Topic: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

I thought it would be interesting to start a thread where everyone could post their bonehead stories on what penalties they have received and how they received them.

I will start, tell me if anyone can top this one, please.  I was the (idiot) fellow that got a 1 hour penalty in the spring race for passing under caution before the green flag ever dropped.  Don't know if this has happened in this fashion before, but it has to be some kind of record or something.  We were having engine problems from the start and I thought the best course of action was to get the "F" out of everyones way before the green fell, my bad.  Grim Reaper racing was kind enough to give me a push one of those times to get us off the track.  I have since learned my lesson and figured I would let this cat out of the bag to pull more of your stories.  Captain Rat may not like me incriminating myself, but if someone can learn from my stupid ass mistake then the embarassment has been worth it.

"Sharp as Bear Claws and Slicker Than Goose Shit"
Lab Rats Motorsports
1990 VW Jetta
Charlotte, NC

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

No one has done anything stupid to get a penalty but me huh?  Maybe I should just wear a dunce cap on my helmet for the next race.  Or just drink beer the whole time and watch.   

I can see the sea of excellence I must be swimming in, maybe some will rub off.

"Sharp as Bear Claws and Slicker Than Goose Shit"
Lab Rats Motorsports
1990 VW Jetta
Charlotte, NC

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

Our gauges we on the fritz for the first part of Buttonwillow.

One of our drivers was so elated that they came back to life that he forgot to notice the approaching end of the short straight and drove right out the end of Sunset.

"Hey look gauges---ohnoes!"

Probably for the better, though, as when he came in for the penalty we noticed we had a fuel leak, right above the very-hot differential.

There are those who call me...Judge Tim
Previously: Der Uberbird! BMW 633CSi
"When life gives you Lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you crap, don't make a beverage out of it."

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

Yeah, that was a bit of Karma there.  Wouldn't want to burst in a large flame like those Kudzu guys. 

It is funny what excites us guys right? a little thing like gages actually working again is enough to take our minds off of anything.

"Sharp as Bear Claws and Slicker Than Goose Shit"
Lab Rats Motorsports
1990 VW Jetta
Charlotte, NC

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

Fine - my first and only penalty in 4 races...  It had started to rain in CMP '08 and I was passing the race leader (#2 RX7) and got forced off/tapped off the course and hit a cone.  I'm fairly certain that the corner workers didn't see it - but a cone had lodged itself in our bumper.  So about 4 laps later we get flagged and brought in.  They said that they didn't know where we picked up the cone but it's a penalty.   I pulled out the video, showed them the hows and wheres of the penalty and we were released after a few minutes. 

http://schumachertaxiservice.com/vids/contact.wmv

--Rob Leone Schumacher Taxi Service
We won the IOE at Southern Discomfort.
We got screwed at The Real Hoopties of New Jersey  and we took cars down with us.
We got the curse at Capitol Offense but they wouldn't let us destroy the car.

6 (edited by EvergreenDan 2009-08-25 06:24 AM)

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

I had two, one definitely deserved, one probably not.

In the first, I had been trying to get around a car for several laps. Finally, going into the chicane at Stafford, he braked early, I took a look to the outside and realized that there is no way he would see me and give me room at the track-out/apex of the second part of the chicane. I tucked back in behind him and followed him in. Alas, in that brief instant that I took a look, another car tucked in next to me, and I chopped him with my rear (not sure, maybe bumper, maybe quarter panel).

The irony is that in that very turn, the car I was chasing spun, and had I not gottend tagged and gone off track, I might have T-boned him. If I had just been a bit more patient, I would have pressured him into his own error. (Face palm)

So, my take-away is don't change your mind (and obviously use mirrors better). In just a second or two, a car can fill the gap where you used to be. I apologize to the red RX-7 -- it was my error (or at least mostly my error -- dunno, maybe all my error). He admitted some fault, but he might just have been being polite. I was also tracking another car on the outside, to complicate the situation. Hey, Ryan -- the next beer's on me!

The second penalty was silly. I went a little hot into the chicane and got some oversteer. I stayed totally on track, and hit nothing -- no cone, no dirt, no cars. It wasn't even particularly wild oversteer, but, yes, the rear end came loose. We were running mismatched tire diameters at this point, due to a cut-down tire, so the car was a bit of a handful. Anyhow, the corner worker thought that I must have been tagged, so both I and the car behind me got a penalty. They didn't believe that we didn't touch, so we bribed our way out of it.

Maybe I deserved a penalty for poor car control (although I don't think so, given that some cars were loose there every lap). But the poor guy behind me was completely innocent. He was just near me -- wrong place/time. In retrospect, my first words to the judge should have been, "I got loose; there was no contact; penalize me if you must, but the guy behind me is innocent." I think this might have convinced them. Instead we were both saying that there was no contact, which they probably hear all day long.

While I was upset at myself for both penalties, and felt that I let down the team, I was determined to accept the penalties with good cheer, and I think I did that.

Near-Orbital Space Monkeys
#528 BMW 528e 121hp Black "Saturn 5" Rocket car with orange foam flames. Sold.
#71 Yellow Fox Mustang. For sale.

7 (edited by cpmskinny 2009-08-25 07:40 AM)

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

Yeah, letting down the team is the worst part if you ask me.  In my case, even if the darn thing would have been running, we started out at a severe disadvantage after having to sit there for an hour of green flag racing.   Our goal this time...no penalties.  Which may be hard to do if we are out there for the duration considering my captains tendancy to miss apexes all over the track.  This ones for you Mike

"Sharp as Bear Claws and Slicker Than Goose Shit"
Lab Rats Motorsports
1990 VW Jetta
Charlotte, NC

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

O.k.  here's mine. At NPR I'm running in a 5 car pack, 1 car directly ahead and two on each side, everyone's playing nice & it's really a lot of run. we go into turn 2 which is a tight 120 degree right hander. No one is this pack is thrilled about going into this turn side by side so we fall into pretty much a single file line. We head into the turn and a friggin' squirrel runs across the track...normally this woild be a bad day for the squirrel but the lead car tries to brake and miss the squirrel... MISS A FRIGGIN" SQUIRREL. Now it's every man for himself...I lock up the brakes and the car goes sideways...I don't mean a little sideways... I mean looking out the left rear window sideways.
The car bites and whips back around the other direction, I catch it but I'm  going off roading at this point.  I plow up a ton of grass which I mostly i get hit with, ran over and killed the squirrel anyway, and had to stand on the fender of the car with the team captain in the penalty box and read "A Hemi In The Barn" while my "friends" stood by and busted a testicle laughing.  Im not renewing my PETA membership.

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

I went onto the closed-off part of the track at Thunderhill- thought I had the exit after a four-wheels-off black flag, but it turned out to be the (de-coned by some previous crasher) special bonus level on the Lemons video game. So I win! By the way, my V8olvo teammates were cool about it, even though I'd clearly torn out their pancreases by getting the car put on blocks for the rest of the day and totally knocking it out of contention. That marked the end of my Lemons racing career.

Most important, it made me a much crueler judge; since any racer who approaches my screwup in terms of Bonehead-O-Meter™ reading reminds me of the humiliation of my own head-clutchingly boneheaded move, I'm motivated to hand out sterner sentences than I would have otherwise.

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

cpmskinny wrote:

Which may be hard to do if we are out there for the duration considering my captains tendancy to miss apexes all over the track.  This ones for you Mike

Apex?  What's an apex?

Mike
Lab Rats Motorsports
1988 Mitsubishi/Dodge/Fiat Colt Carpocalypse Edition

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

Ok. So stafford 2009..... Im in the car for roughly 2 hours battling an insane amount of cars on a track that is far far too small. Its the second day, its hot, im tired from swinging the sledge hammer to dislodge a friction welded axel, and tired of sniffing exhaust fumes. Im just trying to squeek by the last guy before i get out into clean air. I make the pass on the banked corner where the ponticrap was at its best, Power down the straight thinking to myself this is great! i dont have to worry about any more morons trying to pass me...... was that the start finish line? While i was so busy patting myself on the back for being out in front, i blew the braking zone into turn one at somewhere near the ton mark. Got on the brakes, car started sliding i corrected only to have the car snap back the other way at which point i just let go of the wheel and started spining donuts into no mans land.  somewhere during the spining off the track, mowing down every cone in turn one and stopping the clutch slave line broke. requiring a push off the track from the wrecker.... self imposed penalty.

No Budget Racing
Chief Instigator
1991 Ponticrap OnFirebird
Racing a Camaro/Firebird at Lemons is a box full of fail, thats why we do it.

12

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

RobL wrote:

Fine - my first and only penalty in 4 races...

Yeah, okay Rob, don't mention the "speeding through paddock" penalty you incurred but i got to serve as the next driver LOL wink

Jer / Schumacher Taxi Service
2010 Spring CMP I.O.E. winner
2010 Sebring overall winner
1996 Miata, 1991 BMW E30, 1987 coROLLa (retired), 1984 Citation (retired), 1993 Miata (retired)

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

cpmskinny wrote:

Yeah, letting down the team is the worst part if you ask me.  In my case, even if the darn thing would have been running, we started out at a severe disadvantage after having to sit there for an hour of green flag racing.   Our goal this time...no penalties.  Which may be hard to do if we are out there for the duration considering my captains tendancy to miss apexes all over the track.  This ones for you Mike

Braked to miss a squirrel? Wow. Where I'm from we brake to miss moose, bears and deer...anything else is a pink fog. Swerve for the small stuff and you can wake up in the ICU...

Jim "Endo" Anderton
30 years of racing and still not Brambilla.....

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

"Braked to miss a squirel?"  If the eyes are not up over the hood line, keep your foot down!

Except for pigs. NEVER hit a pig.

Spud

Remember, it's never too early to start embellishing the past.

"so there I was, 90mph, sideways on the brink of death ..."

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

Spud wrote:

"Braked to miss a squirel?"  If the eyes are not up over the hood line, keep your foot down!

Except for pigs. NEVER hit a pig.

Spud

Where would you come across a pig? Farm escapee?

Jim "Endo" Anderton
30 years of racing and still not Brambilla.....

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

jimeditorial wrote:
cpmskinny wrote:

Yeah, letting down the team is the worst part if you ask me.  In my case, even if the darn thing would have been running, we started out at a severe disadvantage after having to sit there for an hour of green flag racing.   Our goal this time...no penalties.  Which may be hard to do if we are out there for the duration considering my captains tendancy to miss apexes all over the track.  This ones for you Mike

Braked to miss a squirrel? Wow. Where I'm from we brake to miss moose, bears and deer...anything else is a pink fog. Swerve for the small stuff and you can wake up in the ICU...

Who, me?  I think you got it all wrong...I am known for mowing down deer in these parts.

"Sharp as Bear Claws and Slicker Than Goose Shit"
Lab Rats Motorsports
1990 VW Jetta
Charlotte, NC

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

Must be small deer or a big vehicle...up here the deer are big, the cars small and there's a helicopter to get the victims to a hospital after they meet...

Jim "Endo" Anderton
30 years of racing and still not Brambilla.....

Re: Penalties, We Don't Need No Stinking Penalties...

xcomic wrote:

We head into the turn and a friggin' squirrel runs across the track...normally this woild be a bad day for the squirrel but the lead car tries to brake and miss the squirrel... MISS A FRIGGIN" SQUIRREL. Now it's every man for himself...I lock up the brakes and the car goes sideways...I don't mean a little sideways... I mean looking out the left rear window sideways.

here's one for you, http://www.savingsquirrels.com OR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8yypD7RiJU