The Vehicle
1998 Mitsubishi Evo 5, 2.3L stroker with Quaiffe sequential box, carbon guards, boot and bonnet running 245 Dunlops and E85 fuel.
Hawkswood road hillclimb North Canterbury
The day started fairly well with my wife riding shotgun, I was doing some testing with suspension dampening and I was making some significant changes to see how the car would respond. The first run is usually quite tame just to feel the level of grip available and on the second run after making some adjustments we pushed a little harder and felt that the changes we made to the suspension had a real positive effect and that we could push even harder on the next run. Coming around the last left hander I lost focus on the entry of the corner and didn't apply enough brakes to slow down. The car understeered and we went flying through a fence taking out a few fence posts and narrowly missing a telephone post which would've made a real mess of the car!
My initial thoughts were to check if my passenger were OK and to get her out of the car. I was also very delighted that the car was still on its wheels as we went quite far down a bank into a farmer's paddock.
No injuries luckily just a bruised ego.
Luckily we ended up in the paddock so we could drive the trailer in and winch it up fairly easily after the event was completed. We went far enough off the road for us not to be a danger to other drivers too.
Yes, this specific corner has caught out a few drivers before me and there is always a fair amount of loose dirt just off the race line. I feel this corner needs to be entered really wide and slow then cut deep and fast out. Pretty basic stuff but the entry into the corner is blind and you cannot see the exit so the focus should really be on the entry I feel.
Yes the car was repaired by replacing the front subframe and front right arm. All the carbon work also had to be redone but luckily I made a mould so that was easy enough.
There was a course record in sight which most likely took my mind off things a little, I guess don't count your chickens before they've hatched.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts