http://www.autoblog.com/2012/06/18/watch-nissan-driver-satoshi-motoyamas-valiant-attempts-to-reviv/
The rules state that as soon as the tow truck dudes touch the car, you're out. So, the driver apparently told them to stay away, and for 2 hours, with the help of the Nissan techs on the other side of a fence passing him basic hand tools, he tries to get it moving under it's own power again. Say what you will about the car, but that's dedication.
No word on how he got to this particular spot, considering it wasn't where he came to a stop after he was punted off track, without the help of the tow truck, but whatever...
You can get pulled out of sand or around the barriers with tow straps. It's the flat bed tow trucks that can't be used.
Yeah, I saw the footage. He was definitely trying to get back in the game. I guess the crew was trying to get him to disconnect something in the diff so the car could drive with the damaged corner. In the end, though, the damage was too much.
Keith
MegaDork
6/19/12 11:18 a.m.
It was my impression that they'll put you back on the pavement, it's your problem after that 
Hasn't always been the case, at least one GT40 got hung up on a sandbank (1968, I think) and had to be dug out by a driver over the course of hours and hours and hours.
Big props for Motoyama for working that hard. You could tell there was pride on the line, he wasn't just doing this for himself. Wearing a helmet, too! I imagine he had to stay in full racing garb because he was technically still on the track.
ok.. that is just impressive.
PHeller
SuperDork
6/19/12 12:02 p.m.
Your a driver. You've lived your whole life dedicated to racing. It's most people's dream job, and your living it.
You want every chance you can get to prove yourself, and I think the dude just did not want to give up on that chance.
Shaun
HalfDork
6/19/12 12:18 p.m.
He is a Valiant and Heroic man. Nearly a God. He used hand wrenches to try and fix a car for a couple hours. I feel better about myself.
He was using the starter to move the car a bit, that may have contributed to getting to where he was.
Shame too, because I really wanted to see how the Deltawing did. Toyota, the manufacturer of exactly zero good sports cars right now, went out and screwed up the neatest car in 30 years from Nissan, maker of the Z and the GT-R. Tards.
(the FRS is a Scion and the LFA is a Lexus, so I am technically correct)
Keith
MegaDork
6/19/12 1:35 p.m.
The FRS is only a Scion in the US. That race was in Europe, so Toyota makes the GT86
pinchvalve wrote:
He was using the starter to move the car a bit, that may have contributed to getting to where he was.
Shame too, because I really wanted to see how the Deltawing did. Toyota, the manufacturer of exactly zero good sports cars right now, went out and screwed up the neatest car in 30 years from Nissan, maker of the Z and the GT-R. Tards.
(the FRS is a Scion and the LFA is a Lexus, so I am technically correct)
No I think your still right regardless of who's name is on the nose of the FRS/BRZ/GT86
IIRC, the rule is that if the car is stranded on course, the workers (marshalls and emergency vehicles) clear the course to make it safe for racing. After the car has been removed to a safe location, the driver (and only the driver) may make repairs to get the thing back to the pits, even if they can't repair it enough to make "race pace". Also, you can only use parts & tools onboard the car (the tool kit is actually carried in the car--very minimal, to keep the weight down) these days, the rule about what's allowed from the team garage evolved from "no mechanics" to "no spare parts" to "no tools" over the last 40-50 years. 
Allowing the car to be dragged out of an impact area is a concession to modern safety concerns, Keith's exactly right about the guy digging out the GT40 years ago. I did some research, it was 1968 and the driver was Brian Muir. You can see some of it in this video, starting with the "off" at about 15min 30sec or so. Don't know if borrowing a shovel was legal back then..I don't know if he ever got it out, the results list I found says the car was a DNF on lap 15.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMzgeEWqXPQ
EDIT: Twin_Cam, thanks for the Autoblog link..that 2nd video (is that really from the Nissan folks?) was fantastic!
I think that was by far the saddest thing I've ever seen. The way he hops on the scooter, drops his head in shame.
I really hope that car comes back.
Keith
MegaDork
6/19/12 6:16 p.m.
I think Muir damaged the clutch getting the GT40 off the sandbank - thus the retirement.
I wish the ACO had let the Delta Wing rejoin the race after being towed back in - assuming it could have been fixed. It was there to prove new technology, and was already outside the rulebook and not classed in the race. Parking it because of someone else's mistake was a waste.
Did the guy who hit him finish well? Is it bad for me to hope that he DNF'd too? 
Punk...
sethmeister4 wrote:
Did the guy who hit him finish well? Is it bad for me to hope that he DNF'd too?
Punk...
Nah. The Toyota's hybrid system has some kind of very large capacitor in it, the thing was very unhappy that it had been smacked against something (they hit somebody else after they hit the DeltaWing). Lots of time in the garage repairing the bodywork..and when they cut it loose, they discovered that someone had reconnected all the electrics wrong. Stopped at the end of pit lane when they put the car back out, the team had to run almost the entire length of pit lane to drag it back to the garage.
I tried to find a video, but all my google-fu returns is 5,029,348,572,039,845 copies of Davidson's accident in the team car.
http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-195125.html
I don't understand why he didn't just build a motorcycle out of it. Apparently that's easy.
jg
JG Pasterjak wrote:
I don't understand why he didn't just build a motorcycle out of it. Apparently that's easy.
jg
He didn't have 10 days rations?
