“I hit the tires and I thought, ‘Gee, that wasn’t so bad,’” Gunter Schaldach said after skating across the Turn 1 gravel trap like a stone skipping across a pond before hitting a tire and fence barrier no was expected to hit, much less bore through it.
“Then I realized I still had some motion, but it was kinda quiet.”
It was just about a millisecond later when Schaldach’s No. 07 Banner Racing CoolTV Camaro GT.R (the remains of which pictured at left) performed what was described as a “couple of rolls” before settling upright somewhere on a Road America hillside no one had previously traversed – at least, not as had Schaldach.
That which launched Schaldach hasn’t exactly been determined, though the driver noted some “long travel” in the brake pedal before the run-in with Joe Foster’s No. 40 Fresh From Florida Mazda RX-8’s rear bumper.
“I had a really long pedal before I even hit him,” Schaldach said. “I pumped it but it didn’t respond.”
Expectations of Schaldach’s health fell about as quickly as did his car sail from view but concerns were soon reversed as Schaldach climbed atop the hillside and strolled through the hole his car had just created.
Attention then focused on Foster, whose Mazda had been contained by the barrier and was thought to have borne far less of the crash burden than did Schaldach.
Soon, though, Foster’s roof was peeled rearward and the driver, complaining of a shortage of breath, presumed to have been caused by a rib injury, was extricated by the Road America safety crew.
Soon afterward Foster was flown to Milwaukee’s Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital for further evaluation.
More as it becomes available.
Later,
DC
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