The second weekend of the first season Skip Barber Series in 1976 took place at the Thompson Speedway road course in northeast Connecticut. This was my second race weekend in a real race car and I was just getting used to the sensation of speed, the ridiculously short braking zones, and the requirement for utmost precision in my driving. 


The section of the track that best illustrated this was the back straight. In the middle of it was a bend that could be taken flat out if done very carefully. At the end of the straight was the tightest turn on the course (of course!).


In the first AM practice I had just taken the bend flat out and was flying down the straight towards that ridiculously short braking zone when I pressed the brake pedal and it went right down to the floor.


My world went into slooow motion. Some of you may think that that is just a technique Hollywood uses to heighten the drama, but believe me it isn’t!


Brake pedal is on floor


“Oh no, this isn’t good…”


“Try pressing it again…”


Straight down to the floor again


“Maybe if I pump it….”


Pump Pump Pump …. Nothing Nothing Nothing


“Hard right turn; Spin it ….”


Hard right wheel … no response


This sequence must have happened in something like a second.


Now in those days there was only a single section of Armco barrier around the whole Thompson road course....


BANG !!!


A corner worker said that I whizzed by with the front wheels locked solid. I guess I hadn’t noticed the front wheels because my brain was focused on that barrier looming up only milliseconds away.


The flexible rubber brake line on the rear had rubbed against the brake disc and sprung a leak. Fortunately it was a split brake system and the fronts were working. Everything forward of the car’s tube frame was flat but I was OK. 


For that day the “caa was toast” as they say in Iracing….




Later that day….practice 2


My car being gone I went up to Skip and said in my whiniest “you should really feel sorry for me” voice; “Gee, Skip, I was just getting going this morning; could you put me in another car??”


“There are no more cars.”


“Oh”




At the next weekend’s drivers meeting Skip announced that he had to break our “contract” and from then on there would be no more free crashes…. if you crashed you had to pay.


[Now please guys let’s keep this quiet. If Iracing gets wind of it and makes a change, we’re all screwed !!!!]
