Contact Impound

B

BobC

Active member
FWIW - From the IT forum

"There was an interesting discussion this weekend during the Ne Div convention. Apparently Nasa has something at events called Contact Impound designed to make drivers accountable for metal to metal contact. The suggestion that evolved was to have an area in the impound are that if you have any metal to metal contact at the end of a session you need to stop briefly and fill out a short form describing the situation. No interrogation but just a brief what happen, who was at fault in your opinion and was it a big deal. After you turned in your form you would be free to leave.
Would you guys view this as a positive thing?
__________________
dick patullo
ner scca ITA Rx7
now IT7"
 
NASA in our area does do contact reports. They don't always do anything about contact, but then who does. (statement not question)

Every F&C log has information listing observed contact. It is something that should be followed up on if we ever want to reduce our insurance rates.

James R.
 
Oh let's just keep doing it the SCCA way.....that is 7 different volunteer who likely didn't see anything at all give their opinions, then it enters ther beurocracy of the club so that the all knowing stewards can render a decision. Ever wonder why NASA (it ain't perfect though) can run a race weekend with 1/3 of the volunteers SCCA does? This might be a good example.
 
Dick, for what it's worth the SCCA has a rule in place now that specifies that when there is accident or mechanical damage on track the damage MUST (mandatory) be noted in the log book. Shall I go on about what doesn't happen when your directed to impound after someone whacks you pretty badly. :whistle:
 
I am all for the postrace contact impound.

NASA does the entire job with 4 or 5 people. Run as a business.
Post race, 1race director guy yells at the idiot moves and resulting contact. Makes notes, states, "keep it up and your done here." End of non discussion.
(The story is that you cant win the race in the first turn. But , in SM you can.)

SCCA has 20 people( very nice volunteers), and no one knows whos in charge. No one wants to be the person to send a friend home. Understandable but biased.
One race director could do the job, and should. The question remains, what happens with the results? Who keeps track of contact? Where is the info for future events? etc.

Chumpcar black flags both cars for any contact, and you sit for 5 min, first time.
 
I know it's fun to point fingers at the club over contact issues, but the reality is that responsibility for doing something about contact rests squarely on the drivers.

One thing that I think this contact impound will do is to get the parties involved talking. Most of the time this will be a good thing. Sometimes it will be a cage fight. Both have merit (improvement and entertainment). (Note to Earl - I'm just kidding. Stop tearing up my license!)

I think this is a great idea. In my experience, it will do little for the national prod run group. But based on my time in regional SM, it will be a crowded place after that run group.

Hopefully it will help to address what I see as the biggest issue the club has (and is totally ignoring). The efficiency with which SM attracts new bright eyed racers, and then brutally assaults them until the leave the club with a horrible story to tell (and thus never move up to other classes like prod). Right now all I see from the SM community and the club is "Look at how great SM is at attracting new people". Their head is deep in the sand on the rate of exodus.

-Kyle
 
disquek said:
I know it's fun to point fingers at the club over contact issues, but the reality is that responsibility for doing something about contact rests squarely on the drivers.

I think this is a great idea. In my experience, it will do little for the national prod run group. But based on my time in regional SM, it will be a crowded place after that run group.

Hopefully it will help to address what I see as the biggest issue the club has (and is totally ignoring). The efficiency with which SM attracts new bright eyed racers, and then brutally assaults them until the leave the club with a horrible story to tell (and thus never move up to other classes like prod). Right now all I see from the SM community and the club is "Look at how great SM is at attracting new people". Their head is deep in the sand on the rate of exodus.

-Kyle
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Kyle
This is one of the most "eyes wide open" descriptions that I have ever seen of SM. My hope is that you and the new crop of stewards will be able to change the thought paradigm.
I also agree one hundred percent on your first sentence that it is the responsibility of the the drivers to do something about contact.

cheers
dave parker
 
Protech Racing said:
Thus more disposable IMHO.
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You know what they say about opinions, correct. :moon:

IF there was nearly as competitive racing on a regular basis in production as there is in SM you would see more production cars tangling as they did this year at the Runoffs.
 
I have 2 of each. HP and SM

No way can Prod approach the close racing of SM. But the facts are the facts. My kids SM comes in with the mirrors folded in about 1/2 of the time. He loves it, but he is too careful and too nice.
 
One of the oft repeated comments made in the tech shed by drivers is "If something is not done about all the contact I'll take care of it myself", or something similar. Then there was the "next time my car is totaled by some somonabatch punting me off I won't have to worry about rebuilding is because they'll probably boot me when I beat the shit out of him."

Post contact impound would not be needed it the stewards would do what needs to be done.
 
jdh wrote;

"Post contact impound would not be needed it the stewards would do what needs to be done."

When I started racing in the '60s, any reported or observed "contact in any session got you the black flag. The Chief Stewart S L O W L Y approached you , reminded you contact wasn't allowed, and told you not to do it again. By this time you were down at least 1/2 lap. Kept contact to a minimum, and driving a lot less "aggressive".

Leaving it up to the drivers to resolve contact issues has made SCCA racing a demolition derby (almost).

RJS
 
jdh said:
One of the oft repeated comments made in the tech shed by drivers is "If something is not done about all the contact I'll take care of it myself", or something similar. Then there was the "next time my car is totaled by some somonabatch punting me off I won't have to worry about rebuilding is because they'll probably boot me when I beat the shit out of him."
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Sure this was not the last NASCRAP race you are talking about???? BTW I think NASCAR quietly thanked the drivers for the TV ratings increase.
 
jdh said:
One of the oft repeated comments made in the tech shed by drivers is "If something is not done about all the contact I'll take care of it myself", or something similar. Then there was the "next time my car is totaled by some somonabatch punting me off I won't have to worry about rebuilding is because they'll probably boot me when I beat the shit out of him."

Post contact impound would not be needed it the stewards would do what needs to be done.
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Is that what he said to you after he pulled in front of me on every straight, then stopped in the middle of the turn trying to get me to hit him? it took 3 laps and about 15 tries, but eventually he succeeded in getting me to knock his bumper off. :oops:
 
dave parker said:
disquek said:
I also agree one hundred percent on your first sentence that it is the responsibility of the the drivers to do something about contact.
cheers
dave parker
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I have to pretty much totally disagree with both of you. It is certainly incumbent on the competitors to demand enforcement and to support enforcement, but totally against human nature to depend purely upon peer pressure to eliminate "rogue" behavior. Also, in what other sport is it up to the competitor to somehow enforce civilized behavior across other competitors?

Frankly, if F1 tolerated vehicular homicide you'd see it on a monthly basis, money and testosterone being what they are. We have less money but enough testosterone to create a mess.

If the officials won't crack down on reckless behavior they aren't doing their jobs and our sport/club is doomed. Fortunately I think that enforcement is indeed improving, maybe slowly.

BTW, I don't for a moment disagree that we as drivers should lean on those who are reckless. But at the same time I'm sure it's not enough. At the end of the day, what the heck are the officials for other than to enforce the most basic rules??

Al Seim
HP VW Scirocco
 
Al Seim said:
Frankly, if NASCAR tolerated vehicular homicide you'd see it on a monthly basis, money and testosterone being what they are. It would be broadcast as hormonal gorillas driving in circles and beating each other up.
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Fixed that for ya...
 
Al et all.

This is not my opinion. These are the rules and the culture of the club we race in.

But let me be more clear. It's only up to the competitors to throw paper and provide evidence. The rest is the responsibility of the stewards.

People are fond of considering club racing in the same light as televised pro racing. Club stewards don't have the luxury of referring to the slo mo replay of camera 75. We must rely 100% on the competitors and corner workers for our understanding of what happened. Sure, some folks submit video evidence. Far far less than you might expect given that an HD video camera costs less than $50 these days. Most seem to have the cameras in their cars, but for some reason they seem to fail right when we want to see the video :roll: :roll: :lol:

You MUST throw paper if you feel wronged. It's not "peer pressure". The offenders will be dealt with by the stewards, per the GCR. If you don't throw paper, you only have yourself to blame.

-Kyle
 
Matt93SE said:
Is that what he said to you after he pulled in front of me on every straight, then stopped in the middle of the turn trying to get me to hit him? it took 3 laps and about 15 tries, but eventually he succeeded in getting me to knock his bumper off. :oops:
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Not unless you were driving something in wings-n-things.
 
jdh said:
Not unless you were driving something in wings-n-things.
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No wings, but the "thing" is what caused it.. Jon Stautberg and I played bumper tag at the last TWS race, eventually resulting in him spinning after my splitter support hooked on his exhaust coming out of a corner. I hear he was also helped through a corner by someone else that race and between both points of contact, he had to replace lots of fiberglass. At first he was pretty hot, but when he went back and looked at the video, he realized just how much he was holding everyone up and calmed down a lot.

I did notice at the last MSRH race that he didn't pull in front of me and stop again..
 
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