Tom,
I couldn't agree with you more, both in opinion and the driver's
meetings experienced in the central-south area of the country.
Tom Kubler
------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: Tom M <tmatycho@ix.netcom.com>
Cc: <vintage-race@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 1999 8:02 AM
Subject: Re: Passing
>
>
> Jack W Drews wrote:
> <snip>
> > 4. For cars of nearly equal speed, fighting for position, whose corner
> > is it? It's really simple -- if the overtaking car CAN BE SEEN WITH
> > PERIPHERAL VISION by the overtaken driver, the corner belongs to the
> > overtaking car. This means that the overtaking car must have its front
> > fender at least halfway alongside the overtaken car.
> <snip>
>
> I think this rule of thumb works ok if the overtaken car is configured
> like a Lotus 7 where the driver sits far back in the car. However, in
> a vehicle where the driver is more in the middle of the car, this rule
> of thumb operates on the margins of peripheral vision, which not only
> varies among people, but even the best peripheral vision is limited by
> the eye port in many helmets.
>
> In non-vintage forms of racing, responsibility for safe passing is
> solely on the driver making the pass. When properly executed, the
> overtaken driver has no choice but to permit it. As it was put in an
> article in Sportscar several years ago, "If you ever find yourself
> saying, 'I hope he sees me,' you've made a mistake." Any pass which
> requires the cooperation of the overtaken car (beyond being consistent
> and driving the line) is inherently unsafe.
>
> I know of one vintage organization which, in its efforts to cut down on
> incidents, has begun to stress the responsibility of the overtaken
> driver to not shut the door on cars attempting to pass, which means in
> essence, the overtaken driver is expected to off line in order to
> accommodate a car which has yet to overlap before the turn in point. I
> see nothing but mischief coming from this rule, and it appears to me
> that the effects in some of the production classes are the opposite of
> what was intended. I don't see how one can realistically expect shared
> responsibility for who gives up the favored line to be safe when
> uncommunicated separate decisions are made in a split second at speed.
> It's my understanding that the friendly desire of a driver to give
> Ayrton Senna the fast line was what got him killed.
>
> Some people appear to think that they have the fastest car and therefore
> everyone else should just move aside. To others the craft of racing
> involves figuring out where and how to pass, and regard slower cars a
> moving chicanes. Several years ago I did a four-hour enduro with the
> SCCA at Sears Point. There were three classes of cars, ranging from
> sports racers to Datsun sedans 30 second per lap slower than the fastest
> cars. I recall that at the drivers meeting one of the fast drivers of
> one of the really fast cars underscored the steward's instructions that
> the slower cars should not go off line to facilitate passing. He
> pointed out, "We are much faster than you. One corner or two isn't
> going to make much difference, and if you try to help, you may make
> things worse. We know where we're going to go and you don't"
>
> --
> Tom M.
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