Kurt R

My $0.02:
James was trying to hold Charles tight to the inside of 10a, hoping to slow him enough to get by him in 10b. Charles probably expected James to move closer to the outside of the track before turn-in, or hoped to "encourage" him to move there, but it didn't work out that way.
Here's a couple stills from the video. #1 is the position of the two cars involved in the incident, note how far James is from the right side of the track. #2 is a car taking a "normal" line into 10, with another car looking inside.

Conclusion: Racing deal.

Seth Thomas

Another view of incident

joyride5

Mazda went in too deep and drifted right. Bimmer had no where to go.

BHunt 72T

The BMW was maybe slightly left of where he should have been coming down the hill but he moves back over to the correct part of the track, (flush with the right side) with plenty of time. The Mazda definitely tried to pinch him a little. BMW did the right thing by not giving way when contact was made (too bad he lost a spot to the Acura)
...The Mazda was already in a good place for the turn (along-side/maybe even in-front slightly) and should have just had the mindset that: "I'm going to get though this turn using every bit of road beside a BMW's width!"
No doubt it was a racing incident, but no doubt it was the fault of the Mazda. My .02.

timo944

I have to agree with everybody else. The Mazda, for whatever reason, drifted into the BMW. That's heavy braking all the way down, and y the time the BMW had time to realize what's happening he's full on the brakes as has no way to change the outcome. Although the BMW is technically "responsible" for making a clean pass, the Mazda should have held his line and turned in to 10a from his current line. From experience I can tell you that passing on the outside there is a low percentage move, but the Mazda left the BMW no choice. So Seth, how about it? What do you say?

Bryan Watts

I doubt James intended to make the pass on the outside of 10A. I'm guessing he intended to force Espenlaub on the defensive and try to alter the Mazda's line so that James would get a better run out of 10A, through 10B and get past Espenlaub as they crested the hill and plummeted down into 12. I've used the same tactic many times there. Espenlaub made his defensive move by taking the inside line and James had every right to stick his nose up beside Espenlaub on his own line IMO.

timo944

I guess the only other choice James had is to back off, thinking Espenlaub would keep his line anyway, and leave himself more room to make the corner under his own terms so that by the time they're on the way up to the bridge, he's motoring and can pass him before the turn in of 12. But that's a split-second decision that is very hard to make without planning it out first. Did he get penalized? If so, bad call on the stewards part.