Good reason to drive with your visor down

What's interesting is the turn worker says they saw it try to jump the fence, but was doubling back over the track. twice. I am curious why a caution or debris flag wasn't thrown.
 
How does one go about explaining that to one's insurance company?

INS: "So how did the damage occur?"
Driver: "I hit a deer at speed"
INS: "Where were you when you hit the dear and how fast do you think you were going?"
Driver: "Uh.. well uh... You see, I uh... "
 
How does one go about explaining that to one's insurance company?

INS: "So how did the damage occur?"
Driver: "I hit a deer at speed"
INS: "Where were you when you hit the dear and how fast do you think you were going?"
Driver: "Uh.. well uh... You see, I uh... "

LOL!

Driver: "Well, my Traqmate says I was doing about a buck 35 entering the braking zone at Turn 3. It's on YouTube. Why do you ask?"

INS: "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!!!"

:tongue:
 
What's interesting is the turn worker says they saw it try to jump the fence, but was doubling back over the track. twice. I am curious why a caution or debris flag wasn't thrown.

This is NOT an uncommon occurance at Bremerton :) BUT, what we generally do is take about a 10 minute break and the turn workers and at least one truck go down and chase the deer back in to the woods long BEFORE they get into trouble like that. It's often a Doe with a couple of kids trying to go to the better part of the forest.

That driver was very, very lucky. You may not be aware of this but, the SCCA driver (Ron Valine - retired AF Colonel) that hit a turkey with his helmet while driving at speed in his Formula Ford in early 2009 at Blackhawk Farms dead just a couple of months ago without ever regaining consciousness
 
Last edited:
For those of us who raced at Westwood Park in Canada, we all recall the first thing you looked for as you topped the crest on the back straight was the bright orange/red square in the workers station about two thirds of the way down on drivers right. The square let us know when there were deer on the other side of the fence drivers left. Jumping the fence was no problem. While I saw the sign several times over the years and recall other races being delayed, only once did I see a couple of deer. Definitely kept us alert which leads to this.

Back then we were told the annual IRDC “Philips Award” is in honor of Stephen Thomas Phillips, an IRDC - Conference racer who lost his life to a deer on track in 1983 while driving his Club Ford. Perhaps some of those who have been around since then can verify if this is so. It would be nice to know considering I went to school with his younger brother who talked about his racing all the time. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen him since graduation which was well before Stephen’s passing.

Philips Cup

Each year since 1983, IRDC has shown special recognition for the efforts of the member (s), “WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED MOST TO IRDC, ITS MEMBERS AND ITS FUTURE,” by presenting them with the coveted Phillips Cup. This award is given “IN THE SPIRIT OF STEPHEN THOMAS PHILLIPS (1949-1983) WHOSE PERSONAL INTEGRITY, SENSE OF FAIR PLAY, QUICK SMILE, COMPASSION, AND HUMOR TOUCHED US ALL.”
 
I was working at the track that day on my first trip to Westwood. As a result of Steve's collision, warning lights in several locations and several individuals rotated through deer watch stations. At the first sign of a deer, the call went out and and the lights went on. Everyone was supposed to slow down and go slowly to the pits until the deer could be cleared from the area.
 
Come on, Michael, you know I was responding to your pun--intended or not. :)

Sorry to interrupt the more serious turn of this thread.
 
Last edited:
What's interesting is the turn worker says they saw it try to jump the fence, but was doubling back over the track. twice. I am curious why a caution or debris flag wasn't thrown.

In the comments for the video, one of the workers at the track that day said someone was calling for the yellow but it wasn't possible to get it out quickly enough. Deer are fast when they want to be and the whole crossing the track/failing to clear the infield fence/attempt to cross back over happened in seconds. Also, I gather Summit Point has deer issues on a regular basis.
 
Steve Phillips was a friend of mine, and a great guy, which is usually the case after one dies, but in his case it was very true.
He was following another CF over Deers Leap when the lead car moved right when spotting Bambi, but momma deer stepped on the the track as Steve moved left, as I recall, and he hit her flat out in 4th gear. I won't share the details of what I witnessed afterwards, but it was brutal, and those images unfortunately crossed my mind Saturday at the Ridge when going over the numerous blind rises that track has to offer.
I meant to ask Rod if they have deer in that area, which I'm sure they do, but we all need to stay focused on both the flags and any periphal movement we see at speed.
 
Very true Wes. ORP has had a deer cross the track, thankfully in the morning before cars had taken to the track. The thing was invisible until it hit the track. With all the countryside to watch and the focus of the workers being on the racing and cars, I'm not in the least surprised that a flag didn't go up. Deer have, on rare occasion, been seen at PIR. If you spend the night at PIR, you can sometimes hear the coyotes singing in the night. The potential is there at every track to have animals getting onto the race track. Be careful out there folks.
 
Dogs wandering the track at Pacific is not unheard-of. Deer, too, at least one time that I can recall during an HPDE.
 
Dogs wandering the track at Pacific is not unheard-of. Deer, too, at least one time that I can recall during an HPDE.

Yes, Deer can be an isssue on the back side where they seem to be able to climb that hill from the rail road tracks and then look for a place where the fence is knocked down to get in to the race grounds.

Dogs? Dogs? I remember Mike Evans trying to chase down a dog once that we thought had gotten loose in the spectator area and wandered out on the track but, he just couldn't catch it. Then, he realized it was a coyote!!

But either one of the above is a very rare occurance.
 
Last edited:
Been there done that, twice, both on the street. Once a horse that had broken out of it's pasture late at night, came out of a ditch onto the road,
and once a deer just south of Denver on the interstate at dusk in a rental car.
 
I came across a deer in the rain on the back straight at SIR about 2 years ago. Scary sight in the rain. Thankfully it was just off the track, otherwise, not sure what I would have done to avoid it in the rain. Thankfully it was a practice session and I pulled in later that lap.
 
Back
Top