No injuries. First estimate on the truck was $13K.
Traffic was thickening and had slowed to ~50 mph. I was in the middle lane and a semi in the right lane suddenly moved to the center lane in front of me. At that moment I saw a trooper parked off to the right shoulder. Once the semi was fully in my lane I saw his brake lights and I immediately hit the brakes checking my mirrors for an escape route but I was hemmed in on both sides. The truck braked harder and I did the same but the distance was closing fast. For a moment I thought we were going to come to a stop without incident but at the end he braked even more and the squall of the brakes preceded the impact. The airbags did not deploy.
The semi simply 'invaded my space' and left me with no reaction time. The semi driver has switched lanes and braked hard because of traffic backing up ahead, which of course I could not see. Of course, I was cited for failure to maintain control and "traveling too fast for conditions".
This was the 3rd trip to Atlanta and the SSHS event for me. This spring I started trailering the car to long weekend events like this because of the lack of room with all the tools, tires and luggage. This was the 3rd trip with the car on the trailer. The wife, son and daughter-in-law were all along for this trip, so even less room than normal. We had to rent a car for the rest of the trip and I drove the Blue Flame.
When I bought the trailer this spring, I mounted a set of HD rubber wheel chocks to the trailer with deck screws to have something to pull up against each time I loaded the car. Since the accident, I've seen literally dozens of car haulers with no such wheel chocks. The impact caused the front straps to become unhooked from the trailer. No doubt the chocks were responsible for helping keep the car in check on the trailer.
I was going to trailer the car to Maryland this coming weekend for another track event, but it looks like I'll be driving solo.
