Ranchero Crash? (Page 1 of 3)

Everyone was alright. Ranchero spun on the run up to turn 2. Was sitting dead in the water facing backwards when it was struck head-on by a corvette. The red flag was almost 30 minutes to clean it up. The Ranchero might have been tipped into the spin.

Glad they all walked away. 

I finally found the video today, that was one hell of a crash.  Looks like the Beamer that passed him into two could use a demonstration of exactly how long his car actually is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJto-BYSGB8

I think this might be the incident at hand from a prime postion. There clearly was contact prior to the spin, although one-handed driving is never advised.

Yikes.  Glad nobody was seriously hurt (in any of the incidents of the weekend).  Quite a few folks ran severely short on talent in their prep work and while behind the wheel.  I'd say Jay was gentle on Sunday when reminding everyone that poor decisions on (and off) the track can have staggering consequences.
Does Lemons track driver conduct the way other series do?  I know they can simply not accept a team, but do they monitor (or publish somewhere) individual drivers?  Might be revealing at where improvements are needed.  Not trying to start a licensing discussion...

You expressed this more than once in past threads as well.  I still find is reprehensible that anyone in Lemons would take that casual a view of contact AND verbalize it for other teams to take their queue.

For me at least, if one my team is the instigator of that nudge and I find out, he is done for the day.  You are right that stuff happens, but that was not unavoidable, it was overly aggressive and unnecessary.

My impression that it happens, it's just informal in sort of a dim, smoke-filled room kind of way.  You don't know about the shadow government until you know about the shadow government.
Another "budget" series for 5-figure cars started putting QR Code stickers on helmets this past weekend.  You come in to the penalty box, you get scanned and the incident goes on your Permanent Record, which is reviewed when you apply for future races.

I watched it half a dozen times, looking at different aspects of the crash. In the very end there is a very brief glimpse of what I think was the most significant detail, the effectiveness of the head and neck restrain. I talked to the driver later that night and he said he most definitely felt the straps doing their job, keeping his head attached to his body. He also told me that this was the first time he had worn a H&N device. Three cheers for the new Lemons rule.

Very easy to say from the armchair.

There is a very real phenomena called object fixation where if you stare at something, you will usually go towards it. In a situation like this a driver panics, locks eyes on the thing in their way, and while they might know to steer around it, they are going to hit it. It's a hard thing to train yourself against, and it's not just seen in racing. I've been through it on skis a lot. Crash at high speeds and lock onto a tree downhill? You're going to hit it.

You can tell a new driver to look away from the stopped car and see the escape path all you want, but they have to go through it a couple times to actually learn it.

Disagree.  To blame the Ranchero driver here is out of line.  Don't know the dude, but been in his situation.

This very type of incident happens almost every lap when you are in a Class C car.  Class A car passes you and then as soon as you disappear from the Class A car's B pillar/driver's peripheral vision, the Class A car assumes the Class C car has gone poof and disappears.  The Class A car then moves into the Class C car's lane and this type of thing happens if the Class C car can't avoid/stand on the brakes hard or fast enough.  A number of Class A cars forget they are carrying another 10+ feet of car behind their seat.  I believe I heard that Jay told everyone to wait a little bit after they pass someone before they move over and this is exhibit A for that type of event.

The BMW is 100% in the wrong here.  They are the ones who kicked the whole mess off.  Not a big mistake but there's nothing that says a small mistake can't cause big consequences.  The Corvette?  Well, I can't argue on their behalf.  Maybe they could have, maybe they couldn't have missed it.  I think this is the one area where kart racing experience really helps.  You learn to look for the hole, not where there's something solid.  You need to crash a couple times before you learn that and it's a real "aha!" moment once you do.  But this is an entry level series for the most part and unfortunately most people haven't yet learned to crash properly before they get here.

I personally owe drKorf an apology for painting him in a bad light.  Though I disagree with his stance in that specific post (though I liked the follow up) I was DEAD WRONG that he had made similar comments in the past.  He made a few comments in the Old Crows driving by braille thread a while back that were adjacent the Old Crows Team Captains denial of anything wrong and a couple comments by others that I vehemently disagreed with. We also disagreed (not vehemently) on the way to manage slow car with multiple fast movers in another thread where incidental contact was made.

The distinctive screen name stuck in my head and I attributed others' comments to him.  Completely my bad. 

I also appreciate him contacting me off-line to correct me instead of potentially starting a flame war.  It gave me the time to review our mutual past comments without others involved so I could come to my senses.

Not the same. I've done that drill, back when I was about 18. It's not the same because the consequences aren't the same. Pick the wrong land and all that happens is you've failed the drill. You also can see and prepare for the exact point where you'll have to swerve.  But a car stopped facing the wrong way on a race track has larger consequences, large enough to make you panic.

Race car drivers (pros) don't drive into stopped cars because they've experienced it at a younger age and have learned the right thing to do. Again, you have to go through it a couple times to learn. Fixation is a natural reaction to something like this, and it's something you have to experience to break. Using karting is a great way to go about it. You quickly learn how to spot holes and avoid obstacles.

There was nobody on corvette driver's left and he was ahead of the car on driver's right.  He only needed a slight correction to pass on his right. His momentum was to the right.  He would have blown T2 all to hell and maybe would have had to go into the dirt but...

Three seconds is a loooong time.