Monday Mission Group 2 Qualifying Black Flag (fire)

Alberto Fonseca

Alberto Fonseca

Admin
Staff member
Yup, that was my car that caused it. Towards the end of the qualifying session going into turn 3 the sampling port on the fuel rail failed and caused fuel to spray into the engine bay resulting in a "spectacular" blaze.

Luckily, I recalled hearing in the driver's meeting the fire crew was located at turn 5 so I made my way towards the turn 4 station while on fire and stopped to exit the car. Big thanks to the turn 4 workers, the fire crew, medical team, all the volunteers for the excellent response and care throughout the ordeal.

I recall waving some cars by as I made my way to turn 4, called it in on the radio, aimed the car and shut down the engine as soon as I was close enough to coast to a stop. I undid my belts, slid the seat back, popped the hood, and then worked on getting out as smoke was filling the cockpit. I had minor smoke inhalation but nothing else.

Looking back on it now I need to practice my exits as I should have been out of the car more quickly. I actually got the radio cable on the left side of my helmet stuck on the hans as it took me a second attempt to exit. I was running a longer cable than I normally do so that was enough to trip me up a bit.

The excitement was over quickly but I left the rear cam footage run to show the great work of the fire safety crew. Be sure to watch the video to the end as that is the most entertaining part, perfect ending Darren!

Again, thanks to all the workers, can't say it enough!



Despite all that, I did get pole. ;)
 
WOW, AGREED! you need to practice getting out of the car faster fer sher. Second thing is, good thing there were so many fire bottles around. That fire truck needs to get that hose on a reel so it just spins off when needed.

But, nice job over all and good move getting close to the station.
 
NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT THE WORKERS !! however this is the second time I have seen the Truck with the Hose, have issues.... First up in Seattle in Corner 1 where there was a car on fire which in turn started the grass on fire, A coupe of us drivers stopped and ran over to help, I grabbed the hose and was waiting for them to turn it on and......... NO WATER ?? And now in Canada, Maybe this should be a priority to check out before anything goes out on the track.. Once again NOT COMPLAINING about or to ANY of the volunteer workers, you ALL are very much appreciated.... Just pointing out a Safety concern.

Thanks, Mark
 
One of the safety workers from Mission asked on Facebook for a clarification/correction to be added here.

I share it, verbatim with only typo corrections:

the turn 4 fire on Monday

Today at 4:07pm

Could someone please correct the incorrect information on the conference forum (it wont let me on).

  1. The suppression system that was being made to work in the video was the back-up system, the main system was already being used from the other truck (our Safety 3 the ex champ car truck). The back-up had just been rebuilt and was not fully tested after a pump rebuild, but it worked fine as a back-up as it was intended.
  2. This truck has never been to Seattle and has never seen action as a rescue truck other than at Mission raceway and pit lane fire at Molson Indy Vancouver

Please don't put down what you do not understand. This race facility has some of the best equipment and operators anywhere . Thank you​
 
My comments were not intended as any criticism of the Turn Workers or Safety Crew. Having spent decades at track corners and having been involved with the incident of "Steve's" BIG CRASH AND FIRE at Pacific coming down the hill to Turn 3, and others around the track with all groups (SCCA, ICSCC, SOVREN and lapping groups) you can count on me to make a comment when I see a weakness the system.

I don't know maybe your "good" truck was at the front of the car (but I don't think so as the car was rolled forward later in the video and no alternate "good" fire truck appeared). Certainly is great that you have two fire suppression trucks but, they should both be equipped to deal with fires equally (eventually if it's a budget thing).

I don't know what happened at Pacific. Sound odd to me. We used the have a privately owned and driven fire truck that had an exceptional crew on it. I do know the raceway took over supplying the truck and it sounds like it isn't manned well.
 
If you don't believe there were 2 trucks, go to 1:03-1:08 of the video to see the second "Good" truck
 
I to am not criticizing anyone's Equipment nor the Workers, Maybe I should have stated, that we as a group should maybe do a "Pre-inspection" of our Safety Equipment and not assume that because "it worked the last time it should work this time"

I also Know that was not the Same Truck at PR, what happened there was the truck came out to the Fire and it had no water, Apparently it was used the weekend before and know one checked it out that weekend we needed to use it.

Not trying to "BLAME" anyone just to am pointing out a Safety concern. I know that everyone does their best and is much appreciated.


Thank you, Mark
 
Mark,

I thought the tank on the Pacific Raceways owned truck was transparent plastic - Yes, No? So you can see the level in the tank.

Or, am I thinking of the BIG truck Dodge I believe owned by one of the Safety Crew in ICSCC.
 
Thanks Alberto for coming up to race with us at Mission. unfortunately your weekend ended not so well ,Glad you were all right. Just a few comments. Watching the video, flames are seen 22 sec into the video. The cars is stopped at the turn station ( good thinking Alberto ) 35 sec in. first response by turn marshall 42 sec. less than ten sec after the car stopped . Both trucks arrive at aprox 110 of the video. roughly 45 sec after the car has stopped. The yellow truck ,our primary rescue truck went to the front of the car and extinguished the fire. This is an ex champ car safety truck the white truck seen in the video is our secondary safety truck, Both trucks are manned by very capable safety team members.1 min 35 sec into the video the track doctor is on scene. The speed and response capability of our safety team stacks up well against even professional outfits and we are proud and thankful to have them at our events. Hope we have more ICSCC racers to next years event at mission where our safety team would love to talk to you and let you check out the safety equipment. Cheers R Stec vp sccbc
 
rsracer said:
Thanks Alberto for coming up to race with us at Mission. unfortunately your weekend ended not so well ,Glad you were all right.
Click to expand...

Thank you, Mission is a very fun track to drive and to spectate; we thoroughly enjoyed the weekend up until the abrupt end in our case. The response of the safety team was amazing from my perspective and I am extremely grateful to each and every one involved. The timely response and preparedness not only got me out of harms way quickly but also helped to minimize the damage to the car as I can see how it might have been much worse.

If you're going to have a car fire (please don't), I couldn't think of a better team and crew to entrust my safety and car to than the people at SCCBC. Thank you again for all that you do and we'll see you again next year!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top