After 10 years of showing and racing my Dak without incident, one careless
idiot at the Mopar Nats has done bodily harm to my baby.
As I was returning to my pit area after a run today, I noticed there was a
Neon about 30 yards behind me. To be sure he understood I was going to
stop and back into my pit (on the right side of the road) I swung a little
to the left in my lane to line up for a direct shot back into my space. A
final check of the mirrors showed the Neon had stopped to talk with someone
so I stopped, looked over my right shoulder to back into the pit, engaged
reverse and released the brake pedal. Immediately I heard and felt a
"crunch" and hit the brake. Looking to my left, what did I find but a golf
cart directly behind my left fender.
I got out, surveyed the damage, and found one broken parking lens on the
cart and a couple dents and gouges on my left rear fender. The cart
"driver" complained, "you broke my lights!" I replied there was only one
broken lens, yet he insisted both were broken but never got out of the cart
to actually see. I pointed out that my damage was considerably more
expensive than his and asked if he noticed I was backing up. (my backup
light do work). He replied that he wasn't moving, I backed into him.
So here I am thinking I somehow missed seeing him when I began to back up
and feeling pretty bad about hurting his cart, not to mention my truck. He
then suggested we just take care of our own damage, to which I agreed, and
went on his way.
After parking the truck, some spectators who were on the other side of the
pit road came over and asked if the guy was going to pay for my repairs. I
said no, it appeared to be my fault. They said no it wasn't, the cart
driver had been going the opposite direction on the pit road and made a
quick U-turn into my path just as I had stopped and begun to back up!! (now
they tell me!!) Though it's nearly impossible to get compensated for damage
at the track, I was deprived of the opportunity to enlighten the cart driver
about his heritage. That hurts almost as much as the body work I'm going
to have to pay for!:-(
I guess I'm done now. Thanks for listening. I'll feel better if I win this
weekend.:-)
Ray
http://www.dragtruk.com/ENTRIES/20KM1FD2KWBP.html
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