<font face=\"Verdana, Arial\" size=\"2\">...I feel this one falling off topic. Way to go Amy...Friggin troublemaker.</font>[/b]
That's my job, and I do it well...
As someone that has raced SM, I can say with confidence that both John and Scott are quite the bright and observant fellows. Combine their two posts and you've got my sentiments
exactly.
What can be done about it? Not too much, as it requires inward reflection by the participants, and there's no evidence that this will happen any time soon. If/when it does, though, I predict a hell of a firestorm.
Greg/Paul: Mea culpa on the oversight of your pole position. Well deserved! It's quite possible, then, that we didn't qualify second. I seem to recall that Ron was in the grid position in front of us because I was giving him grief on the grid about how our ace starter Scott Giles was going to run him through...
Hey, Mike, in the "small world" category, it turns out that Natasha's dad flies the same kind of airplane that I do. I noticed the airplane circling VIR mid-afternoon during one of my driving stints and recognized the make and model, and made an inquiry on a separate email list to find out who it was. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he was scoping out the yellow-and-purple RX-7 that his son-in-law was driving!
www.euliss-uftring.org/pictures
And, damn, that Acura TL is wicked fast. I loved having that car come by me because I didn't have to worry about their dive-bombing me; they'd simply wait for a straight and - BAM, GONE.
To get back on point about endurance racing and VIR, I have a well-proven system to avoid conflicts whenever possible. I call it "aggressive yet leave yourself an out." I suggest that the biggest conflicts on the track came when a passee was trying too hard to let people by. Remember the topic we had a few weeks ago (maybe in the NE forum?) where we talked about the passee's responsibility when a faster car is coming through? I made it clear that my position on the matter was to drive your line, be predictable, and keep your speed up as best you can. This way you become predictable so the passer knows where you're going, you'll maintain your speed through the corners (thereby helping both drivers), and the faster car can then plan on using their strong suits to pass you at a safe and convenient place.
To illustrate this, let's take an example of where one of the ITE cars was coming up on me. If it's on the straight, I made it clear well in advance to the passer that I saw them, and I made it clear to them which side of the car I wanted them to pass me. In that manner, there was clear communication that the passer has been seen and that I will accomodate them. in extreme examples, such as in the slow left-hander before the Snake, I'd even gesture wildly out the left window with a spinning motion of my left hand that I will delay my turn-in and they should aggressively work to pass me there. However, I would NEVER drive offline to accomodate the passer; if they couldn't make it happen offline and in a safe place then it didn't happen.
There are a few places where a pass is unsafe (in my mind) such as after that left hander, again into the entrance to the uphill esses, and through Roller Coaster. In those cases, I made it clear to the passing driver that I was *not* going to accomodate them there by either waving a "no" with my hand inside the car and/or by drifting towards the middle of the track, thus discouraging the pass. However, once done I would make sure that I kept my speed up through the esses and while flying through the corner (at South Bend, for example) would gesture the side for them to pass me coming out of the corner.
As you can see, I was not only managing MY own car, I was managing the OTHER drivers as well. I was not "blocking" them per se, rather I was managing when and where they could pass me, and limiting it to safe places. This kind of attitude is slightly different than in sprint races, because I realize that sprints don't give you the luxury of time, but the same ideas and rules apply.
Let's take the other point of view. If I were a driver in one of those well-handling-but-low-powered vehicles coming up on a slow, underpowered, 300-lb-heavier box, the last thing I'd want to do is dive-bomb the box into a slow corner. The result, at best, would be two cars now going much slower through the corner side-by-side, with the possibility of the fatter box - now having been forced offline - understeering out of the corner into me. Not only have I significantly increased my risk, but I've needlessly killed any semblence of a good lap, especially given I could easily cream him coming out of the corner.
Instead of losing 2-3 seconds on the lap with that method, I'd lift or brake about 100 feet earlier, keep my momentum up through the corner, and go screaming by on the exit. Even better, it's possible the refrigerator will get a good exit out of the corner, and now I have a free aero tow for at least half the straight, possible regaining that lost half-second.
So, because in general that was not happening, I as the refrigerator driver had to take a different tack on actively managing the slower cars. In that case I had to, in many cases, take a much more aggressive stance to keep cars such as this from dive-bombing me. If a certain well-handling performance car was in tow down the straight I made it clear which side of the car they were to pop out and pass, and I made it clear that I was going to accomodate them. However, if it appears that the driver was coming from too far back and they were going to try a Hail Mary pass (which was pretty damned obvious based on their "body language") I'd make it crystal clear that I was *not* going to accomodate them by moving over to make sure they KNEW there was not going to be a hole when they got there. For the most part, the other drivers got the word and backed off and drove their normal line, and as a result they - TA DA! - killed me coming out of the corner. Funny how that works out.
I believe that the end result was no hard feelings among the fast cars, as I did my best to accomodate them in a safe place, probably no hard feelings among the faster more experienced small-but-well-handling drivers, but quite likely some cussing from the slower SWH drivers. No apologies for that last group; trust me, that nasty-tasting medicine was good for you in the end.
Our results were no significant contact and a race win. You decide if the tactics are valid.
GregA
