Important: Check your aftermarket wings!
 

Phil from Element Tuning is a friend of mine and we regularly battle against each other in Time Attack. Here is what happpened when his wing detached at 148mph going into the S'es at VIR.

Usually, I don't post crash vids, but this is a good reminder of the importance of checking all parts of the car regularly for wear and tear.

http://www.youtube.com/v/_LnmD7kxHUw&hl=en_US&fs=1&

WOW! The wing came lose and bye bye aerodynamics. Lucky he walked away.

wow i didnt know a wing makes that much of a difference. Thats good he walked away from that.

Yeah he walked away with just some bruises. Notice his leg broke that Sparco steering wheel....snapped it like a twig, as it is designed to do.

that was nuts, glad to see he is ok. Its incredible how much difference sufficient downforce makes.

wow, that will be preflight check every time once I get mine back! Glad he was ok. But then again, I will never be going that fast, especially there!

He had no chance. Wow!

Crazy. Glad he was ok. Also noticed he let go of the wheel and put his hands up next to his body before impact. I doubt I would remember to do that in that situation.

Wow, that was exciting. Good thing those tires were there with the guardrail, I know they helped. I'm surprised the rear end broke away so quick, at the point in the esses; I would have thought it would have been later. Was the car a write off? Did you say you were behind him? - any footage?

Good God, that's a nightmare.

The car was a total loss. Phil is going to be transfering most of the undamaged go-fast-bits into a new shell.

I have raced against Phil at VIR in the past, but wasn't at the track during this incident.