cheseroo wrote:I kind of separate the races out west into two groups. Sears Point and everything else. I haven't had or made contact there but go into it with the idea that we're more likely to sustain damage there than anywhere else we run. Particularly at the December race. I suspect a number of factors in no particular order or weight.
1. The flagging "A-team" is at the 25hr that weekend
2. The number of cars
3. All the elevation changes, track layout where cars bunch up and terrain make sightlines difficult. (like the dude above who got blasted)
4. I usually discount the newbie factor when it's veterans who do most of the wrecking but it may also be a factor at this track. Sears probably has more places than the other tracks around that take balls/confidence to fly through and veterans bombing through areas where newbies are tiptoeing may be a bad combination.
It's just a tough place to race with the things I listed above all working together to turn it into a bad day for some. I've just sort of moved into acceptance over what happens there.
I don't disagree with this, but I don't think the track layout / elevation changes should be an excuse for contact. Contact usually comes from either poor judgement, lack of situational awareness or some mechanical failure, all three of which probably occur at roughly the same percentages from track to track (to be fair, this is not scientific so I could certainly be wrong, just based on what I've observed over the years). If the corner stations were hidden or hard to see, I could maybe buy the track layout / elevation changes, but we've been hit as many times at relatively flatter circuits like Buttonwillow or Thill and mostly because of poor judgement (either ours or those we are racing around) or a complete lack of context (ie. picking up flags).
I would definitely agree though that the track layout and specifically how close the walls are at Sonoma amplifies the potential for more damage as a result of contact. In the case I sighted, everyone else was able to whoa it up and you can pick up that flag station before you get to the exit of 4 so if you are paying attention, it's not a big deal.. especially there where you have the benefit of a positive elevation change to help slow the car down.
I also agree that newbies get unfairly characterized as wreckers, as they are usually not the ones trying to stuff their car in a tiny hole though a newbie with an ego and a high balls to brains ratio in a HP car is probably a recipe for carnage...