Viper Crash at Speed World Challenge

Bob Woodhouse

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OH MY GOSH I must tell you all thank you from the bottom of my heart. The Viper Nation has been so concerned about the welfare of me and the McCanns after the pounding we all took on the next to last lap of the Speed WC-GT race at Road America. Calls have been coming in all day today. I love you guys, you make something positive out of a sobering event. I haven't had time to post but let me share a few details.offer a few short details.
Damn that hurt, but I am doing great, a few swollen body parts, a broken bone in my wrist, a nice baseball sized bruise at the base of my spine but brand new in a couple days. I can even take a full breath of air.
A huge thank you to all of the Dodge PVO people for making this an extremely safe race car. To the seat people, the cage and engineering, great job, it passed unplanned testing. To the neck brace, HANS, I feel much gratitude, saving me a hospital stay for sure.
The Mo-Tec data acquisition tells some of the story, I stopped in about 5 feet from 77.4 mph. Phil McClure the Corvette driver fared a little worse, he got his bell rung and was flown for a brain scan, the doc that looked him over said he should be fine, well just about, there may be some retraining on how not to trigger a chain reaction that took five cars out. Jim and Mike had some bad car damage, fixable, and they seemed physically healthy after we returned to the pits.
Phil McClure's Corvette re-entered the track crossways between corner 8 and the carousel t-boning Mike McCann, who then promptly got punted again in the same spot from brother Jimmy while I took a nibble off the back of Jimmy's car on my way to punting the Corvette that was moving at ZERO mph at this time. He came into view about 10 feet and a nanosecond before the big thud. SoCal found and posted some Video footage earlier from the window of David Farmer's Corvette. Great job. I have footage also but it is not as clear because all of the action was hidden from view until about 20 feet of impact. You will find the episode on Speed Aug 22 at 10 pm.
So far the attrition rate on the Viper damage has been heavy, 6 Comp Coupes showed, four damaged but we are confident that can be turned around. First major attempt at seeing what the World Challenge series is like, found some surprised, like the tires were acting very strange among a couple of other chassis issues: I did a terrible qualifying job, 18th, we worked up to 8 or 9 at the time of the accident. Good steady car, I think the brakes are one of our strengths, on the last few laps, pre-crash I passed a number of competitors due to their hot brake issues. Bless you all and thank you for your support.
 
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Bob Woodhouse

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How about that Mumford, isn't he amazing? A podium, first time out. From 22nd position. We are very fortunate to have him in the Dodge camp. If he chooses to stay with WC next year you can see a potential Dodge mfgrs championship don't you think. It will tarnish his Rebel image tho, thats not right.
 

J DAWG

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Glad you will be ok. Like you said the cars are repairable.
 

Sonny 00 GTS ACR

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Thank God you're alright Bob. I saw the video and it looked pretty bad - nothing you could do.

It was truly impressive, however, to see how well you all did. I have to admit that while I was quite sure your driving skills would more than meet the test, the cars hadn't seen any real benchmarks before this. Congratulations to PVO for producing such a competitive package at a fraction of the cost that some of the factory backed teams are spending.

I hope all of you are back on the track soon.

Get well!
 

JoeB

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Bob,

Glad you are in great shape. Hope all goes well and can't wait until your back on the track. We will all be out in force to Laguna. How Fast can Dodge get your parts? Eric?

Joe B
 

John ACR

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Bob,
Glad to hear you are OK!
Go and get them next time...
Wishing you well.
 

Birvini

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Bob,

I saw a video of the crash, and all I can say is, OUCH!! Glad to hear you are doing ok. Thanks for letting everyone know you're alright!!
 
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Bob I'm so glad you and the McCann brothers are mostly OK. I'm glad the Vette driver and anyone else involved are mostly OK, too. I saw the video and it scared me.
 

timz06

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here is the vid
http://www.metricchemical.com/crash.asf

to Bob, I am sure you are pissed about wrecking your car, but I think that is part of the chance you take in racing. I think Phil did everything he could to prevent spinning back on the track, and did not intentionally hurt himself or wreck your viper so I think your statement about his need for retraining may be a little out of line.
 

Vic

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Video is in So Cal Rebell's thread, (Scroll down through the topics)

Best wishes to you, Bob, the McCanns, and McClure.

I take it the yellow Viper in left screen was a McCann car.
 

Hoosier Daddy

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Glad your in good spirits Bob. That was quite a good lick all you guys all took in that corner. The practice and race times were very competitive with the GT series regulars. I'm sure there is subtle tricks or secrets they do for qualifying as most of them picked up a second or two from there practice times. Or maybe they were sandbagging. Anyways no matter how it ended you guys did us proud with the fantastic effort. I mean no one expects a Viper to be competitive or in the same league as a BMW or Audi. I'm sure you guys have the sanctioning body looking at performance restrictions on future events with the Comp Coupe in the field. Hope to see all you guys at Putnam Park this September.
 

Viperzilla

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Bob, very glad to hear that you, the McCanns, and everyone else involved are holding up. Surprised there weren't more injuries in a way. Glad to hear the you guys are wearing HANS devices, as the car is HANS friendly. Hope all goes well with your racing program here on out.

P.S. Not sure if you remember me, I stopped by your camp at VIR before the VRL race. I wore the viperclub.org web heads VOI7 shirt.
 

zoomie

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Wow, Bob, heard about the accident and watched the vid.
Hard to believe, but very glad, that you took a head-on
t-bone and hopefully are doing great. It's a great testament
to these cars design and safety devices that everyone is
ok. Thanks for all you and BillP have done for me and
everyone else in the Viper Nation !
 

VPRGTS

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Bob - Glad to hear you and the McCanns are okay. I am sure you guys have the competition scratching their head. Hopefully the cars can be repaired quickly enough to get you guys in the next race.

Timz06 - "Phil did everything he could to prevent spinning back on the track" ..... What video are you watching. Four wheels off the track and he makes a left turn to bring it on in front of traffic. Overdone...driver error.

PMUM - Great job. I hope you plan on turning down those offers to drive for another team adn stick with your comp coupe (ha). I am interested in knowing what your lap times were compared to the leaders in order to make up so many positions.
 

Viperzilla

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PMUM - Great job. I hope you plan on turning down those offers to drive for another team adn stick with your comp coupe (ha). I am interested in knowing what your lap times were compared to the leaders in order to make up so many positions.
So Mumford is receiving offers from factory-backed teams, eh? I thought that he did it all by "luck"? :rolleyes:
 

Vic

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Timz06 - "Phil did everything he could to prevent spinning back on the track" ..... What video are you watching. Four wheels off the track and he makes a left turn to bring it on in front of traffic. Overdone...driver error.

The Vette went off in a left hander. PMUM says he was going in too fast. What if the back end snapped out, and the car did a counter-clockwise 360? If it did, then it was unintentionally "aimed" back towards the track, just by virtue of the azimuth of the chassis? As many times as I have watched the tape, I can't determine if he just steered it back towards the track at that angle, (seems unlikely, but possible), or if the Vette just ended up going back towards the track because it was un-winding, from its spin in the grass.

When the race airs on Nascarvision, we might get some different camera angles that will tell the whole story.
 

2001 Sapphire Blue

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Helluva wreck! Glad no one was more seriously injured. Could have been worse, but it still was bad. Hope you heal quickly! We love you out here and respect your driving capabilities. I'm sure you'll get back on the horse and ride again soon! Feel free to post some pics of your car. We would like to see how it withstood such an explosive impact.
 

pdmracing

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The Fitzgerald Chronicles: Road America - [World Challenge GT]


8/5/2003 -

Last weekend the Speed World Challenge GT series traveled to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. We were one of the support races for the Champ Car event. As usual, I was driving the #22 Porsche for 3R Racing. This was a split weekend for World Challenge, meaning that the Touring Car series was not in attendance, so I had only one car to worry about.

PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING

We had a test day on Thursday that included four sessions that were a minimum of thirty minutes each. We had made a change to our baseline set-up immediately after the race last weekend at Infineon Raceway, and it seemed like a good change because the Porsche was terrific right off the trailer.

The downside is that I was having a hard time finding anything to communicate to my engineer that might help us find an improvement in lap time. The good news was that we seemed to be running reasonably quick times relative to the other cars we were timing.

On Friday we had a single hour long practice session. I went out and did a long run on old tires and then we put on some stickers and did a practice qualifying run. I managed to post a 2:18.8, which was quickest by about seven tenths of a second. Second position was Randy Pobst in the Champion Audi. Normally this would be great news, but we knew that some of the cars were going slower than they had on the test day so we had a sense that they were holding back.

Saturday included a forty-five minute practice session and qualifying. We were again quickest with another 2:18.8, but this time a Viper was second quick with a lap somewhere in the 2:19’s. This was pretty scary because it was Dodge’s debut run of the new version of the Viper and it is obviously a pretty strong package right out of the box.

In spite of being quickest in both practice sessions we weren’t too optimistic going into qualifying because we felt like we had already shown our best lap. Qualifying was at 1:00pm and there was a rain shower that started around noon and then stopped in time for the track to start drying. For the most part there was a dry line when we went out on course, but there were still a few treacherous spots where the track was still wet.

In hindsight, the best strategy would have been to do a few reconnaissance laps on rain tires and then come in and switch to dry tires and cut a fast lap at the end of the session. The risk would be that someone would end up in the gravel trap and the session would end early, or that it would start raining again and the fast laps would all come early in the session.

I decided to go out and circulate on dry tires and then go for a fast lap as the track improved. Obviously, I wouldn’t cut my fast lap when the tires were at their best, but at least I would always have recorded a lap in the best conditions if there was an accident that ended the session or some more rain.

The result was that I cut my fast lap near the end of the session and it was a 2:19.2, which was slower than my practice times, but still good enough for fifth. I think that even if I had caught the tires at their best I still would have turned a high 2:18, which would have been either second or third. Bill Auberlen turned a 2:18.4 in his BMW to get the pole, followed by Stuck (BMW), Pobst (Audi) and Said (BMW).

THE RACE

The race started at 11:20am on Sunday, and as the race approached it looked like the weather might actually hold up in spite of most of the predictions. My standing start last weekend at Infineon Raceway was a complete disaster so we had spent a fair amount of time during the weekend trying to figure out how to get a decent launch. Our efforts paid off as my standing start was a good one and we immediately moved up into third place entering turn one. I was now following Hans Stuck in his BMW and Randy Pobst in the Champion Audi.

At some point during the opening laps I moved past Hans into second although I don’t remember where. It then took me a lap or two to catch up to Randy and I worked on him pretty hard because the three PTG BMWs were all tailing me very closely and I wanted to get to the front where I could get some clean track and try and open a gap.

Unfortunately, Randy was very difficult to pass as usual. I couldn’t get next to him in any of the brake zones because the Audi makes good power, but I could catch up to him in the long right hand carousel because of the Porsche’s excellent handling. The problem was that the carousel was followed by the turn known as the kink, which has a minimum speed of well over 100 mph and is not generally known as a great place to pass.

About six laps into the race I could tell that Randy’s Audi was getting to be a handful and he got a little bit sideways exiting the carousel, which was my opportunity. I almost pulled up next to him at the exit of the corner, but I didn’t quite make it and he started to move over. I stayed in the gas and moved right as far as I could until I was out of asphalt and Randy left me a little room heading into the kink. I dove inside as we entered the corner and changed down to fourth gear, as all this activity had killed my momentum, and managed to slip through before heading down the long straight to Canada corner.

I thought that the pass would really work to my advantage because I expected Randy to shut the door on the parade of BMWs behind him, which might have given me a chance to break away from the field. Much to my disappointment, Bill Auberlen also managed to slip by into second position. Randy held off the charge of the other two BMWs and it turned into a two car race for the lead. I had about a 1.5 second gap back to Auberlen for much of the rest of the race, which didn’t seem to change much from lap to lap, save for traffic situations.

Finally, with about five or six laps remaining there was a bad crash on the straight heading down toward turn five. My former teammate Michael Culver’s car was badly damaged and sitting in the middle of the straightaway. Fortunately, Michael was okay, but it took a few laps to clear the car from the track.

When we went back to green flag racing there were three laps to go, but on the second lap there was a horrendous crash at the bridge at the entry to the carousel. I don’t know exactly what happen because it all occurred behind me, but when I came back around under full course caution there were five crashed cars either in the road or just off to the side, include the Corvette of my teammate Phil McClure. Apparently, Phil took a pretty hard hit (I suspect into the bridge abutment) because I could see them cutting him out of the Corvette. He was taken to the hospital and the last I heard he had a concussion, but no other injuries. I ended up completing the last lap and a half behind the pace car and taking the checkered flag under full course caution for the win.

The accident was doubly unfortunate because Phil had worked his way into second position, which would have been a terrific result for the 3R Racing team. My other teammates Victor Contreras and Tim Wiens finished fifth and eighth, respectively. In spite of the good result it was kind of a somber victory celebration while we awaited news of Phil’s condition. I’m just glad that he’ll be okay.
 

SoCal Rebell

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Timz06 - "Phil did everything he could to prevent spinning back on the track" ..... What video are you watching. Four wheels off the track and he makes a left turn to bring it on in front of traffic. Overdone...driver error.


I must agree 100%



PMUM - Great job. I hope you plan on turning down those offers to drive for another team adn stick with your comp coupe (ha). I am interested in knowing what your lap times were compared to the leaders in order to make up so many positions.

Here are the fastest lap times in the race from the top 4 finishers:

Mike Fitzgerald Porsche 911 Cup 2:19.589
Michael Galati Audi RS6 2:20.586
Paul Mumford Viper CC 2:20.653
Boris Said BWW M3 2:20.437

As you can see the Viper was very competetive,
 

Viperzilla

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Phew, very close to Galati and Said. Both have much experience in that race series, and more experience in others.
 

PMUM

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I got a pretty good look at McClure as Galati and I were in the midst of passing him when he went off. He definitely did not come out of the gas because I was right next to him when he went off and watched him try to gather the car up. That's the difference between pro racing and club racing; these guys are pretty serious out there. You can see my car very briefly in the video glued to the bumper of the Galati's white Audi in front of the pack of cars that got devastated.

Race laps are hard to judge because unless you're by yourself (I never was) you're usually passing or defending, but I think the Vipers were at least competitive with most of the cars out there except Fitzgerald. He had a little speed on everybody all weekend in the Porsche and drove really well.

The real question, though, is when is Sonny Whelen getting a Comp Coupe? Skip has already created a class in VRL for Speedvision prepped cars, so it'll make it easy for everybody to run both series without changing the whole car around.
 

VIPERESS

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Thanks to PVO for building a safe car, and for safety equipment such as the HANS, which in combination are without a doubt, responsible for preventing grave injuries. Bob, I am so happy to see your post, and I am sure you are more than a little sore after that pounding. How unfortunate that so many cars were destroyed but we are so thankful that you, the Mcanns, and the ZO6 driver are ok.
Please, just do us a favor, and take it easy, allowing yourself proper time to heal physically, and emotionally.
Excellent job Paul, amazing driving.
 

picflight

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Timz06 - "Phil did everything he could to prevent spinning back on the track" ..... What video are you watching. Four wheels off the track and he makes a left turn to bring it on in front of traffic. Overdone...driver error.

The Vette went off in a left hander. PMUM says he was going in too fast. What if the back end snapped out, and the car did a counter-clockwise 360? If it did, then it was unintentionally "aimed" back towards the track, just by virtue of the azimuth of the chassis? As many times as I have watched the tape, I can't determine if he just steered it back towards the track at that angle, (seems unlikely, but possible), or if the Vette just ended up going back towards the track because it was un-winding, from its spin in the grass.

When the race airs on Nascarvision, we might get some different camera angles that will tell the whole story.

From watching the video it seems the vette driver thought he had regained control and could get back on the track OR his/her reflexes corrected the spin, foot was still on throttle, but was not pointing in the right direction.

Glad everyone was ok.
 

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