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Blethen's,
I have the tape of your fathers incident, looks like the truck turned into your father. The tape is not conclusive as there are a few vehicles between me and the accident.
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Nick Leverone
04 ITS Mazda Rx-7
www.flatout-motorsports.com
Nick-
Great to hear someone says that!!! I would love to see the video as my father’s in-car video was turned on incorrectly...
I heard someone say that my father was "to aggressive." Oh and the truck driver also told me: “Your father is a (insert F word hear followed by A word).” I wanted to kick the crap out of the jerk…
I get so frustrated watching any of the "Big Bore" groups as most (not all) but most of the drivers have no idea how to drive... What I mean is for instance in this accident how is it possible for n AS car (running on street tires) to be passing a Nascar truck (running on slicks with twice the power and suspension) on the outside of a any turn, never mind west bend??? Obviously this guy has no idea how to drive. I almost don’t care who’s fault the accident was, as I do not think either one did anything intentionally to the other… My dad is not stupid enough to hit someone intentionally on the second lap of the race at the exit of west bend… he isn’t on a suicide mission, and I am also sure that the truck drivers lack of driving skills is not intentional either… This however does bring up a huge issue with me that I have held in for a long time…
I wish never to run in a "GT" regional race... this is how it goes...
First there are people who have way too much money.
They want to drive a race car, but don't realize that they can't race...
They bring their big bad fast race cars and fly down the striates stand on the brakes go slower than a slow ITB car through the turns then stand on the gas again...
They haven’t got a clue how to drive and are more of a hazard on the road than any IT driver I have ever seen.
I don't think it is tough to turn 1:02's at Lime Rock with a car that is capable of 56's or 57's
Then wait a full course caution comes out... We now have the drivers who go about 20mph when the pace car is doing 35mph on the other side of the track waiting for the cars to catch up... Little does the pace car realize that the drivers are still going about as fast as they can go.... They just still haven’t figured out how to drive... and or the pace car doesn’t realize that the driver could give a hoot if he/she catches up because they realize that they are the only car in class and they don’t have to catch up, they will win anyway… they have absolutely no consideration at all for the other drivers races that are following. It completely disgusts me.
I hate that “IT Drivers” have a reputation for driving bad when in actuality we (almost all IT drivers) are far better drivers than the majority of other racers at a regional event. Just because we actually race each other and we are willing to go 2 wide in any turn, and once in a while we have an accident, doesn’t mean that we are bad drivers… watch or better yet run with some “big Bore’ cars in an open practice, see how annoyed you get…
My respect goes to all of the ITS drivers who actually looked past these issues and enjoyed last weekends race.
I might have pissed off some people for saying these things, and I want to remind you they are my opinions and not those of the team (I did use the RST Performance posting name only cause I don’t have my own).
Raymond Blethen
Oh and PS: I wanted to add… surprisingly I didn’t have any issues running with the ITE cars… Thanks
I had a metal-to-metal in Group Three "back there".
An American Sedan Camaro driver was working his way from the back of the pack with a Mustang on his tail. He caught up to me at the Uphill while I was chasing an ITS BMW who was also chasing someone else. We all checked-up going into the Uphill; I glanced at my rear view and saw the Camaro back there, turned in, and then accelerated out. As I exited the turn - BANG!! - there was a Camaro between me and the Aarmco. Fortunately neither of us went off.
After the race I cooled down and bit and found the Driver's Advocate, and asked to have the competitor paged to the tower (I really didn't want to do a formal protest). With the Advocate and Chief Steward present we discussed our differences; I understood that he thought I saw him go outside of me and expected me to stay inside on track-out.
He apologized for the move, I apologized for indicating he was Number One, and we walked away with a handshake. It'll take some polish, a light prying, and some sandpaper to clean up the wheel rim but all's well.
On the plus side, I had good experiences with a couple of ITS BMWs and the T2 BMW. Good close driving with no one trying to push anyone off the track. Quarter given when necessary, doors shut when possible. Good, close racing.
GregA
Winner, Aug 9th SCCA Regional
ITS 4-cylinder front-wheel-drive class
Raymond,
I heard that a tape coming to me from another ITS guy has a better view of the incident. And if the truck driver thinks someone was to aggressive, he may be thinking of me punting him in the uphill the lap before when he stopped going up the hill, come to think of it I got passed by your father, another AS car and Kip on that maneuver, hmmmm, I could have been the guy getting wrecked by the truck. I quess that is the luck or no luck of racing with such diverse classes together
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Nick Leverone
04 ITS Mazda Rx-7
www.flatout-motorsports.com