[quote=“catsailor” post=72962]Hey everyone, Tom Hall checking in. I guess its time for me to chime in since I’m the MA Compliance Director and I helped rule on this incident. There is no grey area in this incident it is simply a case of a driver not following the passing rules as stated in the CCR’s, whether or not the driver fully knew and understood those rules. Location on track, IE: entering a turn, on a straight, etc makes no difference. When an “overtaking car” is attempting to make a pass (side-by-side driving, overlapped ahead or behind, etc) he is obligated to give the “lead car” room to his / her line. The “lead car”, which was previously clear ahead, is only obligated to give 3/4 of a car width to the overtaking car. In other words the overtaking car has to be ready to go 2 wheels off in order to avoid contact with the car it is attempting to pass (or is driving side-by-side with, etc).
Soooo, in this incident the overtaking car (Jeff) is obligated to give the lead car (Rob) room to drive his line. Again, the lead car is only obligated to give the overtaking car 3/4 of a car width, on the left side of the track in this case. The overtaking car never went 2 wheels off, he simply "held his line" which is not acceptable under the rules. The correct thing for the overtaking car to do would have been to back out and allow the lead car to drive his desired line. Nothing else matters, not his position in the race, the class he is in (out of class racing), etc. the overtaking car must give room. If he gives room, goes 2 wheels off (clearly trying to give room) and there is still contact then fault could possibly shift to the lead car. However, that was not the case here, this is a clear cut classic case of a "punt resulting in damage", look up the penalty for that infraction and you'll probably want to avoid doing it, not to mention wanting to avoid causing serious damage and possible injury to a fellow racer.
Y’all would be amazed at how many racers I interview who don’t fully understand this rule. I’ve realized now that until I took on this position I really didn’t fully understand this rule and some of the other rules that are designed to keep us all safe and heading home from the track without damaged vehicles.
Not too many years ago the Spec E30 groups could have tight racing and a lot of fun without very many collisions. For some reason that seems to have changed and we are now having multiple and occasionally serious incidents at almost every race event.
If I could ask everyone to please read the CCR's again, there are some additions to rules as of this year. And after you've read them read them again, and the maybe another time or two. We all have to take on the responsibility to not only learn but internalize the rules, because when followed the racing is much safer IMHO.
Cheers.[/quote]
Hi Tom, thanks for weighing in. You mention that the passing car be prepared to go 2 wheels off, but you said that the passing car in this situation should have hit the brakes. You did not recommend that he should have gone 2 wheels. I assume that is because of the significant danger of 2 wheels off in that section? So the rule is in all cases racing room is considered 3/4 car width? What about trying to pass a car on the outside of T9 at WGI? There is a wall right next to track out. 1) Is the car being passed legally allowed to push the passing car into the wall to prevent a pass? 2) Should they be allowed to intentionally crash another car in order to prevent a pass? 3) Is there any verbiage in the rules to prevent that sort of thing and if so where?
Also when passing on a straight is the car being passed allowed to move into the car trying to pass as soon as the passing car’s front bumper is is at the lead car’s rear bumper? Using your strict interpretation of the rules, who’s fault would that be? I know common sense would dictate that you don’t want to make someone hit your rear bumper, but where in the rules does it actually prevents someone who has the checkbook and will to turn racing into a game of chicken instead of skill to prevent passes? (ie, everytime someone starts to get some overlap on me, I’m going to swerve over, counting on him to have to hit the brakes and lose momentum so I can prevent a pass. If I get hit, it’s his fault, and if I wreck, no big deal I just write a check for another race car). Rules need to prevent this, don’t just assume common sense will.