Who is at Fault?

clearly if the incidents happened as you described, there were just racing incidents and you were not at fault. however some places have rules where any contact = black flag. were you given an opportunity to lodge some kind of protest? did the other parties have to come in under black flag as well? if not, you were robbed!

 

Most non-pro road racing clubs are strictly non-contact. I don't do karts but in clubracing there are rules and always a driver's meeting. In the clubs I race with you would have been thrown out and depending on who you hit you may be missing some teeth. Overly aggressive driving is not skill which is what it is really all about. Often we think we can't do anything about something but in reality if we had the skills it would never had happened. If you are rubbing is racing with a bunch of friends that's a totally different story. They always say spec miata is so great to learn good driving. I don't buy it. I see those guys bang and it is ok in their class. It is harder to get hurt punting each other when max speeds are low from the 100hp cars. They may as well be in bumper cars. I'd like to see what happens if all of a sudden you put those guys in open wheel cars. I bet all of a sudden the driving would be very very different.

 

I don't think you read his post very thoroughly. If the guy in front of you spins and you are on him, you're gonna have contact. You don't drive a car length (or more) behind "just in case". It happens all the time and there is nothing you can do about it. Being right on someone's bumper is not overly aggressive in my book. Dive bombing / undercutting someone, now that's an example of being too aggressive.

If you're on the straight and the guy in front of you brakes inexplicably, you're gonna nail him.

You make it sound like 99% of the time it's avoidable.

yeah, well spec miata is a different story.

 

Well I'd like to see some video but often both parties involved think they are right. Sometimes one or both are very wrong. What we think we see and what really happens is not always the same. I understand your point but "the stig" had 3 incidents in one race. I would think after the 1st one you would be more focused on your game. When you follow on the bumper don't you look for escape lanes when you race? Unless you know the guy in front of you is consistent and hitting a braking zone at the same point before a turn you better have a plan besides using his bumper as brakes. Racing is unpredictable by design which is what makes it exciting to do. Racing can't be like a time trial 10/1oths all the time. Strategy is as important as speed and sometimes going slower will keep or gain you positions. I don't know about you but I have never been able to follow a guy on his bumper and mounted a pass by having more power with "equal" cars. I rarely follow on a guys bumper except in a transient way. When cars are fairly matched the minor differeneces in set-up change the early,mid,exit handling in corners and braking capabilites, as examples, mean that to pass you need to set-up your victim and drive my own race. I have never been able to do that hugging a bumper and driving his race trying to beat him at his own game. If that is a strategy you use regularly how do you do it? To me its like boxing. If you got short arms and the guy with long arms is beating you by controling the range of his long arms how can the short arm guy win staying out at long range? The short arm guy has to change the game to win. So yes to your quote 99% avoidable well we know that is not true but if we had the patience to gain more skill we would take less of a beating and win more boxing matches.

 

I assume this was on the recreational side and not competition? Having been to a couple tracks like that, I found that the rule of thumb is, no matter what, if you hit anyone or anything you were deemed to be driving beyond your control. Not that it's always fair, but it works for them.