Rolex 24hrs of Daytona

[mitchntx]

Thank goodness road racing has returned once again.
I love this stuff ...


But his was bad ... big wreck with Memo Gidley (Prototype) hitting Matteo Malucelli (Ferrari)

<span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">


Not good.

 

[robertc1024]

Ouch.

 

[mitchntx]

An hour under red flag.

 

[tXfactor]

There's no excuse for how long that red flag took.

 

[T-FAST]

It's only online right now right?

 

[mitchntx]

Fox Sports 2 till 10pm, then on IMSA.com

 

[tXfactor]

They finish it off tomorrow morning on Fox Sports 1 I believe.

 

[mitchntx]

There's no excuse for how long that red flag took.

I was racing with NASA the weekend Greg Bruder died after a wreck at Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, Tx.
I was more than willing to let the track and safety crew take their time.

Not saying either Memo or Matteo have passed, just the shot of the front of the car right after the accident was really bad.
The car was gone from the base of the windshield forward ... gone.

Rushing to resume racing was not a priority.

 

[tXfactor]

The track was clear and barriers were rebuilt long before the restart. Clearly it was a smooth merge into USCC. They're really on the ball.

The safety crew can take all the time they want, but once the drivers were transported to the hospital it shouldn't have taken this long to get back to green. But the corner workers weren't in any hurry to wave a local yellow either...

 

[mitchntx]

I will say it took way too long to go full red.

Cars should have been stopped at the S/F line immediately after the wreck.
Too many cars passed the scene and were stacked up behind (and in full view of) the accident scene.

Corner worker speed is relative to the amount of debris and the expanse of the debris field.
1/3 of the Memo's car had disintegrated. All those shards of metal, plastic, fasteners and carbon fibre took a while to clean up.

Also, because some cars were stopped and others went passed the scoring line, timing and scoring had a huge task getting 80 cars in 4 classes sorted. It's also a merged series, new people doing new things first race.

 

[mitchntx]

The delta wing car is wicked crazy wild looking ..

 

[Glockster69]

Not saying either Memo or Matteo have passed, ...

"Both drivers conscious and alert" just announced.

Pretty cool/respectable they held off showing replays until that was confirmed.

 

[mitchntx]

Good news indeed.

 

[tXfactor]

I will say it took way too long to go full red.

I will agree with this.

Corner worker speed is relative to the amount of debris and the expanse of the debris field.

I was referring to how slowly they responded to the Ferrari which had slowed nearly to a halt, and yet there was no local yellow flying.

Also, because some cars were stopped and others went passed the scoring line, timing and scoring had a huge task getting 80 cars in 4 classes sorted. It's also a merged series, new people doing new things first race.

The ball was dropped for sure. At the pro level, this level of confusion and disorganization is unacceptable, regardless of the recent merge. I've been to enough amateur and semi-pro races where mere volunteers could've handled this better.

 

[mitchntx]

Everything looks easy from the grand stands.

 

[tXfactor]

Lol ok. I race w2w with NASA and instruct at TWS and COTA.

 

[mitchntx]

I raced with NASA for 10 years and have instructed with Texas Driving Experience, NASA, The Drivers Edge and Acme.
I've worked grid for the Vette club of Dallas and worked corners with SCCA and NASA at TMS, MSR-C, MSR-H, TWS, ECR and H2.

I crew chiefed a CMC Camaro to two class and one overall endurance race wins at TWS under NASA.
That's right, a big ole V8 Camaro out gas mileaged a gaggle of MER Miatas.
And I chiefed the same Camaro to a National Championship at Mid-Ohio.

I also crewed on Lou Gigliotti's C5 and C6 World Challenge Vettes.

Finally I won two regional NASA CMC championships behind the wheel.

 

[vmax]

Colin Braun is leading PC class, got them covered.

He was raised in Tuscola TX! His dad still lives there, and we are very familiar with them, they are just not home that much because of racing. Colin's Dad Jeff is a very well respected race engineer who used to build cars for Alan Kulwiki.

When they get together for the holidays we can hear them running their Razors on the ranch.. they are good folks

Colin also shattered the record at Daytona back last fall with that Ford Eco Boost

 

[vmax]

that call for avoidable contact was BS and needs to be reversed

 

[tXfactor]

Bullshit "avoidable contact" call on that GT-D Ferrari. Not surprised, with the way the officials have run the last 23.5hrs...