Just thought I'd share my misfortune, but coming out of Turn 9 on my very first lap of the day on my very first time on Summit Point, I hit a deer.

Apparently, the deer jumped the fence from the infield, hopped the tire wall, and bounded onto the track, just as I was accelerating out of Turn 9, heading up the hill.

I was able to scrub off some speed so that impact speed was probably only about 45mph, but the flag station tells me that I launched the deer some 10-12 feet in the air. Apparently, it flipped around a few times, flew 15 feet into the grass, got up, took three steps and died.

As for the car, fortunately, the damage was (remarkably) minor. The front nose cone's cracked and pushed back, but the hood and side panels seem fine. The intercooler got pushed back a bit (it mounts, in part, to the nose), but it seems fine. One headlight is loose but is workable.

After inspecting the damage, I drove the rest of the session (and the rest of the weekend), but it took me a while to get back into any kind of rhythm.

Pretty weird, huh?

 

I've heard of this happening at Laguna Seca too.

Too crazy.

 

cbender, sorry to hear about this, but it is not weird to me, that is for sure! I

 

cbender, sorry about the mishap. Hope you can get the car all fixed up again, luckily the damage was very minor. I was anticipating much more damage prior to reading this tread. Makes me a little more cautious when I attend the FATT next month at Summit. Are you signed up for any of the last two autocrosses of the season?

 

Chris- must be a bad time of the season here! This just happened to me last night. I was in the front passenger seat, highway speed, happened so fast I didn't know if I was alive or not. Hard to believe that he didn't land in my lap. I can't imagine at racing speeds.....



All I got was a cut up knuckle, I think my hand flew into the windshield. Going to Pep Boys for some deer whistles- anyone know if they work or not??

 

Will Insurance cover that. I can't imagine they hear "I hit a dear on the race track" to many times. Of all the things that can happen to your car on a track that has to be the least expected. I know your car is covered if you wreck it at a "driving School". Anyway, Sorry about the loss.

A few years ago a guy was coming up to orlando for an Autox in a 3rd gen RX-7. Older gentlemen at about 5am crusing up the turnpike with his wife doing well into the triple digits. Apperently he didn't even see it. Just WHAM a deer. He slowed down and brought the car to a stop. Other then a Bloody mess he claimed there was virtually no damage. The deer apparently exploded on impact and the car had won. His wife asked him to slow down. So a hour or so later on the road He saw the deer at the last min and got the car down to the 30 or 40 mph. Hit the deer and totalled the Rx-7. I never saw the car but The guy did show up at the Autox late in the day to Tell his story.

 

I saw one get hit this year right in front of me. Two lane road and the guy going the other direction never saw the deer as he ran across the road. Impact was about 150 yards in front of me. The deer went about 40 feet straight up in the air spinning in all directions. I was hard on the brakes and the deer landed right next to me. It kicked once and that was it.

I was amazed at how little damage to the car (Taurus) and how high the deer went - it was pretty spectacular to watch. I had never seen one get hit and never imagined that could happen.

 

I've been reading about this on Honda-Tech. Glad you're ok, and it's a plus that the car sustained only minor damage. It's nice that you were able to get back on track and finish the day.

 

Do you get to keep it and harvest the deer meat....i know you are allowed to keep the roadkill in New York state. Bonapetite! How manly would that be to come home from a track day with a bloody carcass across your aluminum hood.....you would be Legendary!!!
seriously, glad you r ok and got to go back out on the track.

one more thing....any in car camera footage?

 

Funny but the flatbed guys (who hauled the deer carcass off the track) asked me exactly that. "You want the meat?" And they were happy when I told them that I wouldn't know what to do with it. I could see them thinking: "Cool! Dinner!"

As for in-car photo's, it would have been pretty cool to capture the accident, but I didn't bring a video camera. What I remember is the flash of the deer coming in from the in-field, the blur of fur, and then the launch. The thing hit the hoodline in mid-jump and just flew, high and wide. I'm sure the poor thing was thinking something along the lines of, "what the ?!??!!!"