More Trouble In Portland

lafngrvy

lafngrvy

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Another disappointing day at the track with my Luigi CSL. During the first practice on Friday the driveshaft blew apart. It happened coming out of the chicane under full load. Believe me, when it went it really got my attention! BANG!! Fortunately I was not injured but the resulting chaos tore out all the fuel, oil, and brake lines that run through the tunnel. We did recover a piece of the driveshaft from the corner workers. Pretty frustrating to say the least.

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I know most race organizations require a flywheel shield and some a drive shaft ring in case a u-joint fails, but I have never heard of a full driveshaft shield. That has to be a very rare type of failure. I can understand why that got your attention.

You are very lucky to get out with no injuries. Yes, glad you are okay. I know how frustrating it is to have this kind of catastrophic failure, but as long as only the car needs to be fixed, it is not so bad.
 
gwittman said:
I know most race organizations require a flywheel shield and some a drive shaft ring in case a u-joint fails, but I have never heard of a full driveshaft shield. That has to be a very rare type of failure. I can understand why that got your attention.

You are very lucky to get out with no injuries. Yes, glad you are okay. I know how frustrating it is to have this kind of catastrophic failure, but as long as only the car needs to be fixed, it is not so bad.
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We have a hoop to prevent my entering a pole vault competition. Fortunately everything is repairable. I have asked the shop to put in a 10-12 gauge shield up in the tunnel next to me so if this happens again I'll have better protection. Wouldn't want to temp fate twice. ;-) Photo below courtesy of Kyle van Hoften:

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Did you lose all braking? This is one of those race scenarios that you try to prepare for, but when it happens it must have still been a Oh Sh*t moment followed by some white knuckle driving. Racing will always have a non-zero degree of risk.

Glad to hear you are ok and damage to the car was minor. Last year I had a throttle stick WOT at the end of a straight (vintage SR w 5lbs/hp), and the car was not so lucky (but I walked away ok).
 
JFENG said:
Did you lose all braking? This is one of those race scenarios that you try to prepare for, but when it happens it must have still been a Oh Sh*t moment followed by some white knuckle driving. Racing will always have a non-zero degree of risk.

Glad to hear you are ok and damage to the car was minor. Last year I had a throttle stick WOT at the end of a straight (vintage SR w 5lbs/hp), and the car was not so lucky (but I walked away ok).
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Fortunately there is a lot of run off room coming out of the chicane at Portland. I was able to pull off track and wait for the roll back to come get me.
 
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