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I hope you can see it ok in my rearview mirror. I sent Jon the high-res version. In my limited experience, it seems that some of those Miata drivers are crazy out of control. I guess they’re probably saying that about SpecE30 this week.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=982113085686959835&hl=en
John
That sucks. Clearly not Jon’s fault based on the CCR.
What to learn from it? If he was determined not to make it easy on them to pass so he could stay with you, he should have squeezed them to the inside to make his intentions known. By taking the normal line and staying driver’s right (especially once they were showing their nose to the inside), it invites that kind of dive-bomb. Not justifying what they did by any means, just saying…
Since those were the 2 race-leading SM cars, I might have let them through. They were far enough back from the camera car that they would catch up but not pass him in the caroussel. Stroup would come out of the caroussel a few car lengths back, but not a lot further back than when he came out of T3.
I probably sound like a broken record, but cooperation in-class and out-of-class can make for a much cheaper race, might gain you a friend, and doesn’t have to affect the results of the in-class battle.
Steve D.
I didn’t look at it from that standpoint. It looked to me like the two Miatas took each other out and Jon was just collateral damage.
John
John, I see it the same way you did. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional but it looks like the lead Miata checked up enough to be punted by the following car. It actually looks like Jon was trying to give them as much room as he could.
I see it the same way John and Greg do. It looks to me like one Miata took the other out and the contact with Stroup’s car was an unfortunate side affect.
I agree with your analysis of what happened. And Jon was by no means at fault.
My only point is that I find it works well to make it very clear to the trailing cars whether I intend to make it real easy or real hard for them to pass. If the race-leading guys are coming through I will yield to them unless it is going to mess up my race (in which case I will make it obvious I am putting up a fight). If they caught Jon between 3-4, he was probably near their scrap through 12-14 and would have seen how serious they were.
Steve D.
They didn’t have time to scrap in the previous lap. This happened right after we had all been under double yellow for about 18 minutes after Damion’s and Robert’s wreck. The green flag had just been brought out as we passed the start/finish. This was really almost a replay of what had happened at the start of this very same race.
John, thanks for posting this; it happened so fast I was uncertain what had happened behind me. John’s right, this was just after the restart and up to the impact, these two Miatas had not really pushed me from behind. I was trying to drive a good line and keep up with the pack. The impact on my car was at the rear bumper/taillight, so the Miata was not really up beside me. I was doing the normal brake touch at 4 and they jumped up on my tail.
But… all that said, I was dead last in the e30 pack and could have yielded to the leading Miatas. But I wanted to challenge Haynie and have some fun. Instead I went off track and drove the rest of the race by myself.