I watched far more of the Sebring broadcast than I care to admit - tellie
was on all day, I watched as I happened to be in the room - and i saw
relatively few incidents between cars of differing speeds. Actually, there
were relatively few incidents period, I thought. the slow guys watched for
the fast guys, the fast guys passed with firmness and intent, but not
recklessness.
I agree that the most dangerous time will be when cars are all of a like
performance - then racecraft and not a big right foot is absolutely
required to gain a position. But a lot of our very talented guys like to
dance very close to the edge, and feel that when they are fully committed
and racing within a foot or so of another FFord (for example) they really
don't have either the spare attention or the inclination (or the
obligation!) to back off and let an Atlantic, F2 or FB car thru, just
because they happen to have caught up. In that case, the faster car's
pilot should back off and wait till a safer place to pass, and that
includes potentially stopping racing for a second or two if two or three
fast cars happen to come up on two or three slower cars having their own
very serious dice for position!
I personally have been dicing with someone when we've come up on a set of
slower cars and in a complex part of a track - I've stuck my arm in the air
to indicate I've stopped racing for a moment, we've worked our way safely
by the slower cars, and then we go for it once again. But then I'm
Corinthian...
Brian
At 11:52 AM 03/22/2000 -0500, Transmancat@aol.com wrote:
>Sorry Guys
> but I have to put my . 02 in here!
>Some people are talking so much rubbish about all this. Arguably the greatest
>motor race in the world is FULL and I mean FULL of cars with all kinds of
>different speed capabilities. From 230mph monsters to 120mph Morgan's. Sure
>accidents do happen, but there seems to be no greater number of incidents in
>that race than in any other type of Motorsports (with those exceptions we
>will not talk about!). For those of you that can see the British FV, FF and
>F3 championships. they have a lot more incidents than any mixed racing I have
>ever seen. This, in my humble opinion, is because of the fact that all the
>cars are so similar in performance!
>The first race I mentioned .......... Le Mans!
>BTW in my opinion (I am feeling very opinionated this morning!) most of the
>crashes in that race are due to pilot error (fatigue) or previous
>accident/breakdown debris on the track.
>
>Flame suit on and at the ready gentlemen racers!
>
>Regards,
>John J, Black
>http://www.waterloo-dtr.com
>Agents for Vicarage Jaguar
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