HP sessions

Not a national champion, not (yet) a majors racer....didn't even stay at Holiday Inn Express last night, but....have raced in the Northeast in IT (usually at the pointy end of the field) for 26 years. The number of times I've had "a race ruined" in the first lap is exactly one. Have seen others who seem to have a lot of incidents in the first lap, and my observation is that it's usually "someone else's fault". My thought is driver error, call it situational unawareness, red mist, tunnel vision or whatever, but if you're frequently involved in first lap incidents, maybe should look inside your own helmet.

This controversy is making a Face Book appearance thanks to some writer chick from the Northeast....maybe a coincidence that we share a last name.

Oh, the start of the HP race was not very crowded by IT standards....shoulda been fairly easy to keep track of the other drivers and provided room.
 
Mr. Funk, Ron IS a national champion and one of the nicest guys and best drivers I have known in over 30 years of racing HP. He knows what he is doing. I have never heard of Gordon Jones so I don't know anything about him except what I saw during the race and I was not impressed. I also have been punted on the first lap, actually the first corner, at the runoffs when I was at the pointy end of the field. At the start of the race you are focused on what's in front of you, not what's going on behind you. It was a complete surprise to me when I ended up in the gravel trap and I'm sure it was a surprise to Ron.
 
It's about awareness and leaving racing room....if ya don't, bad stuff happens. Look at a video from the H Prod race at the 1999 Runoffs. One of two possible conclusions, either Ron didn't know the eventual winner was there or he made two moves to prevent a pass....either was bad and "bad stuff" happened.

Just the opinion of a lowly regional guy.
 
Mr Feller, I have known Gordon Jones for 25 years and I can tell you he is all the driver and sportsman as Mr Bartell. I am not sure how anyone that is competitive can be expected to just parade through a corner single file until the dust settles. I think if that's what you are looking for the Porsche club maybe a good place to go.
 
Looks like the LBC lacked consideration for the BMW that was inside . He swept right to the apex and took himself out.
Maybe needs a larger right side mirror. Ed may have it right/ anyone that gets taken out on a continual basis might need some racing room improvement .
The first lap or so needs a little more room racing consideration. IMHo.
MM (40yrs of racing- never been taken out in the first lap.)

Also ,My time teaching PIT to GA Staties, never back off the car ,. If you leave room between the cars the impact potential gets much higher and the car may pinball instead of slow spin. The damage was minimal due to lack of space between the cars as the LBC spun across the BMW.
 
What was the qualification lap time differential? What was the on track time differential in the race? Has anyone ever been dived bombed by a car that was 2 sec slower than themselves? I have seen that 1st hand and it is frustrating at the least. This type of incident does not need to happen but it seems to happen all so often.
 
It doesn't have anything to do with this incident and I have never met Mr Jones but I did notice his car had quit a bit of unrepaired body damage going into the race week. If the stewards were adhering to the rules he would have never been allowed to compete. So maybe the stewards at least share in the blame. It's also a sign of previous contact, either with other competitors or fixed objects.
 
I don't know Ron, but have gotten to know Gordon over the last year, and I have no problem sharing the track with him. At Thunderhill Gordon and I spent the better part of two days nose to tail and door to door without a bit of contact.

Watching the various video angles I am glad I didn't have to make the call on that, but I always fall back on its the overtaking cars responsibility to make it clean.

As for previous damage on Gordon's car, I know at the June race at MRLS he was dive bombed in Turn 11 at the end of lap 1 by an STU car that could not understand why he was behind a pack of HP cars, they both spent the rest of the race watching from the gravel. That may or may not have been the damage that was seen pre-Runoffs.

Do we have a GCR appearance standard? Yes. Have you ever seen it enforced at the Runoffs? I have not. The rules themselves make it very easy to bring a beat down car to the Runoffs, and there are a lot of them out there. You don't have to get your car inspected pre-race. If you did not visit tech after your first qual session by the time they pull you in any damage could easily be attributed to an on-track incident at that very event, which is typically overlooked.

Starts at MRLS proved problematic for a large number of classes this year: the speeds were kept very slow so that cars were not still in Turn 11 when the green flew, leaving a short run and little time to spread the field before Turn 2, you then get a bottleneck down to Turn 3. When so many races started with a big pile up in that area its hard to pick apart one incident. I was damn impressed we managed to have our race stay green, which cant be said for a number of other.

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I always figured that if I stuck my nose in like that I was going to get hit, and get hit every single time. I also always figured that racing room was a car width including the curb and that the first one to that pavement owned that pavement. Not sure where in the GCR it says you must give up pavement at the very edge of the track you were first to claim? Anyway it's a bluffing game and it was the Runoffs. I see both sides of it. Penalty is what surprised me (well and the arson threat :shock: ). What I saw from my quarterback chair looked like a "racing incident".

The lesson I learned here is that reputation, credibility, and the story you come up with don't really matter anymore when there are more GoPros on track than drivers
 
Curtis":2jfjry02 said:
I always figured that if I stuck my nose in like that I was going to get hit, and get hit every single time.
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OK enough of this. I’ll try to take the high road and state that I should have seen him and because I didn’t I paid dearly. My bad. Should he have been there? The stewards didn’t think so and they filed the action against Gordon. They felt it was an attempt at an unsafe pass, and I agree with them. If you don’t like the action or the outcome take it up with the stewards, not me.

If the roles were reversed I would not have been there nor would I expect the corner to be mine if I was, but that is just me. If you look at Gauper’s video you will see that in turn two I was up almost to Steve’s door, but I knew that he would need to clip the apex and got out of the throttle to give him room. This cost me a good run down to three and ultimately allowed Gordon inside of me.

The point at which you should expect and be allowed racing room is always debatable, and everyone has an opinion. With a light car like a Spridget you learn to know when to fold them. With a German tank, maybe not so much. I am told by a friend that Gordon is a good guy and therefore he shouldn’t be indicted on this web site. Neither should I, by the way.

I know that he didn’t do it on purpose because there is always the risk that you will be taken out as well. In the end he got away with it, save a reprimand and a point on his license, so don’t feel too sorry for him. The only real gripe I have with Gordon is he kept his foot in it and essentially plowed me out of the way. All of those that think it was a good move, I hope someone does it to you some day.

Anyway, my race was ruined by an unsafe passing attempt that I didn’t see coming. Let’s move on. This is getting tiresome. Also, I apologize for the poor attempt at humor with the Texas anecdote. And by the way I have raced for 42 years, and 41 of them have been free of first lap incidences and zero points on my license, so look into your own damn helmet Mr. Funk; regional guy.
 
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