914 replies to this topic

[Prost1997T]

I think Justin Wilson himself wouldn't want the sport to be dumbed down in the process of being made safer. This wasn't an accident unique to oval racing, as many motorsport fans here know.

Unfortunately as you've said Jim, there will be the trolls that feel the need to assign blame or attack the sport as a whole.

[Red17]

I see signs like these in pretty much a lot of places when it comes to lower tier races. Oddly enough I never saw one of these on my many trips to Estoril to watch the big circus of MotoGP and F1 and certainly the TV media never reminds the audience that everyone and I mean EVERYONE, including John Doe sitting in the stands, is not 100% safe, you are only safe behind a TV screen but only as far as your stomach can take.

 

Even more odd is that when I watch a movie or fire up a game I get a age rating and warning about blood and other stuff that could be shocking to my brain.

 

Yes, any loss of life is bad, it's even more tragic when it's a case of just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But over reacting over it will not bring Justin back.

 

I started watching motorsports in the early 1980's by influence of my father, my father always made a point of explaning to me what I was seeing and always reminded me that very nasty things could happen, he was always very specific in saying that "People die doing this because they are always pushing". I don't recall the F1 1982 season but I do recall how devasted my father was when Toivonen died, today he still watches motorsport with the same passion he did when I was younger, he probably lost most of his racing icons judging by the names on this favourite list. But he is someone who understands.

 

But the public in general and the media in particular seem to be oblivious that going fast, assisted or not, IS dangerous and that there is no risk free policy, so we all embark into this mindless circus of asserting danger and the urgent need of adressing it, as if the level danger was not the same when the same series raced in other places like Texas or Indianapolis.

 

Getting safety measures in place is good, yes it's never a bad idea to keep improving and there are still many areas to clean up stupid omitions, I mean... Nascar talks highly about safer barriers, but turns out there are a lot of walls on the infield that have no safer barriers at all, how did we find out? Because a lot of people had nasty crashes in the infield walls recently. Unfortunatley that's how security works most of the time, people died in trees we built walls, tyres jumped the walls and killed people so we built fences and it goes on, and yep, things as big as an engine still find their way past a barrier these days on a FIA certified track like Daytona.

 

The problem is that each layer of safety you add comes with it's own layer of problems, new problems that are a by-product of the new safety measures. With so many layers of security in place now the door is wide open for freak accidents, the perfect storms that we keep being told are only possible to happen by 5% 4% or even 0,5%. It's bullocks! (well, of course anyone with a brain can see it, but the casual can't) See what happened when Nascar decided to slow down cars in Daytona and Talladega, an aparently simple idea that ended out birthing pack racing. Yet, the media and the average Joe are never told this, instead, they are feed the lie that "It's safe now".

 

Part of this is because racecraft is no longer important, what is important is that the pretty faces the public loves so much keep on winning, evolution is for nerds, sponsors could care less if the driver is hauling an undrivable pig for 70 laps. It's about fast consumption of a diva and the rush to find a quick replacement when the light fades out. Naturally the pretty picture get's ruined if an unlucky driver dies on track and it gets caught on camera, it's about "family entertainment" and that requires a nice clean sheet of events with a happy ending, maybe a throw here or there but always on the safe side to shed some boredom.

 

Sigh... but knee jerking will continue and the myriad of bad news Group B rallying got in that year and the turn around of how motorsport sanctions were "starting to get conscious about safety" will repeat itself again, then we all go happy again until the next driver dies and we all go back into bohoo mode followed by more bans and prohibitions when you can pretty much break your neck by tripping on the sidewalk or get run over by a drunk driver. It has been like this even before the Internet was a thing.

 

I never saw motorsports as a conscious thing, more the oposite, challenging the odds and being on the edge. Adding security is good, bad mouthing or flaming just for the sake of flaming is bad, rushing new layers of security without accounting for the bad consequences those measures bring up is even more bad.

 

I hope Indycar keeps it's head cold and braces the storm, the last thing this series needs is mindless experimentation.

 

Rant off.

Edited by Red17, 26 August 2015 - 18:30.

[Prost1997T]

Vautier penalised for the contact with Graham Rahal: http://www.racer.com...rash-with-rahal

Loses 3 points in the drivers' standings, fined and he'll be docked 2 hours of track time at Sonoma.

[Muppetmad]

Don't agree with that myself; that was a racing incident in my eyes.

[Prost1997T]

Don't agree with that myself; that was a racing incident in my eyes.

Eh, seemed like a late divebomb to me. Also, he was already on probation for hitting a crew member in the pits at Fontana.

[paulb]

Don't agree with that myself; that was a racing incident in my eyes.

Vaultier was not lying afterwards when he said that he was fully alongside Rahal. He almost got ahead of him.  Wouldn't the spotters have anything to say in this?  I detects a Rahal-darling tax in this one.

[Prost1997T]

Vautier had a full view of what was in front, it was a risky move from a long way back. I don't remember anyone successfully going three-wide at that corner. Turn 1, perhaps, but T3's racing groove is too narrow.

Edited by Prost1997T, 26 August 2015 - 20:25.

[Peat]

It seemed like such a pointless move (considering his pace and early point of the race) with desperately short odds of working. Going in late to make it 3 wide, in a corner with a barely 2-wide groove was simply bad judgement. 

Finally, factor in who he took out as a consequence and you'll only have a delicious ****-sandwich to go with your shake. 

[evo]

I hope Justin's name is never associated with what happened in Virginia. Apart from the tragedy that unfolded, news of his passing was being displayed on the ticker in the video clips online. I'd hate to think people would remember his name only because of this oddity.

RIP Virginia News Crew
RIP Justin Wilson

Edited by evo, 27 August 2015 - 11:28.

[Lotus72b]

     It took me a while to write this up because of Justin Wilson’s fatal accident. Now on Saturday, I missed the first twenty-five minutes because I had to watch F1 qualifying from Belgium. I didn’t take that many videos of the cars come from turn three or near the start/ finish line, but I got tons of pictures. Now with Coletti’s accident on the front straight, I was near turn one and walking to the Paddock area. Then I heard a big pop and turn my head and notice car in the wrong direction. I knew it wasn’t an engine problem so I thought it was gearbox or a broken half shaft. Then people got autographs & pictures with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Scott Dixon after they got out of the cars.

 

      I took some videos and pictures during break between practice & qualifying with the cars getting prep for qualifying. Then I check my watch it was noon. So I hustle to the other side of the track to get Mario Andretti’s autograph, but I was too late. So I went back to the garage area and notice Mario on his scooter going singing autographs and taking pictures with fans. I took some pictures and videos of Mario. So the last two years I saw AJ Foyt & Mario Andretti, Unbelievable! Later on before qualifying started one of Chip Ganassi crew members came over we started talking about hockey. I wore my Flyers hat and was a Penguins fan, crazy. Qualifying started I was between Bourdais & Power pits. I was talking to another race fan and we saw Will Power’s wife. Then the subject change and the fan brought the habit of Liz Power twisting her empty water bottle Will while leading. So he went over started to talk to her and I shook my head and they were laughing about that. I thought okay. Then Kimball had his big accident at turn three and all of the sudden the pits were silent, because everybody saw the big screen. Wow that was a big hit. Once they got the fence fix qualifying resume again with no major dramas with Helio on pole. After qualifying I left the track because my legs was done and went out to eat. If they have the race next year during qualifying I sit in the stands.

 

       Now to Sunday, it was beautiful day. Hardly any wind to speak of. I brought with me four bottles of water and a Ziploc bag of sour cream chips. The only things I brought from the track was some chicken breasts and souvenirs for family and co-workers. When I got to my seat I took some pictures of turn I, 2, & 3. My seat was between turn three and start/finish line. During the National Anthem they parachute the American Flag with sky divers. That was a great sight to see in person. When the race was supposed to get started, Helio jump the start twice and the crowd was ticked and started too boo a little. So when the race got underway it was intense to watch in person. Usually I watched this race on TV, but watching live was amazing. Seeing making bold passes especially around turns 2 & 3 was awesome. So when Vautier & Rahal crashed. After that Graham got out of the car to see Vautier, people wanted him to punch him. Crazy! Every time Sage made a pass or went to lead the crowd rose up and cheered. Then when Sage hit the wall I didn’t notice debris hitting Wilson until they show the big screen. I just shook my head and when the ambulance went from the crash scene to the helicopter. I knew it was bad. After the race took some pictures of victory podium and I left the track. I wasn’t in the mood to celebrate.

 

       So I was walking through the parking lots and traffic was jammed with people trying to get out. I was looking for my car for an hour. Until notice that I park my car further back then I thought and I was relieved. The one thing it was a bigger crowd then last year. I hope it will come back next year.

[Lotus72b]

How you post pictures in this thread?

[Afterburner]

How you post pictures in this thread?

You'll need to host them on an external website (photobucket or some such), and then link to them here with the following code, like this:

 

[img=http://92.ipfsnet.com/kg_america.jpg]

 

Which becomes:

 

 

Just replace my URL after the '=' with the one for your image (make sure you're actually linking to the image, not the web-page containing the image; the link should end in a file extension such as '.jpg' or '.png' or '.gif'). Then you're good to go! I think you can link up to twelve images in one post. The board should automatically resize most of the big ones.

[PayasYouRace]

If the code stuff is too much for you there's an "Image" button on the toolbar when you post, between the B I U S stuff and the text alignment stuff. You still need to host the image somewhere though.

[Lotus72b]

Thanks

[Lotus72b]

Garage area video

 

https://youtu.be/zoGcqwKM2-Q

 

Practice

 

https://youtu.be/F0BMWVw1skw

 

If that don't work try my youtube account Bluemoon95

 

I might have to try Flickr to upload some pictures.

Edited by Lotus72b, 04 September 2015 - 05:50.