I have issues with track day ‘only on the left’ rules. There is nothing worse than being stuck behind some high Hp monster driven by a point and squirt idiot who thinks he’s gods gift and never looks in his mirrors. I know You should just pull in or slow down and get a bit of space between you and the culprit, but if you are ‘in the zone’ it spoils a whole session. I have been taken off by mis interpretting a slower drivers (but faster in a straight line) drivers position on the track. I followed him for 2 laps, then he brakes 200 yds earlier than he ought to for a corner, so I think here is my open door. Then once I commited, he stopped braking, coasted and turned in on me, and I was in the weeds. He was under instruction at the time, but the instruction did not obviously include looking in your mirrors or track sense. So instructors can be as much at fault as anyone. I appologised to the driver for the near miss, but took umbridge with the instructor who came over to bollock me.
In my motorsport experience, marshalls tend to love it when they have something to do. It beats standing in the freezing cold sipping luke warm tea from a thermos. The last thing the want is an apology.
I think the main problems come from open pit lane events where novices can mix it with much fater drivers, and it is this disparity it experience, track sense, and speed that causes issues. But I like the freedom of open session events, so I make allowances, but sometimes in the heat of it we can make a bad call.
TDO’s have a fine line to tread, but some of them get it badly wrong on occasion.
Test days are for those testing, which I assume means those racing, which means that they have a race licence and must be prepared to take either a higher level or at least a different type of risk. Track days are not in the same league.
Unless what the track day organisers say at the briefing is incorrect, anyone testing on a trackday invalides the trackday insurance. Would love to know the implications of this for personal and property damage suffered on a day and wonder what your take is on invalidating this for the other 70 to 140 participating?
You were big on respect for the marshals but what about the participants?
The trackday rule is “overtake on the left, WITH consent”, not overtake on the left whenever you want to! Follow that, & crashes/offs won’t happen Yes, of course I’ve been held up by a numpty who either won’t look in, or ignores what he sees in his mirror. Yes it has annoyed me, & yes I have gone back to the pits shouting expletives, parked up, but by the time I’ve walked 50yds over to the TDO to complain, I’ve calmed down sufficiently to politely ask that the culprit is spoken to. (Parking 50 to 100 yards away from the TDO is a good tip in these circumstances )
So, if anyone wants to race, they should get a race licence & do test days, not trackdays.
And on that note, I will not post anymore on this thread - honest
Without sounding pious (I think I know what it means ) by your own admission you misinterpreted them so wasn’t the mistake that took you off yours not theirs? OK it was their mistake not to let you past if you were faster.
The golden rule is if you are not sure then wait.
I can remember being behind a car that braked far too early for a corner, nearly catching me out, only for it swerve around a Caterham front mudguard lying right on the racing line. From my position behind him, I could not see it but he clearly had.
There is a temptation for the red mist to come down but it does have to be resisted.
With regard to your issues with the left hand rule and a high hp monster, I’m willing to bet if he couldn’t get that very simple rule right then you would have been worse off if he had to understand the “going around” rule.
Everyone knows where the right hand side of the track is but many dont know the racing line to stay on.
At the time I was 100% sure that his manouvre was to let me past,or I would not have commited, but I was wrong. To safely pass, we must wait for the slower cars to pull off to the right, and indicate.
What my point is, is that it is not always the ego of the faster drivers that causes problems, but the ego of the slower driver who thinks he is much faster/better than he is, who wont let faster people past. In a race situation you would just drive past, but in the rules of track days this is not possible. I find that complete novices are not the problem, as they usually look behind more than forwards. The problem tends to lie with mediocre drivers who think they are much better than they are, and who in reality should know better.
I can’t understand the marshall thing at all… they’re there anyway. I haven’t tried to kill them, I haven’t wasted their time. If anything, I’ve given them something more interesting to do. I’ve had a couple of breakdowns on track and I’ve always said cheers to the marshalls for helping out (as you would) but to apologise to them all is a bit primary school.
I’d apologise to as many of my fellow trackdayers though, as it’s their track time I’m wasting.
As for easytrack, wouldn’t touch them with a bargepole. I complained about a car once who wasn’t letting anyone past (996 C4 who couldn’t drive). I got told I was in the wrong for wanting to get past him. I told Marcus that was nonsense and he should have blue flagged the guy. I got told not to come to another event. Errrrrrrrrrrrr
I’m surprised you you managed a reply as opposed to deleting the thread as you usually do when you are made to look an idiot.
I could respond to that and put you firmly in your place, but life is too short, this is a happy place and I would be lowering myself.
If you don’t like the way I run this site, leave. Please.
MYSQL must be feeling particularly shaky right now. Wouldn’t it be a tragedy for you if the last day of posts mysteriously disappeared… again?
Why don’t you just get on and ban me like you really want to? That way you can post rubbish about cornering downforce and jumped up Marshall�s to your hearts content with no obstruction.
Don�t flatter yourself about this website either. No, I don�t like the way you run this site. I post here because of the membership, amongst whom there are people who I like and respect and I hope that I make some sort of positive contribution to those people.
In retrospect maybe you should have just apologised for saying this: �Apologise to the marshalls ? Why should you need to do that ? They get paid… unless you’re apologising for making them work… I can understand you’d feel a bit sorry towards your fellow trackdayers for stopping their fun, but marshalls ? I’d have told Easytrack to get to f…�, but then I doubt your sensitive ego could have tolerated making an apology.
To be fair… I think you have got this out of all context…
Mr Admin made that quote in response to me saying the TDO (Easytrack) had asked ME to go apologise to the Marshalls because I had an off - I caused a stopped session it has to be said - So in this context only can you read his comment that you quote above… which is actually totally different to the emphasis that you have placed on it, ie its not a general ‘never apologise to Marshalls’ comment… but in this instance, they were simply doing their job and NONE of them was ever in ANY danger as a result of my excursion off the black stuff. The idea that I should apologise to them is pretty much BS… thank them maybe… but i did that anyway… would you like to be told to go and apologise to the Marshalls every time you had an off requiring them to pull you back onto the track ??.. exactly what value in that ?? its stupid and primary school as mentioned by others above.
In fact later on Mr Admin gets it bang on… I did go speak to the Marshall controlling entry to track from th epits and told him what I had been asked to do…he looked at me as if I was stupid (not surprising really)… we had a bit of a laugh about it and it never went any further but I will always associate it with Easytrack - is that a good thing ??.. additionally now everyone on here will also always associate it with Easytrack… not good.
Maybe should save your battle with Mr Admin for another day… you provide much of interest and value to exiges.com but sometimes it can get a bit SELOCy and it looks like youve ‘gone off on one’ in this thread
That’s what happens when you hang around the wrong kind of people, you start behaving very similarly.
Fair enough, at Seloc most people are like that so it’s just fair that they gather there. The same sort of attitute is not what this site is about.
I know he could make a valid point with his track experience, but only if given in a positive way. To each his own.
Has the weather turned this bad in the UK??? C’mon guys use the Sunday well. Get up early, take the car for an aggressive drive in the morning (it’s quite then anyway) and wash the dirt of it in the afternoon. You’ll feel a lot better.
Has the weather turned this bad in the UK??? C’mon guys use the Sunday well. Get up early, take the car for an aggressive drive in the morning (it’s quite then anyway) and wash the dirt of it in the afternoon. You’ll feel a lot better.