The 7/13 Driving School at BIR provided a busy day for Rescue 1. Between the flat tows and other incidents we had a Volkswagen blow a transmission going into 3 and put oil down all the way to 4. Then the driver limped the car back into the pits. Normally I'd chew on the driver for doing that but this specific incident deserves a little more attention than that, read on....
During the morning classroom I discovered that Gene and Ryan had car pooled up to the school as participants for the day instead of workers. Gene had slated himself to be in a spec racer and Ryan in his own car. Now ANY rescue worker that knows anything about the track knows that the best option for planning a day at the track is to not push anything that you plan on driving home and that if you are going to push it you need to trailer it up to the track. Also any rescue person shoulod know that the BEST option for a driver when there is a problem that they know about is to pull it off the track and park it and let rescue deal with it.
WELL....yep you guessed it. Ryan brought up his volkswagon and going into 3 with Gene on his heels in a spec, found out that 3rd gear was going to ventilate the top of his transmission. Of course he knew that he should pull it over as soon has he knew there was a problem and he had trailered the car up to the track right? NOPE. He proceeds to drive back to the pits spewing fluid from 3 to 4 and gets back to the pits with no way home. Ryan you owe Mike and I for cleaning up your mess. Ryan did get home with his car on a borrowed trailer/tow rig but I'm thinking that he deserves a little crap for not doing what we all curse at other drivers for not doing.
http://www.redlightrescue.com/article.php?story=2009071722593561