A930Rocket

Two thoughts:

1- It's a TR6, not a Spitfire.
2- That's a HELL of a camera!

Veloce Raptor

Simmer down, Tony. No one is making cheap shots. But even the best racers make mistakes every once in a while.

Don't let your personal friendship with this person cloud your objectivity.






Professional Racing and Driving Coach

Professor Helmüt Tester

If you've never been inverted and/or airborne in a race car, you might not want to pass judgement.

I do have a wealth of experience here, and will state that a whole bunch of **** goes on with hands and feet that is totally involuntary. I've trained myself to "turtle" when ugly stuff is about to come to an abrupt end, but I won't swear that all my appendages have the same playbook as my head.

Onward:

Multiple problems here -

One...a pet peeve of mine, is that cars under FCY don't keep pace. Look at the gap between the Triumph and the car in front of it. Invitation to disaster on a restart.

Two...not sure, but believe it was a BFA, which should have required a re-grid, and lappers have gone to the rear...doesn't look like that happened, so there is a blend of "rockets" and "slugs", in close proximity, on the restart.

Three..."If you don't have radios, watch the flag stations". When those double-yellows drop, YOU'RE RACING. Not everyone got the message at the same moment. Also see "One" above.

Four...Sometimes, **** happens. Four wide doesn't really work well there...lord knows I've tried. Somebody is going to have two in the grass. Who should have backed out ? If you're 4 on the pavement, are you going to back out ?

How to view all this ?

Triumph should have hung on the bumper of the car in front, but who knows if it was a 'gearing' thing, or just an experience thing. Looks like rookie stripes. Regardless, no crooked finger pointed at him. Did what he was supposed to do.

SRF camera car ? You only find out it's a "low percentage move" after you've made it. I still haven't found that crystal ball in any of my race cars. Am I looking in the wrong place ? If there are 4 cars, it only takes 1 to blink and the whole thing gets resolved happily. How many racers want to be the one who blinks first ? Really.

Cars to the right ? Not enough info to see how much pavement they had to work with. Looks like they squooze left...but who knows.

Lots of opinions will be offered. Most of them will be bull****. Be selective with your hearing.

Greg Smith

Exactly. If she made it we would have been hearing "great pass."

Plavan

Who cares as long as she is all right.

333pg333

I think it always looked like she was going to get squeezed and had she pulled the move off it would have been described as 'bold' with inverted commas. I also think she had time to pull out just enough without anyone losing a place...including hers. I'm sure she sounds like a good and experienced driver, but my gut feeling is she made a mistake and I wonder what her response on the video would be?

cgomez

Mee too. I see squeezing by passes between 2 cars at least 3-4X on every PCA race, at the start and restarts. IMO, the things to consider as big risk factors are race groups that combine (big) cars with small prototypes, allowing tires that stick out beyond the fenders, and poor execution of a FCY restart as noted above.

Bryan Watts

I've seen a tiny breath at speed on a straight in a low powered spec car like a SRF or Spec Miata result in a car getting freight trained by 5-6+ other cars in class. You simply don't lift on the straights in those cars unless there is a wreck on track in front of you.

924RACR

I'd have gone for it, without hesitation. Crappy peripheral driving by the other two, IMO - maintain your line!!!

I've made passes with less room than that... sometimes you hang a wheel (or more) over the edge, sometimes there's a little leaning. Steel fenders are good that way. Fiberglass, not so much.

Amusing to see how crappy the TR6's fender flares were; he knew there was a problem, but was too half-assed to fix it properly. There's a reason for rules about fenders - and that's why I'm moving up to a fendered class, not open-wheel!

gums

Similar situation at WGI earlier this year, only I got away with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKL5aEtXDXQ

mrbill_fl

you guys are saying the SRF on drivers right was getting squeezed and had to move over??

otherwise, it sure looks like the SRF on drivers right, cause this, by moving over when the wheels on the camera car were already at the 'door'. looked like it was still a straight.. why did they move left? there?

I have to blame this on car on drivers right.

but it does show the strenght of the tub...

APKhaos

The incident happens within the first part of the main straight at Summit Point, well before SF. The track width does not vary, so unless the SRF on her right was being pressed by a car to its rear there's no apparent reason for the squeeze. Seems to suggest that he was not aware that she was there.

FWIW, I don't know her well at all personally. I do know her record and reputation, and raced for several seasons with her husband.

Professor Helmüt Tester

As has been noted elsewhere:

"Any idiot can flatspot tires. REAL racers flatspot cages".

177mph

damn straight

TwentySix

The view from behind