garrett376

Tom you are to be commended by your actions - I witnessed the same sort of accident from a Boxster that overcooked turn 3 at Cal Speedway and hit my buddy's 911 2 weeks ago. The driver never even came up and said sorry, nothing. Just packed up the car and left the track. That's not what club racing is about!

JackOlsen

Very well-said. Learning is part of racing. Making mistakes is part of racing. Having to fix your car because of someone else's screw-up is part of racing. We all want to work like hell to avoid car-to-car or car-to-wall (or car-to-whatever) contact, but the people who scare me the most are the ones who think they have some kind of a perfect system in place by which no one will ever get scratched.

I'm all for higher educational and training thresholds for getting into club racing, and I'm all for uniformly (and strictly) enforced sanctions for on-track incidents once guys get in. I'm all for systems being in place to eject drivers who are too aggressive. Everybody should find the sanctioning group whose level of tolerance for rookie behavior and/or Spec-Miata-style shenanigans matches their own. And in a perfect world everybody would behave as humbly and honorably as Tom has after an incident like this takes place.

[/End of my Sunday morning sermon.]

Tom, what was the damage like to your car?

DrJupeman

Tom you are a class act!

tkerrmd

look at my avitar

tkerrmd

upright, tie rod, radiatior, fender, bumper, steering rack, rotor, hat, wheel, tire, pride, honor.

mdrums

Tom you can replace all the car stuff...but I am proud of ya...you handeld this well plus you will always have my honor! I could never ever repay you!

Circuit Motorsports

Totally agree (especially having raced a fast winged car with the slow formula vees.)

Good learning situation for everyone, thanks to tkerr (glad it was a minor incident and you're okay too) and the videos posted.

Lou L

Tom, glad your ok and it certainly seems like you learned from your mistake, best of luck in your future races, see you out there.

Brinkley

Tom,
I can't say for sure that a 13/13 will be issued, but the powers that be were looking for you on Sunday morning during the drivers meeting.

PedroNole

+1

I had a guy take me out last October in the bus stop at Daytona on the first lap of the race. He was a rookie driver (x on the car) and basically used my *** end for his brakes going into the bus stop. Never bothered to come by afterwards to say anything. I went looking for him later in the day (after I had cooled down) and he had already left the track...

Tom, a lot of people can take a page from your book on how you handled this!

mooty

tom, sorry to hear your maiden voyage wasn't perfect.
your offer post incident was most gracious and sportsmanlike.
i think it's a very close call. from video, i dont think u were door to door with the f car, he was ahead, and to me he owned the corner. i would expect him to turn to the apex. HOWEVER, he SHOULD have seen u, and since no trophy money is involved,if i were him, i sure as hell wont turn down to the apex. i am sure he didn't see you. DONT BE SURPRISED, that at the club level, a LOT of racers have poor vision!!!. just yesterday, i had a very similar incident like yours, but i was door to door and i was ON the apex, he still turned into me. i saw him. i drove two wheels off, light on brakes to avoid him. DONT expect others to see you, even if they SHOULD.

TT Surgeon

If you're not involved , no....but everybody has a freakin camera these days, unavoidable. As far as paying for his damage, I consider that part of racing, not required....unlike a DE.
BTW, what group are you racing with, looks fun.

M758

I have to agree with this. The silver Ferrari had the black ferrari in his mirrors. You were not in the same time zone exiting turn 9 so he would have no idea you were there. Plus this looked like the start of the race and you were faster, but many cars back. So there is less expectation that a considerably faster car would be slicing through at this point. I have driven a slow car for years vs faster lap traffic. I watch my mirrors alot, but even then had I been in the siliver Ferrari I may not have seen you given the situation.

So your fault almost entirely. Now stupid move? Well consider how you handled it after I would say no. Just an error that I believe you will learn from.


Point to be made here is just be cause you can make the pass you need to use the situation to determine if he see you or not. If you think the car you are passing may not see you put yourself at risk. Personaly when making passes like that I like to leave myself room to back out if he does not see you and he turns in like you are not there. There are times when he does see you and the he backs out. If so you can relase the brakes and "roll into" the gap and take the spot. If not you still have enough brakes to let him go by.

Racing 944 spec is interesting in that we are slow and have little hp so all the fast cars pass. So we get very accustomed to getting passed. However being at fast end of the 944 group allows me to pass mostly in practice or qualy other slow 944 spec cars. We all have the same hp and weight passing these guys is not always easy. It often happens down the end of straight in the braking zone where I was faster due a better run down the straight from corner exit speed and better in the brake zone. Now passing these guys when you coming out of nowhere is a challenge and my first step is to MAKE SURE they see me. One they see me then the pass can take place. If they don't see me the door will get close fast and will have no place to go. However given my lack of hp I HAVE to make aggressive corner entry passes since I cannot power away from any other 944 spec car if we exit the corner at the same speed.

So in your case you will be able pass cars under power, but you will also arrive at the corner out of nowhere sometimes and always need to ask "Have they seen me". If not you are very like to get into contact or have pissed off fellow racer. The other thing is that sometime in race especialy the slow car cannot afford to slow down at mid corner to let you by. They corner just as fast as you and would perfer you to pass them under power at corner exit rather than killing their momentum mid corner.

tkerrmd

Thanks Joe, I did the 944 racing the last few years and am very good at dodging faster cars. Your comments are good and I appreciate you taking the time to try to help me.

viperbob

Sorry Doc, you can disagree. As a racer you have to expect these things are going to happen and be aware and thinking before hand. So if the radical has to expect the Ferrari to take the apex line, why would not the Ferrari driver not even consider a car flying up on the inside to do something stupid and dive bomb me? As I stated, the Ferrari guy never saw Tom in his mirrors. Don't you like to know that someone is there and take appropriate actions? Whether it be offensive or defensive, but he was unaware of what was happening around him. That is all I was saying.