In general, rolling starts behind a pace car are deemed more safe than
standing starts, especially standing starts on a grid. They are certainly
easier on the equipment as well. It's very hard to get a properly geared
four speed car to start moving, unless first is a throwaway gear.
Considering the number of vintage races that go on in the US per year, and
the size of the grids for each race, we actually do very, very well with
pace car starts.
Bill Babcock
Babcock & Jenkins
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-fot@autox.team.net] On Behalf
Of R. John Lye
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 7:25 PM
To: Tony Drews; triumph_marx@freenet.de; fot@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Rules, Accidents, and Vintage Racing
At 05:52 PM 7/23/2005 -0500, Tony Drews wrote:
>Chris, do you have any problems with cars stalling at the start and
>causing a wreck?
At one point (and maybe they still do), NASA used standing starts. Chip
Bond got rear ended in a Caterham 7 when the car in front of him stalled on
the start, and although he was able to check up and avoid him, the car
behind didn't... So, yes, that is a problem - and, in my opinion, is even
less safe than the rolling starts that most US organizations use.
R. John Lye
rjl6n@cstone.net
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