It is not prohibited by the rulebook and so technically legal.
Which is not the same thing as acceptable.
Rule #1 of course design: Is it fun? No? Then don't do it.
And potentially hazardous if blowing the turn could put the driver in a
location placing himself or others in danger and in that situation, illegal.
How easy would it to be for someone trying to do that finish full throttle,
or at least delay his braking as late as possible, to find he had delayed it
a little too late?
IMHO, it is a safety issue. The safest finish is a full-throttle straight
line. Second choice, finish on a curve, but still in a WOT situation, not a
braking or lifting situation which upsets and/or unbalances the car. Full
throttle does not mean 60 mph. It can be full-throttle at 20 mph depending
on the prior corner. The point is to have even the most rank novice able to
be under full control with his car not unbalanced.
The design you mention might be perfectly okay, if the finish lights were
backed up another 50-100 feet. Enough so that by the time the driver
actually arrived at that post-finish corner, he was no longer at a
competitive speed and, in fact, could have virtually come to a complete stop
before the turn (which may be useful simply to direct traffic flow where you
want to be sure cars do not go.
"Learning how to drive" is fine as long as the inevitable mistakes are no
more costly than a pylon penalty. But also, IMHO, doing it just for the hell
of it is stupid. It is mickey mouse design to no beneficial effect on the
competition and lends nothing to the fun of the event.
Or, why no one ever uses a Texas Star any more. :-)
--Rocky
----- Original Message -----
From: <Smokerbros@aol.com>
To: <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 5:47 PM
Subject: Acceptable finish designs.
> We had an event on Sunday with a corner after the finish line, and several
of us wanted (and did) move the finish line back so there would be some room
to slow down and make that corner. One region official said "learn how to
drive!" and told me it's acceptable to have to brake as one approaches the
finish line. I disagree that this is acceptable. Anyone think it IS
acceptable?
>
> Charlie
>
> /// autox@autox.team.net mailing list
> ///
> /// To unsubscribe send a plain text message to majordomo@autox.team.net
> /// with nothing in it but
> ///
> /// unsubscribe autox
> ///
> /// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
> ///
/// autox@autox.team.net mailing list
///
/// To unsubscribe send a plain text message to majordomo@autox.team.net
/// with nothing in it but
///
/// unsubscribe autox
///
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
///
|