I was rather surprised at this as well. Most times when I was
walking the course leading up to there, I kept thinking about what would
happen if someone lost thier brakes going into that corner. At 60+ MPH, how
would they stop before hitting multiple cars and/or people on grid? What if
a CP car's throttle got stuck? Would we be seeing it over and over on the
news and every "Real Video" type show out there? I kept my mouth shut
because it didn't occur to me until I was walking the course with cars in
the "A" grid and we where already going into the 4th heat of Day 1 without
incident.
There where several other questionable safety calls as well. Such as
on the first day, in the middle of the 4th heat, the Safety Stewards changed
the run off area at the end of the South course to try to better direct the
cars back to grid. I tried to warn them that they had just made a change
that directed the cars right into 2 big potholes and that things would only
get worse when CP ran. I was told to "We know what we are doing". I was also
told "besides there is plenty of room to get through, at least a car and a
half". Maybe for a Honda CRX, but I saw more than half of the CP cars go
right through the potholes. Now I question the caliber of the Safety
Stewards we have working for us. Maybe I should become one myself since I
seem to see problems at so many events? Maybe it's just that I am a former
Computer Security programmer that has "what if" burned into my thought
process? How does one become a Safety Steward anyway?
John Moore
1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R (STS)
1993 Toyota MR2 NA (CS) (For Sale!!)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Sirota [SMTP:msirota@isc.upenn.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2000 3:59 PM
> To: Jamie Sculerati
> Cc: autox list
> Subject: Re: velocity
>
> Jamie Sculerati wrote:
> > Loren Williams <Loren@kscable.com> wrote:
> >> Curious. My rule book says something about speeds on straight
> >> stretches not normally exceeding the low 60's for the fastest stock
> >> and street prepared cars. And this wasn't even a straight.
> >
> > I think the escape clause there is "not normally." The phrase
> > earlier in the book is "contemplated."
>
> The next sentence (2.1.A, page 49) says "The fastest portions of the
> course shall be those most remote from spectators and property."
>
> I was in grid space 45 on the A grid on the South -- the first space
> in the last row, where cars were approaching at 65+ miles per hour
> coming up the uphill Larry Park memorial straight and braking hard,
> facing directly at me and not all that far away. I can tell you,
> sitting strapped into my FF and watching cars come steaming in, it was
> pretty scary.
>
> I'm not aware of anything bad that happened there all week, but I'm
> surprised this one made it past the course review stage in April.
>
> Mark
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