Horrible high speed Superkart accident

Admiral, I do not your experience level, but judging from the incident it looks like you both are rookies, more so the other driver. Especially when he says "he is surprised what happened when you touch wheels". My opinion, if someone does not know what happens when two wheels touch, they shouldn't be racing. If he was a pro driver, easily he could pass you in that kink no problem. By the way, you never made it clear where was he positioned when he hit you? From my observation, you had the inside line and therefore your at least half a kart length from the apex. Which means there is no way he could place his kart on the inside. Now if he was on the outside then you should of seen him.

 

Assuming he had more speed at that point. Just because you are attached to the rear of a car does not imply that you actually can pass. You appear to have made the assumption that our driver is a dud ... unfair IMO unless you face up and race fair and square and kick his butt

Well I clearly understood that the following kart was on the inside and our driver was on the outside and took his racing line for the corner. Our driver thought he had him covered and thus was not aware that he had actually got a wheel up to his rear wheel ... and thus perfectly legally closed the gap. The follower obviously keen not to loose momentum kept his foot in and they touched.

Now if you have raced karts you would know that it is not always easy to know exactly where the other guy is. Infact the passing kart uses this to his/her advantage and will faint one side and then flick to the other to confuse, etc.

In the end I have little sympathy for drivers that when put in a situation of hitting another car or lifting off and trying again somewhere else, choose to crash into the other car. Far too many modern race series (BTCC, V8 Supercars, etc.) simply push the car in front off and call that a valid pass. Note: rubbing panels, kart frames, etc. that is fine ... but as you said touching wheels should be known as a risky and stupid thing to do ... thus don't do it.

And like I said the passer was on the inside with a fast narrowing track ... he should have put his inside wheels on the grass or lifted, and considered the passing attempt blocked. Yep frustrating and all but you can't just punt somebody in front of you off.

Now our driver could have taken a tighter line and made it impossible but by all accounts this sounded like he had the guy covered ... with speed, and also this sounds like a quick corner that you want to be very fast through otherwise the following kart will gain momentum and pass you latter in the lap.

Overall a racing incident and hopefully the follower has learnt something ... or though I can sympathise how when you have a run on somebody how bloody hard it is to lift , but there is a right way to win and that is important to me.

Pete

 

Track officials said Admiral Thrawn was wronged, not wrong.

How's the head? Er, skull? Er, knob? Er...

 

Agree ... if my post implied anything else then I appologise, I was replying to CRG125's post. The guy in front has all the rights and that was our driver, the Admiral.

Pete

 

Pete,

I am not trying to be a jerk here and I am sympathetic to Admiral, but you brought up some good points here, which in my opinion could of been avoided by Admiral. For instance, my understanding is that you say the other driver was on the inside line and our driver left the door open a little a bit. But he thought he had him covered. Now when you are racing, especially karts, like you said "if you have raced karts you would know that it is not always easy to know exactly where the other guy is." You never leave any gap opened. Then you say "Infact the passing kart uses this to his/her advantage and will faint one side and then flick to the other to confuse, etc. Isn't this blocking, which I know here it is not allowed. You can only move once to block your line. In racing you have to be predictable dosen't matter if you are in the front or in the back.

 

Sitting in my seat at work it is easy to say you never leave any gap open ... but I also think from what Admiral said that it is important that you take this fast corner correctly to ensure you have good back straight speed. Thus I assume that our Admiral was trying to balance both situations, ie. most pass after the corner and thus he took the gamble and took the correct racing line.
Heck I'm not critising that move ... it makes sense. I also assume that the passer (guy behind) is a bit green as to try and pass into this corner sounds pretty risky when he should have set himself up for a sling shot pass out of this corner. Again it all seems easy on the couch

Are I think you have misread my point, ie. mean the passing kart NOT the one being passed, thus the guy behind will faint from one side to the other, etc.

Yes being predictable is very important ...
Pete
ps: I actually had an interesting situation last weekend as I took my step sons go karting at a proper out door track. Was great fun and nice and grippy tarseal instead of slippery concrete. This is only their second go and I am impressed with their improvement ... they assure me that I never passed them in the second session ( ... I passed lots of people but I believe them).

Anyway in the first session my kart wasn't too strong on the straights and thus I was having to work real hard through the corners ... especially as somebody else appeared to be gaining on me (insert Pete's not happy! ... thus intensity raised big time). Anyway I had been holding this guy out for about 5 laps hoping for the end of the session so my pride could remain intact when this guy got a run on me on to the front straight.

We were both gaining on this much slower kart and I was thinking ... "hmmm this is going to get real interesting when we reach that next very fast sweeper" ... and I was right cause we reached it sort of 3 abreast. I was out wide, the guy passing me went for the middle and the slow lappie in the inside. I braked and pulled back cause I guessed correctly that the slow chap was going to run wide and sure enough out he drifted right in the path of the guy who had passed me and he had no where to go but off the track. I was able to do the scissor move and pull a big gap and get to the end of the session with out being passed! ... and that is what it is all about.

Hopefully soon I can get a proper kart of my own and enter races/championships, etc. ... but garage/workshop comes way first.

 

Oh, you're right. They're wildly effective:


And yes, I have used a neck brace. As a matter of fact, my first 8 years of racing was spent with a collar around my neck. However, there's a massive difference between wearing a collar in a qarter-scale Midget that tops out at a whopping 35MPH and wearing one in a 100+MPH anything. In a kiddie kart I can imagine a neck brace does wonders. In anything that sees speeds over 90MPH, they're about as useless as tits on a boar-hog.

 

I use a vasty better helmet and vastly better neck brace to the ones seen in that photo of yours.
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http://www.paradiseracing.com/safety.html

 

Useless as tits on a boar-hog, indeed. I've seen bigger dog collars. One was on a dog named "Bear" - 1/2 German Shepherd, 1/2 St. Bernard - all physical traits were Super-sized Shepherd through and through... couch-length... and height.

The Admiral ain't wearin' no dog collar.

Now, git, boy.