Wednesday, May 7, 2008

One Lap: We're done.

Karma. Had to be.

I didn't have to tell a few of my fellow One Lap competitors that I would get a good night of sleep in my own bed between CMP and VIR tonight, but I did. They were probably annoyed at me, and rightfully so...I was throwing my luck in their faces that the route of the race went near my house with perfect timing for a good night of sleep in my own bed.

So I'm driving the last stint in since I know the roads well, but I'm a bit tired and in a little bit of a hurry to hit the hay. It's 10:30pm. I turn what is really the next to the last turn before my house and do it a little fast. The trailer rolls in the road, all but ripping free of the car (strangely, the safety chains that didn't seem well designed from the hitch company kept it attached). The tool box rips off and scatters tools in the road. Now, this time of night isn't busy around here, which was good. We jump out and get everything gathered up and out of the road and agree to leave Leh there with the stuff while I run home in the Cayman to get a truck and trailer, which would have taken a total of 15 minutes, max (yes, we were that close to my house).

That wasn't meant to be, though, as a deer ran out in front of me leaving me no choice but to hit it. I got on the brakes pretty good, but there was just nothing that could have been done short of ditching the car, which wasn't an option. The damage appears to be only body work and a radiator, but it's enough to keep us out of the race.

I suppose the good news in all of this is that if you're going to crash, it's obviously better to do it near home instead of 2,000 miles away, which was certainly possible. Plus nobody was hurt. Well, other than the deer and a little bit of ego.

7 comments:

Lis said...

Damn Chatham County deer . . .

Bummer.

Beechwood Metalworks said...

Agghhh! Well at least you were home. Got any damage that you need us to repair?

jenandjonathan said...

Dang. Sorry to hear about the car and that you won't get to finish the event. Glad to hear you were OK. Enjoy some sleep,
Jonathan

Anonymous said...

What? No mention of your new found friends from Mississippi? Sorry to hear about the car but at least the car is ok - better luck next time. Nice meeting you and seeing the GTR in person.

Donnie Barnes said...

Oh, yeah I should have definitely thanked you guys for the ride to the auto parts store! Great meeting you and many thanks for the help.

Our trailer hitch cable fell out of where we tucked it for our competition runs and melted. Marshall was kind enough to run us to a parts store to pick one up and I was able to get it rewired without us losing any time.

Many thanks for the eazy-up and chairs, too! Made life mo-betta that day.

Shelley said...

oh deer.

Beechwood Metalworks said...

So, you're all about video blogs and then we get no video of the damage! What a way to reward you loyal readers ;)