Here's an action shot of the incident....



OUCH!!!!! Photo credit to LRP photog's....

 

That is an amazing shot! I think the weakest link in this case was the Mazda for causing the incident.

 

Yes that is true. As things turned out they died saving the tub, but I am wondering why the JCW cup cars that race in that series remove the aluminium arms & replace them with the steel parts?

 

Wow that picture really captures the impact. Yikes, I'm glad the driver emerged OK.

 

Looks like most of the action has been recapped . . .

196 . . . Dicky was driving the 196 and spun the SC belt off at turn one with 6th to 3rd shift. The belt drive is the Achilles heel of the R53 and Dicky made the fatal error. We replaced the belt, Owen got in the car, he turned the fastest race lap and the belt came off again. We knew it would not last because the idler pulley was damaged after the 1st incident.

197 You saw the evidence above . . . what else is there to be said ?

198 was withdrawn before practice. We have been scrambling for the last two weeks to get it ready after the fire at Barber. The car was in INDY on the dyno with the Bosch Engineers. There was a problem with the new engine harness that delayed the process for two days . . . therefore, no a show.

Now the good news............

The 197 is already fixed and ready for Watkins Glen this weekend.
The 196 is also fixed and ready to go.
The 198 is now in transit to Watkins and (fingers crossed) should be race ready.

Next Saturday . . .

 

Racing is tough, it can give you the highest of highs, but also the lowest of lows. You guys are trying hard & results will come for team RSR.

Go get them at the Glen.

 

I'll second that!

 

6th gear at Lime Rock???? Are they really running out of 5th on the front straight? Or has the gearing been adjusted?

 

Actually the 6th gear shift set up the whole chain of events . . . he did not intend to shift into 6th . . . that threw off his rhythm and accounts for the next missed shift that spun the belt. The main straight is a shift to 5th right around the start finish line.

Racing leaves very little margin for error. Some errors have no consequence . . . others do.

 

So he went from 3rd to 6th, missing 4th, and then back the same way? Yikes! That would certainly explain the belt failure. Thanks for the explanation. I thought I might be doing something wrong on the straight to be only in 5th. I shift just after my track out point, typically.