I’m bored, the racing season is over, and I still have racing on the brain. So, I want to describe a racing incident that I was involved a couple of weekends ago and see what the opinions are out there.

I was at Infineon running in 1st position in my class, but being pushed hard by 2nd place in class. I am on the outside of the right hand hairpin T7 with a faster classed car on the inside of the turn that was running in 12th place in his class. I hold the outside position through T7 and now we’re side by side racing into a pretty fast T8 which is a left hander leading to a fast right hander. I’m on the left, he’s on the right as we enter the left hander.

We are practically side by side as we enter the turn. By the turn in point, he now he has a slight advantage. His driver’s door is up next to my right front wheel but no more than that, meaning my bumper is still up near his front fender. I hold my inside line very tight leaving him as much room as is possible thinking we’re going to do this side by side, which admittedly is not a great idea at this speed in this corner. There was no time for adjustment once we were in the corner and I realized that he was coming over. His door and my right front wheel touched. He went flying. I kept control and finished the race.

We had a friendly discussion in his pit (he did not come to impound after the race) and he did not dispute that I held my line inside. Rather, his opinion was that he “had me beat’ and I should have backed out. He said that the damage to his door and the damage to my front fender indicates it's my fault because stewards usually look at that in determining fault. My opinion is that since he is the overtaking car trying an outside pass, he needs to clear me completely before he moves back into the racing line.

My thinking at the moment was that many of these “faster class” cars that are running back where I am don’t get through the esses as well as I do. Because of that, and because I could not afford to be held up through there with the 2nd place car not too far back, I planned on trying to beat this guy through the corner since I had the advantage being on the left hand side.

I did not know this guy or his car. As it turned out, this guy was reasonably fast and would not have held me up. Knowing what I know now, I wish I would have lifted in the straight section leading to this turn and let him have the corner. Regardless, in this situation, I do not think that not doing that made the contact my fault. Opinions?