[lax01]

13CW Buttonwillow

Context: Was waiting for second session of the day when a Civic Type R dropped oil around Club Corner and Riverside. It was reported to be cleaned up as we sat waiting in the hot-pit for 25-30 minutes for our session. I absolutely should have realized this and taken it easy for a few laps. I did my out lap and let the tires and brakes come up to temp. Didn't notice anything on track in those corners and everything looked okay - again, dumb assumption based on visuals. Car felt good so I started picking up speed.

Next lap, I was exiting Club Corner with a slight lift before entry (per M Lap Timer, it was a 9% lift from 99% to 91%) and I loop the rear end and do a 540 and stay on track ... which was extremely lucky - everything stayed shiny.

Of course, as I don't track that often (1-3 year at most), I don't have another set of wheels and my day is done - not fun but at least the car isn't wrecked.

Limp off track because I was getting heavy vibration from the front-end and I see this:






Couple of questions and the purpose of the post:

1) I've been going through it in my head over and over again to see if I made a driving mistake (besides not heeding the warning about oil/coolant on track) or if the spin was due track condition. I'm on Pilot Super Sports and I've never had street tires lose grip and spin that fast. Never. There was no chance of recovery. The car immediately rotated.

2) I've never had quite a spin like this and I'm wondering if I could have saved myself two tires by doing something differently during the course of the spin - its hard to remember exactly what I did but I know I hit the brakes (and tried to go for the clutch despite the car being DCT) as I've always learned two feet in for a spin. I'm wondering if I could have do something different to reduce the destruction to the tire.

Always learning!

Thanks!

[ZM2]

Damn, good work keeping her on track.

Do you have in car video of this showing what your hands were doing at the time?

[lax01]

Originally Posted by ZM2

Damn, good work keeping her on track.

Do you have in car video of this showing what your hands were doing at the time?

I wish...would have been a great teaching tool...I was logging the run with the M Lap timer but its pretty hard to tell from that what happened

[5.M0NSTER]

All in all this is a great outcome. How fast were you going at the time? To me it seems like the car tipped a bit on the asphalt since just the outside is torn to shreds. Plus that scuff goes well down the sidewall too.

Did you try to countersteer at all? In some cases it can help you recover after the first 360, but it all depends on the situation. Typically both feet in is the best thing to do, so don't beat yourself up over this. Lesson learned the car is fine. Rest is just rubber. Well done!

[detroitm2]

As others have said, don't beat yourself up. Be thankful you'll only be replacing tires. Sounds like you did a good enough job not ending up in a wall or on the roof.

[lax01]

Originally Posted by 5.M0NSTER

All in all this is a great outcome. How fast were you going at the time? To me it seems like the car tipped a bit on the asphalt since just the outside is torn to shreds. Plus that scuff goes well down the sidewall too.

Did you try to countersteer at all? In some cases it can help you recover after the first 360, but it all depends on the situation. Typically both feet in is the best thing to do, so don't beat yourself up over this. Lesson learned the car is fine. Rest is just rubber. Well done!

Based on the M Lap Timer, I entered around 90...yeah, trying to look on the bright side that it's only a tire (or two)...wish I was more prepared and had A) track wheels or B) extra tires

It all really happened fast but I believe I attempted to counter steer but it was a snap-spin...I've slid the car around...I've done skid pad (both wet and dry). I have experience with trying to control a sliding car....I have snow driving experience. This just seemed different...

But I guess it still irks me that I didn't get another chance at the corner that day...want to recover my confidence

[detroitm2]

Originally Posted by lax01

Based on the M Lap Timer, I entered around 90...yeah, trying to look on the bright side that it's only a tire (or two)...wish I was more prepared and had A) track wheels or B) extra tires

It all really happened fast but I believe I attempted to counter steer but it was a snap-spin...I've slid the car around...I've done skid pad (both wet and dry). I have experience with trying to control a sliding car....I have snow driving experience. This just seemed different...

But I guess it still irks me that I didn't get another chance at the corner that day...want to recover my confidence

And pride

It happens to everyone from what I can see.

[kvnchu]

oh damn! is this normal? i've never seen seen tires do that even in spins

[greasypeanut]

Oh hi there. Welcome to the buttonwillow flat spot club. I too flat spotted a tire after club corner/bus stop. In my case and I'm thinking yours as well (as others would have spun off if it there was oil still there) the lifting during the turn caused me to rotate. I don't have percentages but I know I lifted. Thankfully I was able to somewhat catch it and I just did a very long sideways slide in the dirt.

I have seperate track wheels/tires, a minimal amount of dirt came into the car and more importantly, the flat spot isn't catastrophic like yours. It affects alignment and it pulls to one side, and vibrates at high speeds. But I've used them for another track day and I plan on using them for an upcoming one at a new track which I plan on going slow around anyways.