Although there were three injury accidents at IRP, they were totally
unrelated and only one has an agressive driving component. One was an
equipment failure(flywheel), one a moderate speed spin that turned into
something worse (Turner), and the Formula Vee incident happened while one
driver was trying to lap several slow cars and locked wheels with one of
them. The track was unacceptably rough for nearly two thirds of its length,
but the Turner and Vee both crashed where it was reasonably smooth. They
don't prove that "left coast is less agressive than right" or that "right
coasters are balls to the wall SCCA Runoffs drivers". VSCDA is not a
business but a true club well run by volunteers. So while there is a great
deal of merit in Peter's msg in principal, the IRP accidents don't conform
to any set of theories. They were just three unfortunate accidents that are
the reason why we are constantly reminded that motor racing is dangerous.
Grant Reynolds
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter L. Krause" <pkrause@attglobal.net>
To: <vintage-race-digest@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 8:00 AM
Subject: Left coast/right coast carnage, incident rate questions and musing
on the "vintage" philosphy... (long)
> Obviously, all the vintage racing listers were waiting for our Monday or
> Tuesday headlines about the weekends past activities when some of us were
> "thrown for a loop" by the stories of the unfortunate incidents at LRP,
> which took a shine off our collective reverie... Thankfully for the list,
> the reporting was complete and the outcome reassuring...
>
> In relating the only significant incident at SVRA's Summit Point event, I
> referred to Mark Gobble's accident as being precipitated by an incident
> between the leader of the race and a lapped car engaged in a battle with
> Mark.
> I received a private mail from a left coaster which asked the question:
>
> ..... what is this stuff you guys are doing on the right coast.....
vintage
> racing or bumper cars?
>
> I responded:
>
> While I was alarmed by reading all of the message headers from the last
> digest about the events at IRP, I actually thought the weekend with SVRA
at
> Summit was pretty good for a 140-150 car turnout, safety wise. Most
> "smaller"
> events here (between 90-140 cars) have at least one single car or light
> multi car incident. I remember a couple of years ago, it was an average of
> three or four (IRP's experience notwithstanding) At the "larger events"
> (220-420 cars) it was not uncommon four or five years ago to have 4-5%
> involved in mostly single car incidents, usually mechanical failure of
some
> kind, but still more than optimum. Now, the figure looks to be around
2-3%,
> so we're improving.
>
> The problem is that most "for-profit" organizations (SVRA/HSR) have
scrapped
> the 13/13 rule for a "points" system that doesn't park someone for the
> weekend or the next event until they pass a threshold that is too high, in
> my opinion. Oh well... most of the incidents are instigated by the more
> experienced people, not the novices... They're just not "getting the
> message" from the organizing body that that behavior is NOT acceptable.
The
> Morgan driver has been racing in vintage for more than a dozen years and
has
> had no history of contact or over aggressive driving.
>
> What are folks thoughts about this? I'm not sure it is a "left coast/right
> coast" phenomena. I DO think the "right coasters" tend to be more
> aggressive, more competitive, more advanced with car development (even in
> VSCCA!) and leave less of a margin than the average of the "left coasters"
> (myself, unfortunately, included occasionally), but that observation is
> based purely my opinion, not supported by any data. I know folks who would
> characterize their experience at the Monterey Historics as "bumper cars,"
> regardless of the punitive outcome, but I would certainly not refer to the
> recent events at IRP or Summit Point as anything that signifies an
unhealthy
> trend.
>
> Watching Mark Gobble's Sprite jump up and over the gravel trap on the
> outside of the quickest corner at Summit and impact the tire wall hard
with
> such sudden deceleration and feeling the agonizing helplessness and
waiting
> until we saw movement in the cockpit was sobering to me. Knowing that I
was
> to share the front row of the Feature Race later that afternoon with the
> instigator (I found out later...) of this incident didn't make me feel
very
> good and caused me to reevaluate some of my own "questionable" moves
> previously made during the weekend trying to get up on that front row...
>
> I think most folks, including the HSR/SVRA and Monterey organizers, do the
> best they can to instill the "Safe, Fair and Fun" into the fabric of any
> weekend. The question is what can be done to instill the proper philosophy
> better and more "cottoned to" than it may be currently. I've seen Larry
> Dent's posts about the Steward that admonishes in the drivers meetings to
> "take care of each other out there..." but that doesn't always work. Much
of
> the "Vintage Racing Etiquette" article I wrote for Grassroots Motorsports
> magazine in September/October 1998 (
> http://www.bmwccaclubracing.com/Primer/primer.htm and formerly at
> www.historiconline) seems dated... is it?
>
> Have at it...
>
> -Peter Krause
>
> SVRA #1832
> HSR #46
> VDCA #5
> VSCCA #930
> SCCA # 139029
>
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