I got in the car and drove like I thought I had to. BIG MISTAKE!

I started my racing, can’t call it a career as I only do it for fun……..in 2007. I was 43 and had been married for 25 years. I had no training, no input, no guidance. I got in the car and drove like I thought I had to. BIG mistake! I blew two engines, and rather quickly!! ......... that middle pedal is there to be used to slow you down not the gears. I had no idea what the racing line was apart from the blacker mark on the race track where all the other cars drove. But the reason for me writing this little blog is I wish I had been told a few things before my rather nasty meeting I had with the wall at turn 3 at QR in my HQ way back in 2008.
It was the first race on the Sunday morning, it was in May and was a little cold. I remember sitting in my HQ and wondering if I had done all my checks on my car. I pulled down my belts and I remembered my lap belts were a tad loose, I had been going to the gym (HQ’s have no power steering so I was doing lots of gym work!!) and I clearly remembered thinking to myself that I would pull the shoulder straps down to “compensate” for the bottom straps and hey this is a HQ I don’t go fast!

1st mistake thinking you can compensate any safety and a silly thought no matter how quick or slow you think you are going when you hit a wall head on it hurts! I remember having a great race, hanging onto the HQ for dear life, hearing the tyres squeal thinking this is great and loving it. On lap 12 out of 15 I was going down the back straight on QR and there was a car behind me and I remember thinking oh you are so not going to pass me this time! "Don’t break too early Maria," I said to myself, "just hang on for that extra second, like everyone keeps on telling you". So I passed my usual breaking marker and counted in my head 1001 and then hit the brake………..there was no pedal, straight to the floor my foot went! Shock of horrors for some stupid reason, shock I guess, I tried it again and of course there was not brakes, nothing!!

For those that race we all know the next few lines will take longer to read than what actually happened in real life! What now I thought ……….. what do I do …….. I thought ……… being a big old HQ I thought if I try go around the hairpin bend at turn 3 I might roll it if I go into the sand or if I go straight into the sand will the sand stop me? Quick as a flash I took option two, my 2nd mistake for the day! I skated over the kitty litter and into the tyre wall, actually thru the tyre wall and into the concrete wall on the other side! OUCH that hurt! I can remember thinking I would kiss maybe hit the tyres but never in my wildest dreams did I think I would go thru them and into the wall behind them! I was hurting. I looked down at my steering wheel, so yes mistake 3 and 4 go hand in hand, 3 I should have turned that wheel and not hit the wall head on and 4 I should have let the steering wheel go before I hit the tyres!! I sat there, stunned and in shock. Some people might not agree with what I call mistake 5 but I think I should have got out of that car as quick as I hit the wall but I just sat there – not that my life was flashing in front of me or anything I just sat there thinking holy shit what have I done!

So... lessons I have learnt from this:

Lesson 1 – no matter how inconvenient it is for you to get out of your car and re-do your straps, I am usually alone at the track, get out and re-do them! It is not worth the back pain you suffer for the rest of your life after you get “lower back whiplash” top of my body was fine! And we have more than enough time to do it!

Lesson 2 – nobody had ever told me to tap the brake pedal going down a long straight, I wish I had been told that in any drivers briefing when you are a newbie. I now pass that piece of information on to anyone that wants to hear it and I don’t care if they know it or not!

Lesson 3 – never hit a wall head on! Always try and turn the car, there is an escape road at the end of the kitty litter, I never knew that but I did find out AFTER my accident! And I guess it would have been cheaper / easier to try and fix a rolled HQ than the written off one I had that day.

Lesson 4 – never hold the steering wheel if you are going to hit the wall head on! I bent mine in half! How I did not break my wrists, thumbs or fingers is still a mystery but one I am glad to live with trust me!

Lesson 5 – now this one is debatable – on this day I just sat there, stunned and in shock, but now when I think I about it and have had people tell me I think I would get out of the car as quickly as possible, just in case of a fire! At first when I was told I should have got out I said but what if I had hurt my back, which I had in this case, to their reply was what if the car had burst into flames and that is why I say this one is debatable.



I just wish I had known some of these things and I hope some of my mistakes can now be passed onto some up and coming young girls who did not know but will know now!

Happy safe racing one and all

Maria