The unveiling of the new vehicle was somewhat strangely on the sidelines of the release of its Q4 and full-year 2020 earnings.
Tesla didn’t do an official release of the updated vehicles.
CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla will hold a separate call for the new Model S and Model X in the following week, but it never happened.
The update to the Model S and Model X includes a new powertrain and a brand-new interior, but one of the biggest changes is the new “yoke” steering wheel.
Strangely, all the prototypes spotted since the unveiling of the vehicle featured a normal round steering wheel instead of the butterfly-shaped ‘yoke’.
It confused people as to if it would be an option, but Tesla’s Model S and Model X configurators currently only feature the yoke steering wheel.
Now for the first time, an actual Tesla Model S prototype was spotted with the new steering wheel:
The Kilowatts shared a few more pictures of the find – giving us one of the best look at the new Model S interior to date:
It also gives us a good look at the new interior in white – one of the only few different options that Tesla offers.
As we previously reported, the shape of the steering wheel is the only significant change to the controls.
It doesn’t have any stalks and instead, all the controls for the wipers, blinkers, and honk are through force touch buttons on the wheel.
All the details should be confirmed in the coming weeks as Tesla starts deliveries.
Musk confirmed last week that Tesla was almost done with the retooling of the Model S and Model X production lines.
Deliveries are expected to start soon.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.
What I'm Hearing: Golfweek's Steve DiMeglio is on the road covering the PGA Tour and relays the emotions felt by players in the aftermath of Tiger Wood's automobile crash. USA TODAY
The available evidence from the recent car crash involving Tiger Woods indicates that the famed golfer was not paying attention to the road and drifted off of it before crashing his car, three forensic car accident experts told USA TODAY Sports.
The same experts also say the evidence does not indicate he lost control of his vehicle because of excessive speed on a curved downhill road that is known for speeding cars.
Woods, 45, was traveling north near Los Angeles when his sports utility vehicle left its lane, went across the median into the southbound lanes, went off the road, hit a tree, rolled over and sustained major frontal damage. Woods also broke multiple bones in his lower right leg, which indicates he was applying the brake at the time of impact, according to the experts. They also said the evidence indicates Woods applied the brake late into the collision sequence.
“To me, this is like a classic case of falling asleep behind the wheel, because the road curves and his vehicle goes straight,” said Jonathan Cherney, a consultant who provides car accident analysis as an expert witness in court cases. Cherney, a former police detective, examined the Woods’ crash site in person since the accident on Tuesday.
“It’s a drift off the road, almost like he was either unconscious, suffering from a medical episode or fell asleep and didn’t wake up until he was off the road and that’s where the brake application came in,” Cherney said.
There were no skid marks on the road to indicate braking, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. Woods’ vehicle did have anti-lock brakes. So even if he was to slam on the brakes prior to hitting the curb, “you wouldn’t necessarily see tire marks,” said Felix Lee, an accident reconstruction expert who is part of the Expert Institute, a network that provides expert witnesses in litigation.
Lee said a key clue is how the vehicle did not change direction entering the curve and instead went directly into the median.
“My feeling is that speed wasn’t that much of an issue,” Lee said. “It was just some kind of inattention that caused the curb strike.”
After leaving his lane and striking the median, Woods’ vehicle went about 400 feet before stopping. Cherney said he didn't see evidence of "any steering input" that would indicate Woods tried to avoid the emergency.
This suggests a “very delayed response” by Woods to the situation, said Rami Hashish, principal at the National Biomechanics Institute, which analyzes the cause of accidents. “It was suggesting he wasn’t paying attention at all.”
Hashish said he suspects the damage to the vehicle and Woods would have been much greater if he had been traveling at an excessive speed. The speed limit on that road is 45 mph.
“You can walk away with a broken leg from 45 to 50 mph,” Hashish said. “If you’re hitting 60, 65 and you’re hitting a stationary object, your likelihood of death increases exponentially.”
If he was going 80 mph, “he wouldn’t be having an open fracture in this leg,” Hashish said. “He’d be dead.”
Villanueva, the Los Angeles County sheriff, said he didn’t know the vehicle’s speed yet but said it could have been a factor, as well as inattentiveness. The accident was serious enough that it could end Woods' golf career. Woods had to be extricated from the vehicle and taken to the hospital for surgery.
“This stretch of road is challenging, and if you’re not paying attention, you can see what happens,” Villanueva said Wednesday.
Villanueva said then that the crash was “purely an accident” and that there was no evidence of impairment or medication involved. He also said Woods was “lucid” at the time a sheriff’s deputy arrived on the scene Tuesday. But that doesn’t mean he might not have been alert when he left his lane and kept going until he crashed.
The experts found it puzzling that Villanueva had determined it to be an accident already without having examined the vehicle’s “black box” computer, which could reveal his steering, braking or acceleration actions prior to impact. Villanueva said Wednesday that information had not been pulled yet.
Regarding an examination of Woods’ blood to see if he was medicated, Villanueva said Wednesday the hospital might have that information.
“We’ll assume that in the course of the treatment they draw blood and they have to do that obviously because he has to go into surgery and all that,” he said. “But that’s going to require a search warrant from our part to go into those details.”
USA TODAY Sports contacted the sheriff’s department Saturday to ask if Woods’ black box or blood was examined. The sheriff's department responded with a statement:
“The traffic collision investigation is ongoing, and traffic investigators have not made any conclusions as to the cause of the collision."
Woods announced in January that he recently had undergone the latest of several surgical procedures on his back. In 2017, police found him asleep at the wheel in Florida. A toxicology report stated he had Vicodin, Dilaudid, Xanax, Ambien and THC in his system then, when he was arrested on suspicions of drunk driving. Ambien is used to treat sleep problems and has been used by Woods previously.
“There’s no real accident unless it’s a true medical emergency,” Cherney said. “There’s always some level of negligence, whether it’s simple negligence like looking down at your phone or changing the radio station that starts the whole collision sequence. … So when the sheriff is saying this is just an accident, I don’t know how in the world you can state that so early in the game without completing an in-depth thorough investigation and reconstruction analysis.”
Villanueva’s declaration that this was an accident was a “preliminary” assessment, Sheriff’s Deputy Graciela Medrano said Saturday.
Cherney noted the weight of that SUV, a Genesis SV80, might be around 6,000 pounds, much more than a standard passenger car of about 3,500 pounds. Such heavy weight could help explain the damage done in the crash, as opposed to having it stem from excessive speeding, he said. He questions whether the vehicle actually rolled over "several times," as the sheriff previously indicated.
"I consider a rollover one full revolution, not just falling onto the side," Cherney said. "I don’t think that vehicle experienced as many revolutions or complete rolls as they are portraying."
He also noted there are tire marks on the median, but “you don’t see any tire marks again until he actually goes off the road,” Cherney said. “And when he goes off the road, his left-side tires and right-side tires both struck it and you can see he just went right over the curb. To me, that’s also indicative of him not applying the brakes, and he went ahead and continued off the side the road until he hit the brush. Probably at some point when he hit the curb, he regained consciousness and decided to apply the brakes.”
ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) -- A 37-year-old driver was injured after falling asleep while driving on I-255 in south St. Louis County Sunday morning, police said.
Just before 5 a.m., a Hillsboro man was driving a tanker truck on westbound Interstate 255 just east of Telegraph when he fell sleep. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said the truck crashed into the median wall before overturning.
The driver was injured and taken to the hospital for treatment. All lanes were reopened before 9 a.m.
March 01, 2021 at 12:30AM
https://www.kmov.com/news/drowsy-driver-falls-asleep-behind-wheel-crashes-tanker-truck-on-i-255-officials-say/article_cfcf9db2-79c7-11eb-952a-9322b4b22c58.html
Drowsy driver falls asleep behind wheel, crashes tanker truck on I-255, officials say - KMOV.com
A Texas mother of two was killed in a freak accident Thursday night, when the wheel of a nearby truck separated and flew into her windshield, authorities said.
Carol Hardy and her 17-year-old son Kayden were on the way home from the teen’s baseball game when the tragic accident occurred on Eastex Freeway in New Caney around 7:15 p.m., KTRK reported citing officials.
Hardy, 52, was driving a white GMC pickup on the southbound lanes when a wheel from a Dodge pickup truck that was heading north flew off and smashed into the mother’s windshield, killing her instantly.
Her son was asleep in the front passenger seat at the time. He went to a local hospital to be treated for injuries but was later released, according to KTRK.
Hardy’s pickup hit a nearby Buick that was carrying a family of four; they too were taken to a hospital and were in stable condition, KRIV reported.
The 16-year-old driver of the pickup truck wasn’t injured. No charges have been filed.
Pat Sajak is drawing criticism for seemingly mocking a Wheel of Fortune contestant.
The longtime game show host replied "I thee" instead of "I see" to a contestant named Chris Brimble, who reportedly spoke with a lisp.
Wheel of Fortune and Pat have not spoken out about the controversy.
Longtime Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak is under fire after Monday's episode.
While introducing the audience to Monday's contestants, Pat started making small talk with a contestant named Chris Brimble, who some viewers are saying spoke with a lisp. After Chris told Pat about his job, Pat concluded the exchange by saying "I thee" instead of "I see."
At the time, Chris and a few others can be heard laughing off the interaction. Still, many viewers took the comment as Pat mocking Chris, causing outrage.
"That’s awful ... @patsajak - I use to be a fan ... I grew up with a parent who had issues speaking," someone said online. "As someone your age, who grew up with hearing impaired cousins, I was taught that we NEVER made fun of their speech pattern. To this day I wouldn't even think of doing what you did ... Own it and DO BETTER!," a viewer tweeted."Wowwww man. Come on dude, that's rude on so many levels," a different fan said.
Wheel of Fortune has not yet responded to Good Housekeeping's request for comment. Both Pat and Wheel of Fortune have stayed silent on the matter. On Tuesday, Chris did respond to a tweet regarding his time on the show, saying it was a "super fun experience." However, it seems that was before the clip made waves online.
Tee Moree, who was also a contestant on the episode, has come to Pat's defense, replying to a tweet stating: "Pat was very kind to us. In psychology it is recommended that you portray another’s energy to make them feel comfortable and I believe this is what Pat does on a daily basis. It seems like he sincerely made a mistake."
The controversy comes just days after Pat tweeted on February 16: "Criticizing others is so much easier than examining our own lives ... and so much less productive." A day later, he tweeted, "How nice for those who have lived such exemplary lives that they can express glee when others have their lives ruined by a mistake, real or perceived." It's unclear what Pat's tweets were referring to at the time.
A Tesla Model S with a Yoke Steering wheel has been caught in the wild, giving the public a first look at Tesla’s futuristic stalkless steering column.
A Deep Blue Metallic Model S with a refreshed interior, including the wraparound wood door trim, revised instrument cluster display and horizontal center touchscreen, and Tesla’s highly-anticipated Yoke steering wheel, was spotted in downtown Redwood City in Silicon Valley on Saturday.
Photos captured by The Kilowatts reveal a Model S with manufacturer plates, indicating that the company may be in the final stages of public testing before rolling out the updated steering wheel design to production vehicles.
Tesla Model S Yoke steering wheel and refreshed interior (Credit: The Kilowatts)
Notable in the photos of the Yoke steering wheel is the absence of a traditional stalk and Tesla’s familiar dual scroll wheels. While Tesla has showcased the capacitive touch functions in illustrations for the Model S and Model X refresh steering wheel, markings for turn signals and drive functions were not visible in the release candidate that was spotted.
What appears to be a production-ready driver and passenger section of the Model S, a refined rear passenger area, clad in Tesla’s famed Vegan white interior and highlighted by the company’s newest rearseat touchscreen display, was clearly evident.
Tesla Model S interior rear seat touchscreen (Credit: The Kilowatts)
Tesla Model S interior rear seat touchscreen armrest (Credit: Tesla)
In the photos shared by The Kilowatts, the button for folding-down the Model S split rear seats can also be seen, along with a more prominent side repeater camera.
Tesla revealed new images of the 2021 Refreshed Model S and Model X earlier this year following months of speculation that the company would be updating the aging interior design of its flagship vehicles.
Carol Hardy, 52, was driving home from a baseball game with her 17-year-old son Kaden Hardy, in New Caney in the US state of Texas, when the rogue wheel hit their vehicle about 7pm Thursday (local time).
Fox 26 Houston reports the sudden impact sent Ms Hardy's car into the back of another vehicle with a father and three children inside.
Carol Hardy (middle) died after a wheel flew through her windshield as she drove her son Kaden (left) home from a baseball game. Source: GoFundMe
Ms Hardy was pronounced dead at the scene.
Her teenage son, who was asleep in the front passenger seat when the accident happened, was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
The father and his three children from the vehicle Ms Hardy rear-ended were taken to hospital in a stable condition, according to Fox 26.
The driver of the truck that lost its wheel is uninjured.
Authorities are now investigating how the tagic incident happened. Source: Twitter
Footage from the aftermath shows Ms Hardy’s vehicle with the roof cut off, reportedly by emergency services trying to extract the mother and her son from the wreckage.
“She was her kids' biggest fan, and quite possibly the nicest person you've ever met,” the GoFundMe page that has so far raised more than $26,000 reads.
Mr Hardy been overwhelmed by the support his family has received since the accident and thanked people for their generosity.
Carol Hardy's car was destroyed when a rogue tyre flew through the windshield and killed her.. Source: Fox26
Finnish prog metal band Wheel have announced their new album ‘Resident Human.’ The follow-up their 2019 album ‘Moving Backwards’ will be released on March 26th, 2021.
Today, the band have released the album’s third single “Fugue,” which you can listen to here:
“Fugue’s title was inspired by a form of long-distance space travel in the Dan Simmon’s series Hyperion Cantos. In the books, cryogenic fugue allows individuals to enter a form of stasis that enables them to cross vast cosmic distances; the convenience of this suspended state presents major risks however, such as brain damage.
Over the last year, many of us have been confined to our homes as the pandemic has continued to spread through our societies; alcohol consumption has increased and current data indicates that the mental well-being of many has suffered. Broad trends like these made me think of how despite the risks, many would choose to take a gamble with something as risky as cryogenic fugue, rather than continue to endure the radical changes Covid-19 restrictions have imposed upon all of us. In lieu of the possibility of suspended animation, many of us are choosing to sedate ourselves at home with substances and distract ourselves with the media at our disposal; to weather the storm as best we can and to wait for whatever is to come next.
The events of the past year are likely to be generation-defining and honestly, I don’t think it will only be in a bad way – there is some promising global action to address the detection of future pandemics, hygiene has improved and working from home seems likely to be a possibility for employees in a range of sectors that were previously unwilling to adopt it. Unfortunately, despite this positivity, it is exhausting to read about Covid every day and the constant media bombardment of speculation, fear and hopelessness is taking a toll – I openly admit that it has affected me too.
Our social separation and the fear of either spreading or contracting Covid, has left many of us feeling isolated and disconnected from each other, but this is an illusion – we all want the same thing; to get back to a point where our lives are not dictated by this virus and however bleak things may look, this, (like everything else), will eventually pass. It is easy to forget we are interconnected and that we stand together; if we can endure this clamour, there is going to be one hell of a party on the other side. For now however, wine and Netflix will have to do.” – James
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.
A Texas mother of two died Thursday night when the front tire of a truck driving in front of her randomly separated and flew into her windshield, FOX 26 Houston reports.
Carol Hardy was on the way home from a baseball tournament for her son, who was also in the vehicle at the time and survived with minor injuries, according to a GoFundme that was set up to pay for the funeral and hospital bills.
"Carol was a mother of two, Kayden and Caly and wife to Ron Hardy," the GoFundMe reads. "She was her [kids'] biggest fan, and quite possibly the nicest person you've ever met."
The truck Hardy was driving rear-ended another car with a father and three children inside, who were all taken to a hospital and are in stable condition, according to FOX 26 Houston.
The lasting legacy of the last decade of automotive progress may well be the proliferation of AWD systems. Available more widely than ever before, they come in a variety of forms – and with automakers using all kinds of names or acronyms, customers may get confused.
And that’s what this latest video from Hagerty seeks to parse. Host Jason Cammisa runs through the three basic types of AWD systems and breaks down what they really mean to drivers, particularly the spirited kind of driver.
The bad news is that at the limit, AWD systems tend to promote understeer, which isn’t fun. But there are ways that they can be made beneficial in more than just low grip situations.
Addressing the first major claim that many automakers make, in practice, most cars won’t ever actually send power to just one wheel. Most FWD-based cars with AWD systems aren’t ever likely to even send all their power to the rear axle.
That’s not to say that automakers who boast of being able to send all their power to the rear wheels are lying. Rather, it means that for it to happen an unlikely number of wheels would have to have absolutely no grip.
In more reasonable scenarios, the front-biased AWD systems send most of their power to the front wheels. When those are overworked (as in the example below) they tend to plow and that’s not fun.
There are advantages to sending power to the front wheels, though. Besides the help it provides under acceleration, if you do get into an oversteer situation, with power being sent to the front wheels, you can throttle out of trouble. That’s why an AWD system like BMW’s is actually very handy.
With more power being sent to the rear wheels, you can induce oversteer with the throttle. That can be easier to manage, though, when the front wheels are powered, too. And it actually leads to really nice handling dynamics at the limit.
This is all in high-speed driving and, of course, drive systems aren’t the only things that affect handling, but it’s a good break down of the fundamentals.
Kaohsiung, Feb. 27 (CNA) A woman was killed and her two daughters injured after a wheel from a container truck traveling in the opposite direction came loose and bounced across the freeway before striking the windshield of their SUV Saturday morning in Kaohsiung.
According to the National Highway Police Bureau, the accident occurred on the 364.4-kilometer southbound section of National Freeway No. 1, and involved a man surnamed Kuo (é), 50, who was driving his SUV with his wife and two daughters as passengers heading toward Taitung on holiday.
The 47-year-old wife, who was in the front passenger seat, was killed instantly, the bureau said, indicating that the older daughter, 17, sustained a skull fracture while her younger sister received only minor bruising.
Kuo was not injured in the accident, police said, noting that his daughters are now being treated at Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital.
The container truck was being driven by a 54-year-old man, surnamed Huang (é»), who was heading northbound when one of his rear wheels came loose and bounced into the opposite lane, police said.
The wheel hit another truck after the SUV but did not cause any further injuries.
Based on the results of a breathalyzer test, police said Huang was found to be sober at the time of the accident, and indicated that the investigation is ongoing.
Chris Harrison’s “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” episode came with a disclaimer when it aired Thursday night, less than two weeks after he said he was “stepping aside” from “The Bachelor” over racially insensitive comments.
Harrison appeared on the ABC game show, competing alongside Alfonso Ribeiro and Robert Herjavec, to raise money for Feeding America. As he prepared to spin the wheel, a disclaimer popped up at the bottom of the screen reading, “This episode was previously recorded in December 2020.”
The addition of the disclaimer came after Harrison received backlash for his remarks during a Feb. 9 interview with Rachel Lindsay, the “Bachelor” franchise’s first Black female lead. In the interview, Harrison defended current “Bachelor” contestant Rachael Kirkconnell, who recently came under fire for past racist actions, including “liking” photos with Confederate flags and attending a plantation-themed sorority party.
After Lindsay said Kirkconnell’s actions were “not a good look ever, because she’s celebrating the Old South,” Harrison responded, “You’re 100 percent right — in 2021. That was not the case in 2018. Again, I’m not defending Rachael. I just know, I don’t know, 50 million people did that in 2018 — that was a type of party that a lot of people went to.” Harrison went on to encourage “Bachelor” fans to show compassion toward Kirkconnell, lambasting “the woke police” for taking the situation too far.
Fans immediately criticized Harrison for casually dismissing Kirkconnell’s racist actions. The next day, he issued an apology on Instagram for “wrongly speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism,” and announced he would be “stepping aside” from his hosting duties on “The Bachelor” for an unspecified amount of time.
Some fans had hoped Harrison’s “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” episode would be pulled from ABC’s schedule, but in fact, he proved to have the winningest night on the show, raising more than $62,000 for Feeding America.
Meanwhile, recent episodes of “The Bachelor” featuring Harrison have yet to air with any kind of disclaimer.
Finnish prog metal band Wheel have streamed their brand new single, the brooding Fugue, which you can listen to in full below. Fugue is taken from the band's upcoming new album Resident Human, which will be released through Odyssey Music on March 26. You can watch the new video below.
"The title was inspired by a form of long-distance space travel in the Dan Simmon's series Hyperion Cantos,” explains vocalist and guitarist James Lascelles. “In the books, cryogenic fugue allows individuals to enter a form of stasis that enables them to cross vast cosmic distances; the convenience of this suspended state presents major risks however, such as brain damage.
“Over the last year, many of us have been confined to our homes as the pandemic has continued to spread through our societies; alcohol consumption has increased and current data indicates that the mental well-being of many has suffered. Broad trends like these made me think of how despite the risks, many would choose to take a gamble with something as risky as cryogenic fugue, rather than continue to endure the radical changes COVID-19 restrictions have imposed upon all of us. In lieu of the possibility of suspended animation, many of us are choosing to sedate ourselves at home with substances and distract ourselves with the media at our disposal; to weather the storm as best we can and to wait for whatever is to come next.
The theme of societal division runs throughout the whole of the band's second album.
“The events of the past year are likely to be generation-defining and honestly, I don't think it will only be in a bad way - there is some promising global action to address the detection of future pandemics, hygiene has improved and working from home seems likely to be a possibility for employees in a range of sectors that were previously unwilling to adopt it," Lascelles ccontinues. "Unfortunately, despite this positivity, it is exhausting to read about COVID every day and the constant media bombardment of speculation, fear and hopelessness is taking a toll - I openly admit that it has affected me too.
“Our social separation and the fear of either spreading or contracting COVID, has left many of us feeling isolated and disconnected from each other, but this is an illusion - we all want the same thing; to get back to a point where our lives are not dictated by this virus and however bleak things may look, this, (like everything else), will eventually pass. It is easy to forget we are interconnected and that we stand together; if we can endure this clamour, there is going to be one hell of a party on the other side. For now however, wine and Netflix will have to do.”
Wheel have previously released a video for the song Movement.
AMN, Counterman and Babcox Media will soon close the nomination process for our second-annual Women at the Wheel celebration! For our May 2021 cover story, Women at the Wheel, we will be profiling some of today’s top female professionals leading the charge from the boardroom to the breakroom in the automotive aftermarket.
We are looking for candidates from the executive level to the counter pro to the shop owner who make a difference through innovation, business acumen or serving as a role model in the automotive aftermarket.
Click here to nominate a woman in your professional community who creates that spark. We can’t wait to share your stories.
Two Teens Debuted in the 2021 Rolex 24, as Former Winner Braun Recalls His Own Start 16 Years ago
By John Oreovicz
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Hitting the streets solo for the first time in the family minivan or SUV is a huge responsibility for a newly licensed 16-year-old driver.
Now imagine a 16-year-old making their IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut under the spotlight of one of the most illustrious sports car races in the world, the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
It happened a few weeks ago when a pair of drivers aged 16 contested the Rolex 24 in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier JS P320 in the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class: Matteo Llarena from Guatemala and Ayrton Ori, from nearby Orlando, Florida. Llarena is the older of the two teens; he celebrates his 17th birthday today, Feb. 26.
They’re still buzzing about their Rolex 24 experience, which resulted in a sixth-place class finish.
Mateo Llarena (left) and Ayrton Ori (right)
"The Rolex was the most fun and the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life," remarked Ori. "One minute, you think you’re asleep, the next minute, you’re being woken up at 4 a.m. to get in a car and go 180 miles per hour. Everything feels so surreal because all these thoughts are running through your mind, and then you realize you’re about to go into Turn 1."
Ori and Llarena were teamed with veterans Rasmus Lindh and Cameron Cassels. Cassels was behind the wheel of the No. 38 when it was taken off track by a GT Le Mans class car at the Bus Stop chicane.
The incident occurred about two hours into the race, and the Performance Tech Ligier spent 90 minutes in the garage while repairs were made. The drivers then had to deal with a balky clutch for the rest of the event. They still completed 687 laps, 70 fewer than the LMP3 class winner, the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier.
Another of Ori and Llarena’s direct competitors in LMP3 in the Rolex 24 carried some unique parallels. Colin Braun was 16 years old himself when he made his IMSA debut in the same event back in 2005. Braun teamed then with two other 16-year-olds (Adrian Carrio and Brad Coleman) driving a Porsche 996 in the equivalent of today’s GT Daytona (GTD) category. Joined by veteran Ross Bentley, they finished seventh in class.
Braun has since carved out an impressive sports car career, amassing 18 IMSA race wins highlighted by a pair of class triumphs in the Rolex 24. The most recent came a year ago in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class.
This year, Braun shared the No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier LMP3 with Matt McMurry, Jonathan Bennett and George Kurtz. They finished fifth in class, one spot ahead of the youngsters half his age.
Now 32, Braun still enjoys fond memories of his rookie Rolex 24 run in 2005 – when Llarena and Ori were both less than a year old.
"My dad was a race engineer in many, many Rolex 24s, and I remember going as a 5- or 6-year-old kid and watching my dad engineer the Ferrari 333SPs back in the day," Braun recalled. "I’ve loved that race since I was a little kid and thought it was so cool.
"To get to that race as a driver at that part of my career and see it from the other side of the grandstand was incredible at 16," he continued. "What an opportunity, and what an amazing experience. That was such a big race to do at that age."
Like Llarena and Ori, most of Braun’s racing experience prior to entering the Rolex 24 was in small, single-seat formula cars. He believes that modern prototype cars including the LMP3 are much more similar to those open-wheel cars than the production-based Porsche he drove in 2005.
"I’d say there were a few more differences in how the car had to be driven," Braun said. "You had to heel-and-toe downshift, and you really had to worry about taking care of the H-pattern gearbox and being nice to all the equipment. Today, even the LMP3 cars are solidly built and reliable and have paddle shift and all those things that let you just focus on your job of driving the car.
"I don’t want to say it’s easier, but it’s a different approach," he added. "When we were doing it, you didn’t have the incredible speed that the DPi and even the LMP2 cars have now. Certainly, the traffic component was probably a bit easier when I did it. I’m sure a big part of the experience for them was working in and through the traffic."
Asked what advice the Braun of today would give the 16-year-old version of himself – words that would serve Ori and Llarena as well – he replied: "The biggest thing is soak it in and enjoy it. I was so focused on trying to make a career and a name in the sport on the driving side of things. I probably didn’t enjoy the experience and take in all the coolness of what we were doing."
Ori, who’s named after Formula One legend Ayrton Senna and sports a helmet modeled after another F1 great, James Hunt, seems to be doing just that. The teen’s appreciation for the history and culture of motorsport shines through on his Instagram feed (@ayrtonoriracing). His father, Keith Ori, was an aspiring racer who once qualified for the Skip Barber "Road to Indy" nationals and is now a house builder featured in "Zombie House Flipping" airing on A&E.
Diagnosed with a hormone growth deficiency at age 7, Ayrton Ori is a patient ambassador for pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, an arrangement similar to IndyCar driver and diabetic Charlie Kimball.
Ori is hopeful that he and Llarena will be able to compete in all four IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup events on the 2021 WeatherTech Championship slate, including next month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts, while he also pursues stock-car racing opportunities. He admitted that participating in his first Rolex 24 was an eye-opening experience.
"I think I have some learning to do. With age comes maturity," he said. "The older drivers have a lot of wisdom that they can teach me.
"I always imagined what it would be like to be in the race, and it didn’t disappoint," he added. "I feel grateful and appreciative to have been part of it."
NEW CANEY, Texas (KTRK) -- A mother was killed when a wheel flew off another vehicle and into her windshield as she was driving on the Eastex Freeway Thursday night in New Caney.
The accident happened around 7:15 p.m. on the freeway near Roman Forest.
According to authorities, the woman and her 17-year-old son were on the way home from the teen's baseball game in Lufkin.
They were traveling in a white GMC pickup in the southbound lanes, when a tire and wheel from a Dodge pickup truck in the northbound lanes flew off, went over the highway concrete barrier, and hit the mom.
She was killed instantly.
Her son, who was asleep in the front passenger seat at the time of the wreck, went to the hospital with serious injuries.
After the windshield crashed through the mother's truck, investigators say she lost control and rear-ended a car with a father and three children inside.
The GMC then slid against the concrete barrier, breaking its right rear wheel off before finally coming to a stop.
The father and three children were taken to Kingwood Hospital. They are also in serious condition, but are stable.
It's not clear if the driver whose tire blew out was hurt.
Investigators haven't yet said what caused the tire and wheel to fall off.
While it may seem like a freak accident, this has happened many times before on Houston highways.
In 2017, 738 people died because of tire-related crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The National Transportation Safety Board reports that more than 19,000 people are hurt every year, but adds that most of these crashes are preventable.
Here are some things you can do.
Basic tire maintenance. That means rotate, align, and balance your tires.
Check for worn treads. Twenty-three percent of tire-related crashes are because tires are too old.
If you feel a vibration or hear rattling, get your tires checked.
Register your tires. It's the only way to know if there's a recall.
February 26, 2021 at 07:41PM
https://abc13.com/deadly-tire-blowout-eastex-freeway-mother-killed-wheel-crashes-through-windshield-freak-accident/10372293/
Mother killed when wheel flies off truck and through her windshield on Eastex Freeway in New Caney - KTRK-TV
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Wheel Tray, a TV Tray for the car, has launched it's first product line in a crowdfunding campaign. The innovative product revolutionizes the way people eat, drink and work in their vehicles.
The universal-fitting Wheel Tray that attaches to the steering wheel is compatible with the majority of car manufacturers worldwide and takes the mess out of eating in a parked car or trying to work while on the go. The light-weight, easy-to-use and store Wheel Tray takes less than 5 seconds to set up, tucks between the seat and center console, and has a pocket to put loose items like keys, pens, books or a mobile device.
The Wheel Tray also comes with an optional white board section to make for easy note taking while on a call in your parked vehicle.
"As an entrepreneur and consultant, I was constantly having to grab a meal on the go and would end up sitting in my car taking phone calls and trying to get work done between appointments. I would have nowhere to put my drink, food or phone and was constantly making a mess," said Mark Machuzek, creator of The Wheel Tray. "I thought to myself...if only there was a tray that would hook over my steering wheel that would making eating and working in my car less messy and a more enjoyable experience...so I invented one."
The Wheel Tray will be completely manufactured in the United States, and the company hiring policies will incorporate the core values of diversity and inclusiveness. "The plan is to hire single parents, veterans, seniors and people with special needs to produce the product which has been an important aspect of my family's business since day one, earning us Dunn & Bradstreet's Small Company of the Year award seven times," said Machuzek. "Our intention from the pre-orders from our crowdfunding campaign will be to take us from an in-house, limited capacity operation to mass production so that everyone who lives life on the go will be able to reap the benefits of The Wheel Tray."
February 26, 2021 at 08:37PM
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-wheel-tray-a-tv-tray-for-the-car-launches-first-product-line-in-crowdfunding-campaign-301236386.html
The Wheel Tray, a "Tv Tray" for the Car, Launches First Product Line in Crowdfunding Campaign - PRNewswire
