Amen, from someone in the same boat......although it can be aggravating to be in an "advanced" or "solo" group and see just how "un-advanced" some people are with regard to their track savvy/situational awareness i.e IMO there's NO excuse for people not knowing how badly they are holding others up as alluded to in a previous post. That's what blue flags, if they're being used, are for--if the driver's not seeing them or ignoring them, note the car number and speak to the CI. Hopefully that takes care of it, though some groups are much more proactive in handling this stuff than others. I've seen both ends of the spectrum with groups that are very popular and well-regarded on this forum.

Gary

 

 

 

Cars already have that technology. It's called the rear view mirror.
That's all one needs to make sure point by etiquette and common courtesy are followed.
My two cents: not giving a point by when one should: 5% Ignorance 95% Ego.
It's not rocket science. If a car is closing on me with some speed, I have him pointed by before he gets anywhere near my rear bumper unless we've spoken before the session about lead follow laps. Really, it's not rocket science.
Let the guy by if he needs to get by. Bad things happen when too much EGO gets involved.
Personally, I love giving a point by to a faster driver so I can follow him and learn any differences between his line and mine. Always learning.
Point the guy by if so called for!! Again, not rocket science. Talked about in every driver's meeting, yet people still don't seem to "hear" it clearly.

 

Talking to "the guy" never seems to do any good does it, I have been held up by every kind of car at one time or another, and by every kind of driver, young, old, sweet old ladies, etc... There is one race type Miata that runs with PCA down here in the SE and he grids up probably 10 minutes early for his sessions just so he can get some clean laps in before he catches the backmarkers in the high HP cars, which rarely point him by in a timely fashion.

On the flip side, I got held by a Miata at Roebling one time for about 2 laps, after the session he came and found me and apologized, he said he was sure that he was going to leave me on the backside of the track and was surprised when he did not, and so he finally had to point me by

They really do think that don't they!

I am the writer for that article on YSAR, after working my way up and seeing these types of issues in all the run groups, and some of it people being a jerk or they can't/won't be passed by a lesser car, a lot of times they really seem to think that their power on the straights balances out the faster lap time due of the "slower" car. After trying to talk about it to some folks (which never does go well), and making some "Why don't you let me pass" videos (which I have mostly taken down now, although I love watching them when other people make them, after I became a PCA instructor I decided to take mine down), I decided to write a program that would animate dots going around a racetrack to show that power vs handling only balances out when the cars are running the same lap time and see if that was effective. That was a fun exercise, it is a very basic simulation on the back end but with lots of trig to put the track outline and move the dots on the screen. That was more difficult than I thought. Then the YSAR contest came out right about that same time so I was able to submit my entry, and for some unknown reason only a few people entered, and I won.

Also the Challenger video is sped up to double speed Otherwise it would be really long and boring. Although people at my work have seen some of my other sped up videos, and they think that is the normal speed...

 

So true.....
I loved the videos and simulations you did. Impressed. Great stuff.
Feel free to PM me some links to the videos you took down when you became an instructor. Would love to see them.
Thanks, and please post up any other similar simulations that you have done. The dots chasing each other around the track were great.

 

Thank you and thank you everybody for the great feedback, this article was a lot of fun to write and I'm glad that folks are enjoying it!

I'll check my "why no point by videos" but many of them are old and my driving is quite slow myself back then (not saying that it is fast now...) so if I have any good ones I will share... But I doubt it

 

 

 

Again, this system does exist. It is a combination of eyesight and your rear view mirror.
Good ideas pave the road to nowhere sometimes.
You could have all the technology in the world. If EGO dominates Common Courtesy and good Track Etiquette, what good is technology going to do?
All the technology you need is in your rear view mirror. If you don't use it, what do you think a newer technology is going to accomplish?
Giving a point by is a pretty simple thing. It does not require Apple or Alphabet or Amazon to invent something new.
The rear view mirror is all the tech you need. Sometimes it really is that simple.
Leave the ego, take the mirror. (or leave the gun, take the cannolis as the case may be)...

 

 

Thank you for making that, I hope you don't mind that I shared it here on Rennlist.
I had never seen anything like the videos with dots on the track, it is fantastic.

 

I was trying to think how I could fabricate (for market) a back-up bumper sensor , giving it a little more distance and making it wireless.
Something with a Big Yellow Light that blinks mounted on the dash when there is a car within 100' feet of your bumper, light an CEL light on your dash.
Sort of like this

 

A great example of a flag station using the Blue flag, top of the esses at WGI.
I plead guilty to this a couple of times, as I have moved into faster run group, I have learned driver awareness needs to go up exponentially

 

You need it in spades at a track like Mid-O with all the abrupt elevation changes on the back part of the course.....look in mirror, see nothing, then look again and see that you're about to be run over

If you see a blue flag and you check your mirror and see nothing get ready!

Gary