Usually, any kind of failure on one’s car isn’t greeted with a big grin, which makes this video fairly unique, to be honest.
While racing his Honda S2000 at Buttonwillow, Chris Wiita was more than surprised to see the front right rim braking off, around the hub, and leaving him with no control on the car what so ever. Lucky the man careered off-track, into the gravel, with little drama, reacting enthusiastically at what could’ve been a catastrophe.
According to his video description, the mishap took place mid-corner, and although the Forgestar F14s 17×10 were only on their 14th outing on the track, he “lazily” didn’t thoroughly check the set before setting off. In fact, the only examination Wiita performed was running his hand along the backside of the spokes, missing some important clues in the process.
Now, if you frequently go racing (and inevitably make some mistakes and spin off the track, like Wiita did in the 2nd video – which was posted last month) we recommend checking the condition of your car’s wheels periodically. This kind of accident doesn’t necessarily have to question the quality of the rims, as a track-day car is pushed close to (and sometimes beyond) its limits, for a repeated period of time.
Nonetheless, the issue was addressed after the driver was contacted by Forgestar, will analyze the remaining wheels and offer a refund.