Amici:
Having just raced at WATKINS GLEN three weeks ago, I watched with special
interest the ALS and IRL races there this past week end.
Saturday during the ALS race, there was a nasty pile up in the esses on a
restart. Hindsight is 20/20, and the myriad of replays (including in car
shots)
makes it easy to assign blame and pick out the trigger circumstances that
cause such a pileup. There was metal to metal contact, fragile body pieces
flying
about, and tires going flat at 120 mph+. But clearly a major contributing
factor to the 'mega-pile-up' is the fact that the track is narrow at that
point,
and when one or more cars get sideways, there is no place to go. Such pile
ups are inevitable.
It sure could have been worse, had it happened past the blind spot in the
esees. At least Saturday the cars in the back coming out of Turn ONE could see
the incident unfolding, back off and consider any options.
Bill Dentinger
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