Alternate Title: California has the worst drivers (Page 4 of 5)

Mostly "I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing, and I hope that dude keeps doing what he's doing, and hey this is pretty awesome! And I wish I could get this thing to go over 4200rpm!" We were having engine problems.

Seriously, we know we're slow - we try to stay out of the racing line for the most part (you have to cross it sometimes), stay predictable, and not block other traffic. We still took a couple of hits, which we were almost certainly partially responsible for. (We weren't black-flag-free.) The entire race came past us repeatedly, so we were getting heavy cars sliding around us through every corner, all going a lot faster than us, and a lot of them under questionable control.  (I saw probably half a dozen offs and spins close by while driving.) But it all mostly works out - we got hit three times I think, which is a minor miracle considering how large the van is, and how much traffic is coming through, and most people just stream right past.

At one point our pandamonium buddy Adam came screaming by in 144 on the 3/4 of a car width on the rumble strips in the exit of T8 at probably 120mph - double my speed, since I was straining toward 65mph at the time. That was pretty much my favorite of the many, many, many high-speed passes.

Thanks for staying classy while coming past us, all of you. Sorry if we blocked you ever!

Hey Men in Black, do you have a breakdown of the number of black flags for each race over the season? I only ran Reno, where the racing seemed to me to be quality stuff....my yellow strategy was to tuck in directly behind the car I was chasing as the yellow dropped, to leave a "passing lane" on either side for the sodomite trying to make the Fiero a front engine car....I wasn't Senna, but I got through the weekend without a bail bondsman...it can be done and you can still have fun...

Oh yeah. As I mentioned on a couple other threads, this was the first time our car was actually driven (we missed Friday practice due to a tow truck breakdown on the way from Vancouver BC.. 50kms away from the fucking track), the first time 3 of us drove around a track, and the first time any of us drove Thunderhill.

Our strategy was 30 minute stints in the beginning, both to test the car and make sure everyone got around the track in panic mode for as little time as possible, so we could then have some time to think about what had just happened and adjust to it. I think it worked great! I'll be the first to admit the first run on the track was overwhelming. I don't think I saw any flag stations on my first 5 or 6 laps, passed maybe one of two cars that were incredibly slow and probably did lap times around the 3 minute mark haha. But on the other hand, I didn't pass anyone under yellow (well, they were too far to catch up when the flags came up, I presume), did a fairly good job of being both predictable and staying out of the way. All the iRacing experience paid out when that little black car with the yellow stripes (what the hell was it..?) hit a miata and spun out right in front of me. I have no idea who got that black flag that was ignored, but hopefully if it was me, it wasn't serious!

Everyone's second stint was so much smoother, we were actually making passes and being able to hold decent lines rather than always go wide, but still doing a fairly good job of avoiding contact.

I really hope no one on our team pissed anyone off, but honestly, if we did, please let me know. This was a lot of fun and we will do it again eventually, so comments are always appreciated.

EIGHT-time veteran...

For the record, we have no idea what actually happened with that black flag, but here's what we THINK happened:

I got black flagged after assuming an RX-7 driver was going to see me when I drove up next to him (8 times, you'd think I'd know better by now) and instead getting bumped into the mud. My tale of innocence was plausible enough that I was let back on the track quickly and was immediately black flagged again, before I even had a chance to earn it. We guessed that the corner workers didn't know we had gone in and were still flagging us for the old one. After a few laps, they stopped waving it at us, so maybe we were right (?)

An hour or so later, after a driver change, I hear we have an outstanding penalty on the board, so we told our new driver to look out for black flags, since he's probably going to get flagged for something I did. He never saw one.

Somehow, in my fatigue, I failed to recognize that the outstanding penalty was passing under yellow (I swear, the yellow passed under me!), and the black flag we ignored was one we assumed was for contact. I still thought they were from the same incident. When I tried to explain this nonsense to Jay, he told us to go change drivers. I think he just wanted us to go away.

I got another black flag on the checkered flag lap, but I blew that one off because I'm a cheating bastard.

-Dave

Oh, and I thought the driving was pretty clean, but then I've been to Altamont...

YEAH!! 

Just having you type the name of the team is a victory.  Makes my whining worthwhile.  You musta had to look up the name, cause I doubt you'd remember it.

YES!

Also, this "worthless suggestion" will swing back around and bite you in your own ass.

Personally, I look forward to it.

A bit of confusion about the flags could have been set in stone during the driver's meeting as someone posted earlier, I agree. Even the veterans meeting, because obviously the veterans don't know what the hell they are doing either.

I thought the flagging was fine personally, never got a black flag for passing under yellow during either of my stints as I looked at every flag station whenever I came up on them, and waved at the flaggers when going by them under a yellow while following the car in front of me. However, I did get a black flag when someone's "brakes went out" and they rammed into the rear of my car sending me off track at turn 9, got to the penalty box, and was told that I didn't need to be there, ending my session early. Allowed the last driver on my team to go so as to save time as we were borderline on our top 20 goal thanks to being in the penalty box 8 times. Sorry Judges, btw I plan to photoshop my entire team into a whambulance and post it up here for your amusement. We also plan to refill those Growlers for you, just bring the empties to the next event and they will be replaced.

During a previous visit to the penalty box someone in a yellow shirt said we were NOT allowed to pass when there was a white/black border flag out. We have never heard of that before, we thought you just couldn't pass right next to the safety vehicle itself, but passing, and racing under the flag was OK. See video below, includes questionable passing, and also v8olvo's incident on Saturday, and him passing me next to a safety vehicle along with another car. Would like some clarification on all of this as my team and I fully intend on keeping things 100% clean at future races.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6nvxUNmI5s

Coincidentally, your video shows the V8olvo passing you just 3 turns before their TR7 spin/crash incident.

I will also say this: halfway through the race Jay walks up and says, "We've got to get rid of these fucking white flags -- no one has any clue what they mean."

Also, as to Dean's point, if we ever catch anyone tattling on someone (like say by pointing and waving at a flag worker), the guilty party will get 30 minutes, and the complaining party will get 1 hour -- for narcing.

That was my take as well.

Let's see - past the safety vehicle.  Check.
No yellow flag displayed. Check.
Driver on my right FRANTICALLY waving out the window and pointing.

Yep, Looks like a point-by to me.

Game On!  Foot to the floor! So long suckers!

It wasn't the first time that weekend there was a lot of confusion over the white flag - I'd definitely suggest that Jay clear that up at the drivers' meeting for ALL drivers, not just the new drivers' longer meeting.  I think it is as easy as "White flag doesn't mean no passing, but it does mean stay in control and look out for a slow moving vehicle, probably a safety vehicle.  If you make what the flaggers think is dangerous or aggressive move or a pass too near a safety truck under the white flag, you'll be black flagged.  The flagger's judgment is the only one that counts, so be conservative."

And, sorry for being an ass in my response.  I'm always nastier in forums than I am in person.  At least I think that's the case.  Maybe I'm a dick all the time in person, too??

I still don't believe I did anything dangerous in that situation, but I can absolutely agree that I *could* have provided more room when we were near the safety truck.  I did what I'd do when racing and what I'd expect any other racer to do, but I forget that not everyone out there is an experienced racer.  It was obvious from your gesturing as that smaller car passed you that you didn't think passing was allowed there, so I should have realized you wouldn't expect me to get very close either.

Looking forward to seeing you guys out there at Infineon.  Not sure if we'll be back with the V8olvo or some other chariot, but we'll be there.

And I've said it before, but I'll say it again.  If anyone thought watching the flags was tough at Thunderhill is going to be screwed at Infineon.  There's a LOT more "going on" at that track, and the flag stands are easy to lose in the scenery.  It's going to be fun!

Cheers,

Dean