Should this guy still have a racing license? Fun cup spa

[pw75]

Saw it on sky last week and someone's already posted it on youtube. Words fail me. Maybe the kemmel straight isn't straight enough. The interview with Phil Martindale afterwards was less than convincing. I'd be pretty pissed if he drove into me like that.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlayYzfqndI

[anonymous-user]

cant see many waved yellows around, as its approaching a corner maybe he has just pulled out from behind someone and is now looking in his left hand mirror? seems odd but anyone who has been in hte heat of a racing battle be it karting or f1 knows about situation awareness and how lack of it can result in incidents like this....

[pw75]

he's about 1/2 mile away from a corner...!! I reckon thats half way down the kemmel straight

[lewis1]

poor driving, thats like half way down the straight when you see it at the start with the camera zoomed out.

Should of gone to specsavers.

[lozriva]

lol, i would think no! he shouldn't!

[sam919]

the white car is stationary, if he thinks its still moving and is concentrating on the guys to his left he's probably thinking to get up behind the white car in its slipstream to pull him up the straight a bit. There does seem to be a lack of yellow flags around, mind you the past few races ive been to the marshalls werent the best.
A bit unlucky for both driver and the guy who now has more technical issues than when he got out of the car

[BenElliottRacing]

at 5 secs in a white car is in the tow of the car that has the accident. He's moved right to defend. at 6-7 secs the white car moves to the left (right as we see it). out of mirror shot. He's probably trying to figure out where the white car has gone.

Ok he's not the best but this is a small lapse of concentration whilst distracted by the car behind. We have all had moments where we have all made mistakes.

Edited by BenElliottRacing on Sunday 23 August 19:46

[1]

BenElliottRacing said:

Ok he's not the best but this is a small lapse of concentration whilst distracted by the car behind. We have all had moments where we have all made mistakes.

Especially in a 25 hour race. Any idea when in the race this happened?

[pw75]

1 hour in!

[Graham]

Unfortunate, but you dont expect to see a stationary car in the middle of traffic..

[refoman2]

a perfect example of what happens when driving and talking on a mobile!

[Dave Brand]

sam919 said:

There does seem to be a lack of yellow flags around, mind you the past few races ive been to the marshalls werent the best.

Was the flag point covering the stationary car visible on the video? I'd suggest that a driver who doesn't see a car directly in front of him on the track probably wouldn't have seen a yellow flag to one side, well off the track. . .

Maybe you'd like to elaborate on where the marshals weren't the best?

[kg55]

Typical fun cup "incident" i used to race in the uk series and got out halfway through last season. You can see why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! our car got hit in every race we entered, and cost a fortune in repair work.

[sam919]

Dave Brand said:

sam919 said:

There does seem to be a lack of yellow flags around, mind you the past few races ive been to the marshalls werent the best.

Was the flag point covering the stationary car visible on the video? I'd suggest that a driver who doesn't see a car directly in front of him on the track probably wouldn't have seen a yellow flag to one side, well off the track. . .

Maybe you'd like to elaborate on where the marshals weren't the best?

So a driver is more likley to react to a car thats part of the race that he thinks is moving but isnt rather than a waving yellow flag, yellow being the most visible color in the spectrum to the human eye!?

I take it your a marshall?

[Dave Brand]

sam919 said:

So a driver is more likley to react to a car thats part of the race that he thinks is moving but isnt rather than a waving yellow flag, yellow being the most visible color in the spectrum to the human eye!?

It's not quite that simple - position relative to the driver plays a large part in it. It's always dangerous making a judgement based on evidence from just one viewpoint, but in this instance it appears that the stationary car was well off-line. Look at the start of the video & you'll see, around five seconds, that there was another car close behind the one that hit the stationary car. Did he move over to let that car past? Was he so intent on looking in his mirrors that he didn't see the stationary car until it was too late? If that's the case, he may well have missed any yellow flags, or indeed white flags which may have been displayed.

sam919 said:

I take it your a marshall?

I'm a marshal, which is why I'm trying to take an impartial stance on this.

Edited by Dave Brand on Tuesday 1st September 16:16

Edited by Dave Brand on Tuesday 1st September 16:16

Edited by Dave Brand on Tuesday 1st September 16:17

[Mr_Thyroid]

Listen to the commentator - he immediately says 'that's a bit dangerous'. Why didn't the white car pull onto the grass?

White car is more at fault in my humble opinion.

[sam919]

Its a racing incident, who knows what the guy was thinking, but there sometimes isnt such a thing as a line when racing its always changing. He made a mistake, its not the first and it wont be the last, should various F1 drivers who drove into there pit crew have there licenses questioned?

[pw75]

sam919 said:

Its a racing incident, who knows what the guy was thinking, but there sometimes isnt such a thing as a line when racing its always changing. He made a mistake, its not the first and it wont be the last, should various F1 drivers who drove into there pit crew have there licenses questioned?

well, technically correct, they were racing and there was an incident, but in the terminology its normally employed, as in unavoidable, no one's directly to blame I'm sorry I couldn't disagree more strongly.

and what has overshooting a breaking zone in the pits by fractions of metre have any bearing on driving into a near stationary car on a straight thats about 1km long?

[sam919]

Perhaps the wording of the topic should be "this guy shouldnt have a racing license", rather than asking should he?


www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnCsG0DlXkU&NR=1

Edited by sam919 on Tuesday 1st September 23:18

[pw75]

granted that was pretty stupid but not life threatenly dangerous.......and thats really the difference..........