This is the "Snot Rocket" Dodge Neon I've been driving for SCCA events. Sunday I had my first "big one" and was welcomed into the roll over club.











Chad (car owner) working to get the car road worthy again...we drove both Neons 280 miles home that evening.




Surprisingly the car held up quite well and most of the damage was cosmetic...and to my ego.

The mud you may see on the front window...most was on the inside of the window from when I hit the tire barrier. Big rain the night before so the tires had a lot of nasty water in them...lol.

If you could drive it home, Weasel, then that is classifed as a "Tommy Tipover"... My last on I rode back on the wrecker minus a wheel and a wing...

Good heavens Weas, any bruises to show for it?

No real bruises...just some slightly sore left ribs where the racing seat mid torso support stopped my sudden side impact when I first connected with the ground after hitting the tires and doing my 360 roll.

First glance at the right front: "That little car is made of stern stuff!"

Second thought, courtesy of my McConnell KS days: "Hell, that's nothing! That'll buff right out!"

Yeah, not too bad. Chad in the picture was already pulling off the front right quarterpanel. He put it on the ground and pounded out most of the dents right there. He told me this wasn't his first rodeo (he's been SCCA racing for 13 years).

Worst damage was the top side pillar panels over both door windows...both crinkled pretty good from the roll, and the right top corner of the windshield cracked. Quite a bit of the other dings and dents were pounded out or hand popped back. Other than the pillars and duct taped side mirrors it was kind of difficult to tell it had even rolled by the time we hit the Ohio turnpike to head for home. Chad even wiped off the tire marks on the side and hood.

The mechanics of the car were surprisingly good too. Engine was fine, tranny was fine, suspension...maybe a blown left rear strut, but drove straight as an arrow with no vibrations. I was hitting 80mph on the way home and I never worried about a thing.

The car is sitting at Chad's house now and he's alreay been working on straightening the pillar dents, and already has an appointment with a place to replace the windshield and do a little more work on the top dents. What doesn't get fixed...gets Bondo!

We decided to run this car for the 24 hour event next month. It's already been rolled now so it wouldn't matter too much if we bang it up for the enduro. He decided the track was too dangerous to run his baby...the blue Neon he bought off the showroom floor in 1995 and has been racing ever since. He bought this car off of a friend after it had been T-boned by a van on the street. The Nelson website FAQs about the 24 hour race mentioned there's always at least one or two cars that end up on their roof.

Glad you're OK Weas. That's racin' I suppose. If you push, you're going to have an off once in a while. That's your BIG one for this year.

Ouch Weas! Glad you are ok.

I bet there was a bit of a holler going on inside when you were tippin'

Nope, actually I was way too busy trying to save the car to even let out a sound. If the tire barrier would have been another foot away I would have made it without a scratch because I almost had her going straight again.

First thing I uttered was "I'm okay!" to the track worker who was walking up to the car.

I'll stick to rolling virtual cars.

That's not too bad at all, especially if the right front isn't bent. Looks like the roll-over cage earned its money.

Glad you're OK.

Video! We want Video! Or Not.
Sounds like it was fairly close to that roll-over video you'd posted earlier... so...

Glad you survived M8

Glad to hear you're okay after that, WK.

Hope the day was going well for you - up until that point!

At least you didn't damage the SimHQ decals. That would have been a real catastrophe!

Yes, very very close to this video taken a couple months ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50lGdQvVF3Q

Same track, about the same speed but my off was at the first corner. You can barely make out the left side rumble strip after T1 starts to get straight. The Viper ($$$ ouch!) goes off after the next corner and ended up over the wall...I stayed trackside (and I didn't scream).

Chunx, the left side SimHQ sticker got a scuff or two but is still intact.

That's not the only video that Viper driver (heh, get it?) is in. I think I recognize the camera mount and windshield treatment in another one, where he makes a bone-headed pass attempt and takes out a Corvette.

Glad you're OK. That Nelson Ledges track looks pretty bumpy and in bad condition. Is it?

It's the third road course I've driven.

Indianapolis (O'Reilly) Raceway Park was like driving on very old torn up bumpy country roads. What a fun track to drive an hour enduro...not! I didn't have much fun at all that day (spun in the grass twice).

Compared to IRP, Nelson Ledges was like running on the autobahn...lol. Well, not quite, but the bumps were a lot smoother than IRP and I really did have a lot of fun. It's a scary track though because most of what little runoff area they have has good elevation drops from the course, and just piles of tires to stop you. Not neatly wrapped tire barriers, just piles of tires that from a couple videos I've seen likes to launch your car if you get into them. During my Saturday race I saw a car in my mirror go off in the carousel and all I saw was his tail lights as the tires grabbed him and whipped him around in a spin.

The nicest course so far was at Blackhawk Farms in South Beloit, Illinois (WI border) where I did my two day driver school. Pretty smooth and lots of runoff...although it's the only course I've stayed on track for the whole time...lol.

After the 24 hour race next month at Nelson I'll probably knock it off for the rest of this year. This stuff's expensive!

Next year we're looking at running some other courses...Road America (Elkhart Lake, WI), Mid Ohio, and either Gingerman Raceway or Grattan Raceway in Michigan (or maybe both). That's about the limit to our commuting distance. I'd really love to try the Glen, Road Atlanta, Lime Rock, or VIR...but they probably won't happen.

Hey WK, just got around to looking at this. Glad you're OK after that incident. Happily the car looks to have held up pretty well too.