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First race weekend for NASA Texas

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Start of the first race. I have more video once I figure out why there is no sound

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkMucQCACr8[/youtube]
 

JScheier

Too Hot for the Boss!
Wow... I hadn't seen that video yet. Saw Bell's SM car in the wall (that photo was awesome... but not awesome at the same time).

You Texas boys play harder than the others :)
 

steveespo

Lord knows I'm a Voodoo Child
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Does NASA Texas penalize driving like that? Just seems too aggressive for privateer racers. Not fun when you have to spend $2500 to race a weekend and the $5000 to repair your car to win a $1000 set of tires. Good luck and be careful out there Smtty.
Steve
 
I had to go on a business trip and left one of my disks in the room. Unbelievable! Hopefully they find it and send it to me, or maybe I'll find it in my bag.
Anyway, should have some good video up tomorrow.

Just starting my third year in NASA, and that's the first contact I've seen in AI.
 
Looks like the first contact was made by the fox body hitting the black mustang, causing a collision with the camaro, which was also closing the gap.

Hindsight, the collision could've been avoided if the fox body continued straight, specially when the track widens on his left when he dives right. Now I'm not familiar with this track, so, I don't know if there's something restricting you from staying to the inside of that first left hander.

In my opinion, the fox body is at fault, because he initiated the series of collisions. Then again, I've never raced, so can't speak from experience.
 
Armchair race directing. Nerdy fun! I'll play. Cars: WHITE - BLACK - CAMARO - BLUE

I think BLACK is at fault. He got passed by WHITE on the inside, but he didn't yield. Furthermore, he was drifting left and pinching WHITE off the track. When WHITE held his ground as the track ran out, BLACK moved right and into CAMARO, who was also ahead of him. In fact, everyone was ahead of BLACK. I have driven that corner (going the other direction) and no, you can't go four-wide through there. By the time they got into the first corner (which is the start of a sweeper), they should have settled into their rightful places: BLUE, WHITE, CAMARO, BLACK.

That's how I would rule it.

However, if I were WHITE, I would have gone two-off for a millionth of a second and contact probably could have been avoided.

Okay, how'd I do?
 
You gotta know NASA's 3/4 rule to sort this out. The rule is that once the overtaking car (White) gets his front tire to the leading car's door (black) he has a right to the line. That means that Black has to give White 3/4 car width of room which is defined as two wheels in the dirt. That means that when Black moves over to the left cause he's being squeezed, White had a duty to drop his left two to avoid contact. I'm unfamiliar with the track too, but it looks like that would have been easy to do since the track widens (or kinks in his favor) just ahead.

So White was at fault.

Now, last year many regions stopped enforcing the 3/4 rule in the straights because it resulted in lead guys forcing passing guys off the road. I think the new CCR addresses this but I haven't had a chance to review it yet. If that area is considered a straight, my region would rule that the white did NOT have to drop 2. It's hard to tell, but it looks like White was all the way over to the right, therefore giving all the room he had to. Therefore, Black would be at fault.

Finally, I would think that all 4 guys going 4 wide into a fast kink on the start might get alittle talk about putting themselves in that position.
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
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Frankly blame needs to go on the Black Stang. Seen this many of times racing over the years, and just a very simple case of a very lousy start by the Mustang, and his attention/focus was rattled by his delay. Trying to gather himself up, he likely drifted to the left by accident, but his placement was poor along with his judgement -- screw up the start and that mistake sucked him into another before he could get his brain in gear.

Just my observation.
 
For a pretty good look at that corner from the other direction, take a look at this:

http://vimeo.com/7290667

You can see everything in the first 30 seconds. Freeze at 00:18 and you can see the kink in question. It's nothing to go two-off there, especially going CCW. Tons of tarmac. The patch of grass is absolutely inconsequential. You can see I almost had to go two-off, because the other Miata didn't see me gaining so quickly.

Good info cosm3os. I knew about the tire/door rule (it was a legit pass), but I didn't know about the 3/4 rule that allows/requires two-off. Interested to hear the final result.

Even if WHITE is found at fault, my common sense, "gentleman racer" thinking is that BLACK got Malachi Crunched, because he got smoked off the line by three other cars and wouldn't accept that he had already lost the battle for T1. Where exactly did he think his car was going to fit? It doesn't appear that he was checking his speed at all, so even if WHITE went two-off, there is the very real possibility that contact would have still occurred (probably between BLACK and CAMARO).

Besides, he had to know that Smitty was coming for him and that skeered him. ;)
 

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