[MFE]

...Or a black flag, or even a red flag. You don't just stand on the brakes, there are people behind you, and even if they see you, their brakes may not be as good as yours. The Legends driver saw the yellow, and backed off. The Vette driver didn't see it until later, and probably had the "no passing under yellow" fear of God put in him, and the Miata driver arguably wasn't looking far enough ahead either. Still no excuse to drop anchor like that.


http://vimeo.com/64116530


The jist of most organizations' flag rules say:

Standing Yellow: Slow down. Danger ahead. No passing until completely past the incident, or until past next manned flag station that is not displaying any Yellow Flag.

Waving Yellow Flag - Great danger, slow down. Be prepared to stop. No passing until completely past the incident, or until past the next manned flag station that is not displaying any Yellow Flag. They do not say "stand on the brakes".

Double Yellow Flags, aka Full Course Yellow: Be prepared to encounter a Pace Car and/or emergency vehicles. Drivers
should not significantly slow down. No passing.

Red Flag - Emergency. Come to an immediate and controlled stop on the side of the track in a safe location.

Even in this case, standing on the brakes is a problem. Drivers encountering a red flag should be aware of their surroundings as they slow the car to a stop as soon as possible without causing a pileup behind them.

A Public Service Announcement...

 

[todds87ss]

the expression "Duh" comes to mind.
As does the rule - keep your eyes open, and on the other drivers.
Sure, the vette driver slowed too quickly and too much based on what I can see, but it is ALWAYS the guy behind who has the chance to swerve or brake.

 

[r1owner]

WOW! Yeah, that's a good training video right there.

The irony is the car (that caused the yellow) was totally off the line and all he had to do was maintain his and he would of been fine.

I remember watching numerous people follow a downed rider right off the track when I used to race motorcycles. Instead of looking where they wanted to go they looked down at him or his bike and followed him right off the track.

 

[Radrace19]

I remember watching numerous people follow a downed rider right off the track when I used to race motorcycles. Instead of looking where they wanted to go they looked down at him or his bike and followed him right off the track.

I have done exactly that once. It is pretty easy to do when your pretty new at it I felt like a dumb ass. I was even slowing down and could have made the turn easily :soapbox:

WOW indeed.

 

[r1owner]

It is easy to do. I remember watching a guy slide in between my bike and the one next to me into the grass, but only out of my peripheral vision. When racing I seemed to be able to not target fixate.

Daily driving though I think I get lulled into a sense of complacency and tend to look at what I'm trying to avoid...

 

[Bob the Noob]

Things like this make me seriously reconsider wanting to do a track day...

 

[brad02ss]

Things like this are kept from my wife so she thinks track days are perfectly safe. Lol
I still think you're more likely to wreck on public roads.

 

[courtroom19]

Things like this make me seriously reconsider wanting to do a track day...

X2...Things like this are the reason I won't do one.

 

[ExpLiciTSainT]

Things like this make me seriously reconsider wanting to do a track day...

That's a C level session. People drive further a part in B and A. I would adjust it to say, it makes me reconsider C group. lol

 

[todds87ss]

That's a C level session. People drive further a part in B and A. I would adjust it to say, it makes me reconsider C group. lol

this.

 

[Bob the Noob]

I'm guessing group is based on driver skill and not the car? Anyone have a link to something we can read up on it?

 

[r1owner]

Almost all trackdays are based on skill. Yet you always get the guy that thinks he's better than entry level so he goes up a level and slows everyone down.

Witness me passing a Gallardo in my G8.

 

[Bob the Noob]

It probly depends on the track, but is drifting around corners acceptable or considered "losing control"?

 

[r1owner]

You can drift and still be in control.

 

[todds87ss]

It probly depends on the track, but is drifting around corners acceptable or considered "losing control"?

off track is "out of control" (as is trading paint).

 

[MFE]

You can hang the tail out all the way through the corner if you want, and probably get cheered in the process, but drifting in the Tokyo sense isn't going to win any support from organizers or particiapants at a typical track day, because it often involves going way off the racing line to set the car up for the drift, and because it's inherently more spin-prone.

 

[r1owner]

You can hang the tail out all the way through the corner if you want, and probably get cheered in the process, but drifting in the Tokyo sense isn't going to win any support from organizers or particiapants at a typical track day, because it often involves going way off the racing line to set the car up for the drift, and because it's inherently more spin-prone.

True about the drifting and there are events specifically for drifting around here.

 

[NYGXP47]

The Corvette driver stopped way to fast causing the conflict of vehicles (this is what the DOT calls it).

In HPDE schools, they teach you to look ahead all the time. I have driven many laps at Watkins Glen and we lose one car each track day to stupid things like this including oil on the track from the car in front of you and mechanical failure of your vehicle.

This is exactly why I do this kind of driving...on the edge. What else is there in life if you can't feel your heart beat out of your chest driving your G8.

Some have it and some don't. No right or wrong answer just how your built.

 

[bracketracer]

The Corvette driver stopped way to fast causing the conflict of vehicles (this is what the DOT calls it).

In HPDE schools, they teach you to look ahead all the time. I have driven many laps at Watkins Glen and we lose one car each track day to stupid things like this including oil on the track from the car in front of you and mechanical failure of your vehicle.

This is exactly why I do this kind of driving...on the edge. What else is there in life if you can't feel your heart beat out of your chest driving your G8.

Some have it and some don't. No right or wrong answer just how your built.

I used to fear track days until I did one last year at Road America in my GXP. I raced in Group D (Novice) with an instructor driver, listened to his advice and learned alot. By the end of the day I managed a 2:59 lap on the 4.5 mile course. I was lucky that of the nearly 30 cars in my class, everyone did pretty well. Noone in our class went off track, and there were no incidents. Now I can't wait for my upcoming return to Road America on May 5! I will always be a diehard drag racer, but the G8 GXP was just made for the road course. It's the ultimate G8 GXP experience!

 

[JHew84]

You can hang the tail out all the way through the corner if you want, and probably get cheered in the process, but drifting in the Tokyo sense isn't going to win any support from organizers or particiapants at a typical track day, because it often involves going way off the racing line to set the car up for the drift, and because it's inherently more spin-prone.

Should be noted this is not a universal truth. Some road courses charge a clean up fee for people out horsing around. If you leave rubber from a drift or excessive tire spinning they measure the patch and charge you by the foot haha. But I've seen people make pre-arrangements with those tracks for drifting. I've also seen quite a few people thrown out of track days for drifting, it's generally not well received when people are trying to learn or turn out decent laps.