Mike Skinner Crashes His Toyota Tundra At 2015 Goodwood FOS
By Paulo Acoba
Molecomb corner claims its third victim this weekend.
You wouldn’t think that a 1.16 mile hill climb would be an issue for a seasonsed Nascar Sprint Cup driver, but apparently it’s still very much risky business. Mike Skinner piloting his Toyota Tundra race truck carried a bit too much speed through Molecomb corner earlier today (June. 27, 2015) and stuffed his race truck into a barrier full of hay bales. Fortunately, shortly after Skinner exited the truck and all that he seemed to have suffered was a bruised ego. This is the third crash this weekend and the second crash of the day. All three have been minor. The first crash was yesterday with Mazda’s historic 767B IMSA GT Racecar and earlier today the Bloodhound SSC Jaguar JXR RRV, both crashing into the same exact corner. It looks like adrenaline and excitement gets the best of these drivers and a hot corner is….a hot corner.
According to the commentators,
"“A bit of a mistake for Skinner there in the Toyota Tundra Nascar machine. Skinner came a little bit too hot over the brow. And he’s not scrubbed off enough speed as it skips over the apex. A little bit of understeer on the grass and then all locked up and into the bales. Hasn’t gone in quite as hard as the Jaguar earlier on though. And the driver is out of the car and is perfectly ok. Probably will be a bit cross with himself though…”"
These Nascar Trucks aren’s exactly made for hill climbs although engineers and race teams tweak the suspensions enough to get as much handling as they can squeeze out of them. Most of these trucks are powered by naturally aspirated V8’s good for a whopping 700 HP and 520 lbs-ft of torque. And yes, they still run carburetors. Mike Skinner is no amateur at the Goodwood FOS. Here he is last year and in 2009 piloting some of America’s burly V8’s up the hill.