2021 SCCA Runoffs at Indy

[ERVRCG]

Any word from the stewards re Vickerman’s incident?

Rumor I heard was "racing incident".

And I (putting out my my two cents that may drag this into a cat fight) agree with that, from what I've seen.

We had a very disparate pair of cars racing each other, one that had killer handling in the twisty bits and one that had good engine (and decent handling). When you put these kinds of cars together, you end up with different cars doing different things in different places.

Add into that mix cars of different physical sizes, and you end up with issues trying to maintain visibility of the smaller car.

Eric had to take high-risk monster move in his area of expertise to get around Vesa (I was damned impressed). Vesa, for his part, likely did not see that move coming; frankly, I sincerely doubt I would have either. So Vesa had no idea Eric was out there and drove his line, ultimately squeezing Eric off the track where he had nowhere to go except into a converging tire wall. Vesa couldn't see him because the car is so small* and his vision was upstream to the next corner. The end result was a squeeze play again a tire wall.

Nothing there was intentional, and IMO nothing there was negligent. Just two hard racers shooting for a championship position: a racing incident.

I will offer commentary that this is the inevitable result of combining ~1400 pound handling really small cars with ~2400 pound bigger power cars, and this is only increasing with the addition of larger-displacement 2L cars. I'm not saying we "cannot" race together, but I sincerely hope that we look around and recognize this disparity and ensure we're considering this as we drive around each other -- being passed and passing. Let's not let this happen again.

GA

*I actually chuckled watching the replay of the start of the race on the streaming broadcast, noting that not only did Eric get swamped by power at the start, but he looked like he was driving among monster trucks...I, for one, have raced against Eric this year and more than once lost track of where he was around me. Fortunately in my case, he was so much more faster that I just drove the line and he just drove around me and went away.

I hate but agree with racing incident…with things to learn.

I’d like to add that Vesa made a mistake in the exit of 6 allowing him to slow down and make a late apex to 6A and leave the outside open at such a speed differential. I took a low % shot but he’d blocked me all week down that straight so I had to get him early. Why he needed to track all the way out I’ll never understand as he’s wasting track and time. Frame by frame I don’t think I ever saw him pull righ, maybe got sucked in..

Once we made second contact after he continued track left he hooked his exposed rear tires on my fender flares and turned it in front of me. If he had completely enclosed tires in fender flares we’d have just continued down the straight with me having two wheels off. I suggest revising the rules for tires being contained within the body below 1/2 way of center line. This also got him on lap one turn two with Benazic.

 

[rekcik15]

What I saw was they got hooked up door to door a bit before they even got to track out; and when you've got a FWD car who requires his rear to rotate to turn and there's a car stopping that from happening he is naturally going to understeer towards the outside. Eric was just along for the ride at that point. It would have required one of them to yield to avoid it, but both had a right to be there and neither did.

I agree with the RI call

 

[Greg Amy]

Well, ours was a tough week. Rest assured I really really REALLY know better, but we went there with a new drivetrain in the HP MR2, and both transaxle and engine failed in separate sessions; lots of R&R time on jackstands in the grass. The week got capped off with an Appendix P on Lap 2.

But we had plenty of beer and I got the drive Indianapolis MotherHumpin Speedway!

I'm'a just thinking about digging out the historics 914/4 for the Majors and VIR Runoffs in 2022, and have fun striving to make the 115% lap times cutoff against the F Production Miatas and Hondas...car is running good so why not?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtgBePg1o7g

 

[dhrmx5]

Greg, here was our week:
Arrive Thursday.
Can't get in until Friday night, thanks to failure to realize reg line would never subside.
Have to park outside in overflow because of dogs. (yorkies)
hit track for Sat practice session 1. FAST on crap tires
session 2: mount new rubber, go out and have one dismount and wrap around rear axle, which immobilizes car on track 1 lap into session. flatbed in. Sorry to everyone else.
Run to Hoosier for new tire. What's this? No tires. But we ordered them 6 weeks ago...
Session 3. Run new/old stock A7s (or were they actually A6s)? Complete waste of time. Day over.
Go buy another test day (Mon)...
Monday consisted of trying to make stupidly large tires work because...no tires. Catch car on fire.
Leak oil everywhere. Catch fire again, next session. Deal with steward yelling at us for leaving pit lane without permission, because we did not want slideback ride tearing up splitter.

Throughout this time and all week driver loses brakes one lap into session because the right rear is aerating the brake fluid. still don't know why. This car is doing in excess of 155 down the front straight.

tuesday quali on wrong tires ok. still no brakes

Wed quali, wrong tires, ok. no brakes.

Thursday quali correct tires, decent time, no brakes.

Rain on sunday? find set of rains to buy and make defroster.

race on sunday dry. no brakes. New tires blister about 5 laps in. They were a little too fresh.

Did I mention that neither of the motorhome's generators would work all week? i was living in a cave.

Extra expenses we didn't plan on: about 6k extra for a poor result. Ehhh, what are ya gonna do?

 

[dhrmx5]

By the way, the reg team needs to have an express line for drivers who have signed up to practice on Sat. We were one of the first to arrive (thursday) and last to get in Friday... Plus we had to move in to our garage Friday night... Wouldn't have been a problem if reg opened at 8am. Half the day was gone by the time they opened (not blaming the reg people), probably an Indy thing...