Needless to say, I was shell-shocked to hear that Dubler had a horrific 145 MPH crash and rolled the car over the fence at Road America during the 2012 One Lap event. How could that be? I've seen him drive and I know what he is capable of. Then I found this intense and absolutely horrifying in-car video of his crash.
What would possess a superbly experienced driver like Dubler to turn his CTS-V wagon deliberately off track at 145 MPH? Look where his car is pointing right before the crash:
NOTE: The owner has removed the video from YouTube.
This happened in Turn 8 at Road America during the last road course event on the 2012 One Lap calendar. The CTS-V wagon had been flawless up until that point. You know Dubler must have had no brakes to turn the car in such a suicidal way. Dubler attempted to brake for the turn and the brake pedal went to the floor without returning. Sensing he had no brakes, in a split-second decision Dubler cut infield of the turn to scrub some speed off and avoid hitting the outer wall head on. It's like cutting your own arm off to give yourself a chance to survive. Pause the video at 0:23 and you will see that the car is intentionally aimed to get as close to the inside wall as possible, just missing the event photographer in white shirt on the left.
When the car came in contact with the inside curbing, the right front suspension (wheel, brakes, hub, part of upright) ripped from the chassis and tucked under the car, causing it to pitch up and into the gravel trap. The car then rotated 180 degrees, hit the wall, and flipped 4-5 times over the wall (the in-car cam broke free on the second roll). The CTS-V landed wheels down and amazingly, Robert walked right out of the car without a visible scratch. The car had no roll cage. That Robert survived the crash is a testament to the CTS-V's structural rigidity (even though the doors did open during the crash.)
The CTS-V wagon back on the trailer after a horrific 145 MPH crash
The CTS-V wagon's right front suspension was ripped out in the crash
This "ice mode" mystery should be easy to resolve with the data logged in by GM's in-car black box, better known as OnStar. After two very similar and well documented crashes, shouldn't someone be looking at the speed, pitch, yaw, and ABS data logged in the final seconds leading up to the rollover? Robert Dubler was very lucky to survive this insanely scary crash. He would be relieved to know what caused it.