Conor Daly And The Zen Of Race Driving: Don't Think About It - Just Do It - VIDEO ENHANCED
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"My daily activities are not unusual, I'm just naturally in harmony with them. - (Layman Pang-yun (740-808))
Austin, May 8, 2009: It's a statistical fact that when listening to radio calls from military pilots who are about to crash, the typical last words heard are "Ah Crap." Usually the phrase is uttered when a jet driver has gotten him/herself in a situation that is so unnatural that they stop thinking, and simply give in to adversity. In racing, similar verbal results can exist, since open-wheel cars require similar levels of accuracy, focus and guts in order to hustle a hurtling carbon-fiber cocoon around a race track effectively, or unsuccessfully, depending on the final result of an incident.
While there have been examples of expected failure or recovery throughout the years, most performances are fairly routine either way. However, there have also been particular 'saves" that represent pure "hang-on-the-edge" performances that are so beyond the norm that they bear additional note; Danny Sullivan's 360 degree turn 1 spin-recovery at Indy in '84 for example, or Shumacher's similar 360 at Spa in '94. In recent years, however, there have been a clear lack of "great saves" in open wheel. However, that belief was recently challenged by Mazdaspeed driver Conor Daly at the recent Bosch 250 Engineering event at VIR.
The set up was classic. After a restart Daly got caught in Adam Christodolu's attempted brake-check at the green flag. As a result everyone checked up in front of him. Seeing that the fifth-place car was about to become a hood ornament, Conor reacted instinctively and braked hard. This lead to a spin in the middle of the race track. With the trailing field bearing down on him, however, rather than being overcome by an "Ah Crap" moment, Daly stayed cool and let the car rotate, rather than fight the spin. This allowed him to do a neat pirouette, take a second to downshift, then continue once he was pointed the right way.
This is how is looked in the car:
Meanwhile, Conor's dad Derek was at the pit box trying to figure out what had happened, "I heard Conor on the radio say that his life passed before his eyes. Then I saw him in 15th position heading to the first corner and did not know what happened. Next I saw him 9th exiting the first corner having driven around the outside a group of cars and thought, 'this is a bit wild.' (Once I) saw the video I realized just how wild it was. I was surprised that the leader would pull such a stunt on a restart and in awe that, as Conor was spinning, he was thinking about how to straighten the car with the steering wheel and get on with the race"
As for Conor, he was fairly nonplussed, too irked by what caused the incident in the first place, to take time to worry about the recovery itself - for him it was just one moment in the middle of a race. "I couldn't believe Adam did that on a restart. My car was not actually straight which was why, when I hit the brakes hard, the car immediately spun. All I could think about was - get it straight and in gear as soon as possible".
Whether in Zen terms, or on the race track, Conor's performance was one hell of fine recovery.