Yeah, I saw some ramming and rear ending in the pits a few times, because everybody had to kinda guess when the car in front was going to stop.
I'd suggest a rule saying that when you pit, you should go to the furthest pit box available, and then fill up from the end of the pitlane to the start. Maybe have an exception being if your car is damaged to the point where driving to the end of the pitlane would be dangerous or impractical.
I hereby hand in a petition to exclude drivers which lack the basics of oval racing from the 2009 Kyoto 500.
Beeing interested in having proper racing with respective conditions you are asked to mind the fact that a considerable number of the NDR CART - participants appear to not be familiar with oval racing. Since the time remaining until the special event is too short for them to gain the necessary experience it is highly recommended to take precautions granting acceptable conditions for the professional competitors on oval race tracks.
Firstly you should be more worried about The Speedweeks 400. I am quite sure that people who do not have the sufficient skills to compete in the 500 will not
a) qualify
b) be allowed to race if they are deemed to be a hazard on track in the practise sessions.
This is exactly why the practise sessions are there, they are ment to give the admins a foresight on what not to let happen in the actual race. As the race is still far away I'm sure that some of the people you described will also lose interest in it, since they cannot be competitive.
As what comes to the 400, LFSCART competitors also must do a minimum of 2 Kyoto 500 practise sessions. Then it is up to the chairman Mr. Falkenberg if he decides to exclude any competitors, respectively.
Yours,
Timo Hynninen,
Media Person
New Dimension Racing
It is about oval events in genral. It would be most regretful and disappointing to see races beeing wasted by factors that could or better said should have been eliminated in the preceding period. In practice number 2 for instance you can see a process which is even more annoying than a crash: you have cars like 09, 24, ... driving in a way that
1. outrageously slows down the drivers next to them
2. does this because the other drivers are confused and in the same time must avoid accidents
3. finally causes accidents
Lap and Timecode: 13 to 14 (14:35:00)
Cars involved: 47, 66
Description of Incident: Race was under SC (Yes Realy!), 66 was hitting gas before green and pushed me into the wall!
No see if was you that we are worried about. You came up at least 2 racing lines and hit me. If you watch me from blimp view, I stay perfect on the white dotted line knowing that I had you and I forget who on the inside and rudy was passing me on the outside. There was at least 2 lanes between me and you because you came up the track and hit me.
As far as the blue flag, I knew I had it I didn't do anything wrong, In the oval you are going to have that a lot. All I am trying to do is race hard and get my lap back.
Ori,
With a little practice you can learn how to race the oval. Myself I didn't start racing the oval till probably this time last year. I would of started 5th in last years kyoto 500, after sitting on the pole for day 1. With still a month left to go and for everyone in LFSCart the speedweeks, there is plenty of time to learn the oval. And with 30 racers things are going to be nuts.
I had the most trouble last year with oval "experts" who seemed to make up their own set of rules - like don't overtake if you're the third car in the draft and nonsense like that. They then took it upon themselves to mete out their own punishments to the guys who did not do whatever passes for conduct on FM Oval Junkies.
In my opinion FM is what we should look up to. They actually are the measuring stick. Obviously their interpretation of oval racing is the best and various facts prove this.
The 3 car draft is tricky to learn. You have to over take as the 2nd guy over takes and you are all in the same spot so 1st car is the 1st or last car and the middle car is always the middle car and last car is either the 1 or last car.
Since there isn't a protest thread for session 3, I will make mine here.
Incident 1- Lap 5, during SC period, in pitlane
Car: 132
Reason: Delibarately turning into me, causing damage to my car, and spinning out another car in pitlane.
Please explain this sentence `cause I don`t understand it.
I don`t want to argue about our race paths, who did what, etc...
I`m really sorry for all the mess and would like to say that I`m going to be extra cautious in feature races.
Thanks for saying this, because my main concern was not to be excluded from any event for one mistake. Many others caused similar incidents, but nobody attack them or propose exclusion.
This was indicated as nit being a protest, but.....
Car 98, 6, 24, and 78 were close together in Turn 2. Car 24 was ahead, Car 78 was outside, 6 in middle, behind 24, and 98 inside. 6 got squeezed by Cars 78 and 98. 78 was in a decent place, but Car 98 could have left a bit more room for car 6. Unfortunately, the squeeze resulted in Car 101 spinning, and the closeness of the field at the start led to the rest of the carnage.
Car 98 however, is found to have played a larger role in the start of this, as he had some room to the inside. Car 98 is issued a WARNING for this.
CART's SpeedWeek's 400 race (which has obviously nothing to do with same named Magazin though when got noticed there is a magazin called like this I tried to catch them as race sponsors) competitors, or to be more precise possible competitors will be announced tomorrow. Possible competitors are those guys who have done the "participated races"-requirement. Then I also get my thoughts on it what would be the best solution.
looking for the "big brother" I think we should wait and see. I do not hope that it will be better then this past Practise Session, I actually think it will be better, as the top guys are crystalising out. Top guys are those who understand the oval, not those who are only quick. Those who understand it know, that it won't be enough to do only the two sessions because they must do it. Top Guys know that knowing the field will be a key factor to the succes, and not only to the succes of the commentators, obviously , but also to the racer's succes. I wanna remind you, every practice session you do will improve your driving and will help you to understand the Oval. "oval racing is just turning left (/right)" is the worst statement you can do in this and every other NDR governed Oval Event. Oval Racing is about knowing when to be where. And when people don't understand this, they will be forced to do extra Practice Sessions, until they understood it.
Anyways got a bit off topic here after I answered Timo.
Needed to give my thoughts room a bit.
This appears to be a misjudgement on Car 26's part, thinking that Car 24 was further down the track or further behind than he really was. There was no evidence of looking to see where cars were. This incident results in a WARNING to car 26 - future repetitions of this type of incident will result in a Monitoring Penalty.
Car 71 appears to make no effort to take the kink, and go in a direction that would take him to the outside wall. Car 45 turns to take the kink, but the path of 71 makes the two meet. Car 71 is issued a WARNING for his role in this incident. Further incidents of this type may result in a Monitoring Penalty.
Car 81's car appears to develop an understeer, but the driver makes no visible effort to correct this, and continues his slide out into Car 88. Cars 81 and 88 contact, and 88 slides up into 4, setting off the chain-reaction.
Car 81 is issued a WARNING for this, and should remember to be aware of all cars around. Future occurences of this nature may result in a Monitoring Penalty.
Just a side note...I'm going through these all one at a time, and assigning what penalty I would give for just that incident. After I knock out all of them, I'll do any aggregation I need to.
Most NDR events say that you have to travel to the furthest available pit stall, but I prefer this rule just because it's a bit easier and that rule was completely and utterly ignored anyway.
BTW:
Haven't the races been 45 laps so far? Nitpickiiing!