right, and there may have been drivers behind him. It looks to me like he's over 115 MPH as he approaches the braking zone, so there wasn't time to do much of anything except stand on the brake, even if he had noticed the doe, which It appears he did only in the instant before impact. At the point of this snapshot, the driver's body language in the video is that everything is still fine:

[Mick]

If you run the video at 1080P/fullscreen, you'll see the deer. There are three of them - the first appears around start/finish & is tiny on the video due to the distance, and last is quite clear.

I agree with Les. What you're seeing are the cars at the end of the straight turning right. ..If there were a herd of deer on the track black car in front would have seen them and hit his brakes.

[dradernh]

If you run the video at 1080P/fullscreen, you'll see the deer. There are three of them - the first appears around start/finish & is tiny on the video due to the distance, and last is quite clear.

I agree with Les. What you're seeing are the cars at the end of the straight turning right. ..If there were a herd of deer on the track black car in front would have seen them and hit his brakes.

I looked at it again & you're right, they're cars & not deer. Now that I see that, I'm wondering why I thought they were deer; think I'll file it under "Overactive Imagination".

[Mick]

If you run the video at 1080P/fullscreen, you'll see the deer. There are three of them - the first appears around start/finish & is tiny on the video due to the distance, and last is quite clear.

I agree with Les. What you're seeing are the cars at the end of the straight turning right. ..If there were a herd of deer on the track black car in front would have seen them and hit his brakes.

I looked at it again & you're right, they're cars & not deer. Now that I see that, I'm wondering why I thought they were deer; think I'll file it under "Overactive Imagination".

I thought the same thing when I first looked at it, I had to watch it a bunch of times before I realized they weren't critters.

[Stynger]

He did a great job slowing down and staying straight and predictable for the cars behind him.

After looking at it, maybe the car had a lot to do with it. He slowed the car down pretty fast, but he took both hands off the wheel.
Hard to see exactly when. He corrected to get it to the left after it slowed.
Maybe he was doing the Indy car thing.

It's amazing what you see when you can replay and slo mo.

I just remember the first time I saw it in real time. I was probably looking where the driver was looking (Corvette in front slowing down), then bam out of no where. Too bad he didn't have the post analysis before it happened.

[horizenjob]

To me the driver seems very casual. He is driving a behemoth though, that probably encourages this. I'll bet he eats sandwiches on the track, that's why his visor is up.

His car is traveling 50 yards per second. Or more. The chances of something going wrong are small, but there is no sign he is on top of things.

[horizenjob]

I went thru the video again more carefully. That driver is sleeping on the job. The black Corvette in front is braking for the deer, because that driver got spooked. You can see the deer, you can see the deer jump the fence and then jump again onto the track. The driver still has his hand in the air and hasn't applied brakes yet. Meanwhile he's closing on the car in front at high speed.

That driver was behind his car. I think that's easy to do in modern high performance street cars with power steering and the amount of isolation the driver gets from the road.

[naschmitz]

The black Corvette in front is braking for the deer, because that driver got spooked.

The black Corvette was braking because he hit his braking mark -- no way he saw that deer.

[cfossum]

Holy crap! If put in the same situation, I'm not convinced that I would have seen that deer in time to do anything about it.
-Carl