Will-I appreciate you participating in our forum and offering input. Unfortunately I am still extremely bothered by the one problem Legends car from last weekend and NASA's handling of it.
Will, you stated the issue with the Legends car was a driver training issue. This driver was repeatedly black flagged and I believe kicked out of the test day by MSR Cresson staff. Immediately upon seeing them in our group for qualifying I signaled to our race director to alert him to a dangerous issue with that particular Legends car and specifically told our RD that it did not need to be in our group. I was told it would be looked into and discussed. Yet throughout the weekend the problem was not addressed even though it sounds like others made complaints. I don't think it's my job or responsibility to try and address this type of situation after the RD has already been alerted. I agree with Pranav that we have been told not to approach the driver and let the RD handle it.
My issue was first that nothing was done to correct a problem. Second that the problem potentially caused me to lose my first race and created a situation where it appeared a close call was made on a pass of the Legends car. (This is why I was so ticked and not my normal self after the race at the impound). Then Will says the most important thing is they are addressed at the track during the event which obviously wasn't done. Then we get yelled at by our RD for racing while the emergency vehicle is on track even though there wasn't a yellow flag for awhile. If the yellow isn't out then people are going to either try and pass cars or try to keep from getting passed-throw the yellow to protect everyone please. I relaxed in the garage with some music and was good until this thread.
Based on Wills comments now I really question either the licensing process with regards to the problem Legends car or the recognizing of whatever license was used. Will stated it was a driver training issue but how can one get a license that is that unaware of what is going on around them and that far off pace? I had planned to follow up off line with our RD about this whole issue but since it has been brought up in the group I would appreciate some response. I reported the issue to our RD and don't feel it's my job to go find a particular driver to ask them why they are so slow and don't know what is going on anywhere on track. Understand in Friday's practice there were several close wrecks due to this Legends car due to braking at the late uphill apex at Wagon Wheel, braking at the apex of Ricochet, moving back and forth on the only allowed passing areas of the straights, not letting faster cars by in the straights by gassing it on the straight with a 6 car train behind it, etc.
Will-I guess I didn't do everything to try and take advantage of the slower Legends car as I didn't want to be anywhere near the car and my concern for safety by giving the car plenty of room while passing on the straight allowed another car to gain a position on me. I'll have to give it more thought as to whether that is what I would do in the future or if I should just look elsewhere. I think there may have been a wreck on Saturday based upon this line of thinking. I had already totaled one car in the same spot due to a car being out of control. That's why I enjoyed your article http://www.windingroad.com/articles/...off-the-track/
Tyler brings up a good point about how we wreck the other groups racing and hearing if they have any suggestions on how each race group should work together. Tyler is also right at a 20 minute race compared to a 1,500 minute race just isn't a fair comparison especially on a tight track with limited passing areas for cars of similar power/lap times.
The RX7's and rest of the Legends field were wonderful to race with. Heck-I even checked Racing Junk Monday night to see how much the Legends cars were as I talked to Jerry that might be fun to race in along with not needing a huge trailer/truck. I complimented the RX7's in our Sunday drivers meeting and stopped to pay a compliment to the Legends racers after R4 as I massaged pace to try and ensure the top three were able to pass me easy in the straights without slowing any of them down while giving a point by.
Now that I have stated all my issues-how might the rest of the group move forward. Is there a chance that since this is considered gentlemen racing that we wouldn't attempt to take advantage of passing a car in front of us due to passing a much slower car? (The issue with that isn't always the car in the middle but the car in the back which may not be aware of why they are suddenly able to catch the car in front of them due to others lifting). I told the RX7 guys as I saw them gathered that they need to come have a beer with us sat. night. I think both of the groups could fit in well as they look the most similar to our group hanging out together and working on each others cars.
