Hey Ant,
Ok, if there is an overlap of an over taking car and the overlap is about half then the guy doing the passing has rights to the corner....
this is what is stated EVERYWHERE, however, what is not commonly stated is the next bit....
...at this point the guy who is being passed also has rights to the corner.
so at this stage both of you have rights (still with me?)
at this point you BOTH has a duty to make it through the corner.
The guy on the outside has to give the APEX of the corner to the guy on the inside. If you don't give him the apex then there is no way that he can make the corner and will crash.
If that happens that would be the fault of the guy who was on the outside.
Similarly the reverse is true.
The guy on the inside that is along side you has the duty to give the guy on the outside a line that he can drive too (meaning the guy on the inside has to give a car's width on the outside for his competitor to remain on the track. (still with me?)
So ok, we look at the incident in question turn 1 lap 2.
Tongey has the inside but is clearly not passed you
You are on the outside with Tongey somewhere on your inside.
Now you have the duty to give Tongey the apex of the corner, whilst Tongey has to give you the apron (outside) for this to be fair.
Now as you turned in at your normal turnin spot there was no way that there was going to be a cars width at the apex for tongey to take, there for in that specific incident you are too blame.
if you had left a gap for tongey then as you went through the chicane, if tongey then did run the normal line across to the left hand kerb, he would have run you off the run therefore then if the accident had happened then TONGEY would have been to blame for not letting you have the apron which is your rights.
(Still with me?)
I hope that explains the situation better.
Regarding your questioning of the rights, you are perfectly entilted to, however in the heat of a race you can not determine at what point the opponent is, for instance i don't think that you knew exactly where Tongey was therefore how could you have told whether he had the rights to the corner?
Basically you have to use common sense, most accidents ARE avoidable, would it have really been that bad to have turned in a few meters later just to make sure?
The other thing that was mentioned was about the point in the race and the posisitioning of the pass.
Personally i see no wrong in either, you were slower down the straght and tongey was all over you. if it was me and i have seen that you'd make a mistake and i was along side you (bearing in mind that in qualifying you were much quicker than Tongey) that might have been my only oppotunity in the race and as my car was alongside you i would have every intention on making a pass.
Sure we both would have probalby been slower through the corner but thats racing. Passing and battleing means you can not drive 'hotlap' lines and is part of racing and thus also distinguishes it from time trialing or hot lapping events.
Hopefully you see my logic here and understand what we have done and why we have done it.
I strongly beleive that most leagues are opperating the same rules
Regards,
Dru.