50 replies to this topic

[Jim Boemler]

Glad you said it first -- looked a bit like two rookie mistakes. Wish I was able to see you race (or be out there WITH you), Dani -- great that you're taking up the Ferrara banner.

[Mark Lenney]

Well, after watching Dani's well put statement in the PIR vid, "the car ahead and the car behind"....that was me during race 2 after everybody patched her car back together...and here is vid of race 2, with her bruised up car doing just fine thank you, and me making a few too many mistakes to keep it interesting as she scoots away....

[William Bonsell]

Nice video Mark....I saw the GoPro in the mirror, but what program are you using for editing. Liked the Lap counting and the running PIR track map. The white gauge on the left kept jumping- not sure if it is water temp or oil pressure. Remember, if you move down low in T7 to initiate a pass attempt, you're going to have to drop to 2nd gear and make a fast crisp upshift to third upon exit if you want that pass attempt to have any chances of success as you head down the back straight into 10....Nice save exiting 2 towards the end.

Hope to see you at The Ridge late July. Inside of car looks great. Anxious to see the rest.

Bill-

[Kyle Keenan]

Very cool add-ons to your video Mark, thanks for posting it! Also curious as to what software you're using.

[Dani Ferrara]

Thanks for posting up the video Mark! It was fun racing with you on Sunday! I hope we can do it again sometime

[SM Tom]

Fianlly found my log on and password...I haven't been on the forum for months...maybe a year.

It was a great group of SM driver this weekend and a lot of good racing. I would say Kyle had awesomeracing and may have had the most fun. Dani had a very much up, down and up again weekend...but she ran very well, kept her head in the game after the accident, and had the biggest smile by the end of Sunday's race. Mark, it looks like you also had a good time out there...and thanks for posting the video...it was nice to be able to watch you and Dani racing together...2 new racers doing what they should and keeping it clean. I look forward to watching both of you move up the field:)

Tom

[SM Tom]

I'm sure my next post will be considered bias since it is regarding Dani's(my daughter) contact between T3 & T4, but I assure you it is not. I don't want anything more than for her to race safe and do well and critique is important part of the process to obtain both. So here's my opinion after reviewing video, discussing the incident with Dani and corner workers, and the conversation that Dani had with the other driver.

1) Contact should always be avoided when ever possible. In this particular incident the driver coming up from the rear had the best opportunity to do this...lift, brake or put a couple of wheels in the dirt if necessary...but contact was NOT the correct decission. Could have Dani given him a few more inches...YES...but this is racing and she was doing what racers do and kept a defensive line. I think in this situation I would have given a few more inches as going into T4 the inside line is awesome and if the other driver wanted to take a very outside line through T4 he would most likely have spun off(as I learned from personal experience years ago). So more experience would have led to leaving a little more room and it would have paid off.

2) KNOW WHO YOU ARE RACING NEXT TO...AND REMEMBER WHAT YOU ARE RACING FOR! Plastic trophy's don't make up for expensive repairs. And since the speed around that part of the track is about 70MPH and impact was with an unprotected concrete wall...Thank god there were no injuries!!!

3) The other driver had said that he was "afraid" he would spin if goes into the dirt...REALLY??? I guess some education would help. Dani who only has a hand full of races knows that dirt is okay...and that driving 2 or 4 wheels off while going straight is nothing more than a bumpy ride. Kyle had to do that in the exact same place that weekend...he chose the dirt and lived to fight for position in another turn/another lap! I ask why a driver making a pass where he is uncomfortable continues to do so instead of backing out of it. In this case there were no sudden movements and there was more than enough opportunity to back out of it.

4) We didn't seek out the opinion of the corner worker who voluntarily stopped by the paddock Sat evening. In his words he was very concerned with what had happened to cause that incident. At the workers BBQ that evening he was expressing his deep concern about the incident to the other corner workers. It just happened that my wife and son were nearby and over heard him. She introduced herself. He told her he would like to talk with Dani to let her know what he saw. She told him he can find us at our paddock trying to put the car back together for tomorrow's race. This was his what he said to my daughter as I listened; I was one the T1 corner workers and my job was to look up track. I saw the the red car coming up and trying to pass on the outside. Normally I don't follow follow the action down track when my job was to watch up track but due to the actions of the red car and bad choices he made as he tried to pass Dani's car he decided to follow the action as there were no other cars to watch out for up track. He followed the 2 cars (the red car in the rear and Dani's gren car in front) through T2 and T3. He said he immediately had a feeling something bad was going to happen. He said the red car went on the outside to attempt a pass coming out of T3 and put himself in a tight place. And then it happened...the red car turned into the green car...and quote from the corner worker..."IT LOOKED LIKE HE TURNED INTO HER ON PURPOSE" ...he continued to say that if they would have allowed him to sign off on the report for the T4 corner workers, this would be the first time ever he would have! For those that don't know the track, the T1 station is in line with the track and the T4 station so the view from the rear of the incident was clear. The corner worker's statement corresponds with the passing driver's statement of 'afraid I would spin if I went into the dirt'. I was in the stands at the chicane and when I saw the incident and to me it looked like he turned into Dani...but at that distance and angle it is hard to know. Dani's immediate response in impound(helmet still on) was "he turned into me." (BTW, the corner worker also a race car driver). Watch the in car video for Dani's car and you will see she was very aware there was a car on her left rear. She looked in the drivers side mirror twice once shortly before the contact...and you will see the steering wheel was kept straight and possibly nudging to the right, and she looked in the mirror the second time a split second before contact...and that's where she saw the red car turn into her. 5) Dani decided not to protest the other driver as the SCCA official point blank said to her we "you know we prefer you don't file a protest and work it out between each other." As she has witnessed with other driver protest in the past it usually waste a lot of time with both drivers losing(again, a discouragment to protesting). I agreed with her assessment not to protest and her wisdom that we really needed that time to repair the car.

IN THE END; Dani, leave the person an extra inch or 2 to go on and fight in anther corner. Of course if this was for a podium postion on the last lap... For the other drive who is new to SM and racing but supposively has a lot of track time and I heard an instructor at a local club:( , go back and learn what to do and what not to do on track, really...dirt is okay, and contact is NOT! Tom SM #00

[Jim Boemler]

Great assessment, Tom. I do think you're being just a little hard on the other driver, though. Coming from a lapping background, dirt is the thing they're focused on avoiding -- after all, there aren't any other cars that close. I'd see it as just one of those things that happens before experience comes around, and Dani probably has more racing "background" to draw on. She would have been fine with a veteran driver behind her, but she didn't have the experience to know to allow more for the other inexperienced driver. Kudos to her for avoiding the protest, which has been the local custom.

[SM Tom]

Jim,

Ha, and I thought I was being easy on him...there was more but I really tried to stick to the point. I understand the fear some inexperienced drivers have of having an off course excursion but this driver had 3 other choices...don't go there in the first place, lift, brake... all which have negatted the situation that lead up to his fear of going off course.

I liked the days when you and I ran side by side, turn after turn, lap after lap and never had anything other than a good hard/fun race. MAybe you and I will race side by side again one day .

This was a definite eye openner and learning experience for Dani. I was glad to see her get back on track with a broken car and race confidently.

Tom

[SM Tom]

The SM family of racers ARE THE BEST!!!

With the condition of Dani's car after the wreck you wouldn't think the car was going to have a chance of racing on Sunday. Many said the car couldn't be fixed at the track and race the next day. And there was a few couple of people who said it can be done...and with the experience of those who have repaired undrivable cars, the car came back together and was able to race. So many contributed to repair, like Mike Niday with his experience to pull a car staight, Kevin Keenan for staying very late on Sat until we were able to piece the car back together, Kyle for his support and ideas, Jan for her support, Keith and Will for getting me some miscellaneous screws and such, Ken for lending me some tools(did you know that Ken?), Bruce for crawling under the car and helping me figure out what was going on as some things didn't fit, safety worker for lending me a tool, the SCCA volunteers who dropped off color matching duct tape, appreciated the numerous offers from so and many people to help make sure the car was ready for the track, track officials for allowing a hardship lap to make sure we had a reliable car, and Dani for believing we made the car safe and drivable. I'm sure I left out some but defimnitely NOT intentionally.

Thank you everyone for making ths another great weekend at the races

Tom
SM #00

[Jim Boemler]

I'd love to race with you again, Tom -- those were good times.