mikew968

Here is some video from the Saturday morning race. Track was wet to start but got better.

This was my first time at Road Atlanta. I was able to get down to 1:30.6 I believe.

Open to any coaching!!!


Thanks,

Mike

Daytonars4

The Black 718 MR you were battling is from the same shop that services mine. I’ve heard he does pretty well so on that I’d say pretty solid.

Wyatt is the resident hotshoe.lol Looks like he turned a 1:27 during the enduro Sunday

MC129

MikeW968 - Curious what your opinion is of the contact in turn 1 at 3:50?

Daytonars4

That was interesting. All the Cups over slowed. That car gave no room and assumed it would be alone at the apex. It was a really late move by Mike. I could see that being “a racing incident.” But could also be assigned fault to the Cup in the NASA GTS ruleset due to a requirement to leave racing room. Some other rulesets would assign fault to Mike as a late move and a requirement to keep it clean. A classic “it depends?”lol

38D

The Clubsport attempts to pass 3 cars in a single brake zone/corner. Sorry but that’s a seriously ill advised move by the Clubsport. This is amateur racing and no one should be trying passes like that.

Daytonars4

I don't disagree with you. Overly optimistic move likely to end in contact with someone at some point of the train. Just a matter of who. Also not 100% sure the CS would have made the corner being that tight at the apex. I'm just saying that if I were the Cup knowing I'm fairly far off pace going into T1, I would probably be looking out for someone to make that move on me. Fade out at the apex by a car width IF I saw or heard him coming. But from the mirrors he probably would have seen the trailing Cup holding in line and had no clue the CS was coming up the inside. Definitely was a recipe for a big wreck to take place. A little further back and the Cup would have been tossed into the inside wall with a 3-4 car pileup.

mikew968

Hey Guys, thanks for the feedback.

Here is some information that you couldn't necessarily know.
The 1st place car in class is at the head of the group.
The cup with the red strip had been really slow the day before and I definitely didn't want to get caught behind.
The "03" cup was on rains (I didn't know that at the time)

Here was my thinking:
The group way over-slowed
They left a huge opening
I need to go with the 1st place car or the race was over.

I thought at the time the incident was all on the 03. After I met with the race director and reviewed my video I believe that the move was reasonable but I lost situational awareness and never saw the 03 turn in as I was focused on the corner. I could have moved more to the inside or backed out if I would have seen him coming. Interestingly as the 03 is coming in I must have seen the car as I tightened my line (turned in more to the right) and significantly increased braking...absolutely no memory of that.

Takeways: the more aggressive your drive the more your SA has to go up. The 03 couldn't see me and I should have realized that.

This was ruled a racing incident but I need to do better.

BTW, this is my first contact of any kind in 7 years.

RossP

Looks like awesome racing. In terms of the turn 1 incident, that was not the best decision. Even if there was no contact you were so out of position, I think most of the cars you passed would have gone around you coming up the hill. As you noted, the driver of the 03 could never have anticipated that move (or seen you).

fatbillybob

R.Atl. is one of the track I still have left to race. So all I see is the flat 2D video so what I say could be way off. But looks to me Mike is just racing. #59 was more conservative and sort of left the door open for 03 to cut across 3 lanes of traffic to take the apex that was rightfully his. 59 might have seen Mike coming and stayed in his line. 59 could easily have changed the set-up just putting a bit more pressure on 03 to get his head up and look. 03 cuts across 3 lanes of traffic when cars are reasonably close. That's not a great move. From Mike's perspective there is a freaking giant hole there to go through. 03 moving so slow way outside why would anyone think he would chop the apex over 3 car widths? When 03 is way out there he compromises his vision as well for a car on the inside. Finally, the incident is right in front of what looks like a corner worker stand but unmanned. In SCCA most of the time all stations are manned with both upstream and down stream worker. A blue flag at that station would alert drivers to look around and up the situational awareness.

38D

Nope, this was an egregious dive bomb. I've raced Road Atlanta a bunch. The Cayman is behind all 3 cars in the early part of the braking zone.You can't even see the 03 car in the shot below, which means he can't see the Cayman.


First pass in fine, but even this 2nd pass is dicey. Turn in has already started (notice the steering wheel angle), and the Cayman
has come from more than one car back. It was pure luck the 59 didn't turn in. Or maybe the 59 saw him. But at this moment below
Cayman probably should have had an "exit plan".


Now we are well into the corner and Cayman is off the brake. Still haven't passed the 59, and the 03 is still way ahead.
The apex is typically just around the flag station, though some apex a bit earlier. But you have to be prepared for someone
to miss an apex.


At this point the Cayman still has no overlap with the 03 and the apex is only a few car lengths away. Cayman is back on
the brakes, so likely knew this was not going to end well. 03 is already clearly pointed at the apex.


Still not all the way to the 03's door. Lots more brake and steering to avoid the impending impact



The moment of impact. Cayman is full on the brakes and has a **** ton of steering in the car attempting to avoid the hit.
But it was already too late. Maybe the 03 was too busy checking on the 59, or distracted by the car in front. Or maybe he
just sucks at racing, which is the most likely considering he's about to be passed by a Cayman.


Why do I even care about this? Because we have to help each be safer and get better. This is amateur club racing we do for fun; bent cars aint fun. I've been racing since 2005 and done over 200 races across PCA, WRL, AER, HSR and SVRA. I've had one car to car contact incident in all those races. That contact was my fault and I got a 13. I learned from it. I've since gone door to door countless times and managed to come out unscathed. No touching, not donuts, nada. It can be done. But it starts with a mentality. This was an overly aggressive pass that luckily didnt end in a big accident; it easily could have. Had the cayman hit the cup a little further back (like 2 feet), he would have turned him. That likely would have ended up with significant damage for both cars, and possibly even the 2 trailing car as well.

So Mike, learn from this. You clearly have good pace, but "I had to stay with my competitor in front" should come second to only making safe passes. You were closer than you may realize to having to write a big check to fix your car (a new tub is 60k btw).