Curious About D.C. Region IT racing

[JeffYoung]

Whoa...did you signal him right and he went left?

[Greg Amy]

Whoa...did you signal him right and he went left?

Uh-huh. I guess he'd already committed left into a seriously-decreasing margin of space (which was the totally wrong thing to do, on multiple levels). I'm betting there was all of "1GT+2RCH" space left there, and rapidly decreasing...and note this was Pocono, a very wide NASTYCAR track.

Like I said: I shat myself purdy good that day.

[JeffYoung]

Not cool. Dude could have hurt you.

[StephenB]

to be fair to him at that closing speed he was probably already committed to the outside line. to expect him to pinch it down under you after you gave your hand signal would not be realistic.

I know that nobody wants to hear this but I'm going to say it anyway. weather anybody admits it or not the majority of us like IT. in my region ITR runs with other IT classes. if ITR ran with the big bore group then I would not have built an ITR car. I want to continue to run with other people that are interested in the same form of racing and modifications that I am.

[Eagle7]

As several have commented, that point-by seemed much to late to me based on the closing speed. Not saying he picked the wise line, but at that point he had committed, and if he had attempted to change at that point we might not have this video to watch (would have been destroyed in the ball of fire).

But lets keep in mind that a point-by is ADVISORY, not mandatory. I think of it as "if you take this line I promise to give you room". I still have a responsibility to maintain awareness of what line the passing car is taking. Looked to me like Greg was on top of that.


There are several reasons why a point-by must be advisory.

• Depending on a lot of factors, including lighting, we often can't see into the other car. He might be pointing, but I don't know it.
• As previously mentioned, the point-by might be too late.
• The point-by line might be disadvantageous to the passing car. The passee doesn't have the right to direct traffic.

One incident sticks out in my experience. I (ITS) was passing a B car at the end of a long straightaway (fairly high speed differential). He was running down the middle of a wide track. I had enough time to clear him before the next turn-in, so I took the outside line. When I reached his quarter-panel he veered to the outside, putting me into the grass at 110 MPH. After the session he came running up to me in the paddock - "I'm so sorry", etc. Said he had pointed me to the inside. Then I guess he stopped watching his mirrors. I could not see into his car, so I picked the line that worked best for me. Even if I had seen his point-by, I may have picked the outside line, because it worked best for me and, at the time, seemed to be not disruptive to him.

[Andy Bettencourt]

For those of you who have not driven Pocono, Greg basically had 1 car-width to his left and SEVEN to his right.

I am betting that at that rate of close, there may not have been an opportunity to see his point-by...meaning if it came early enough, the GT1 car would be too far away to see, and if it came 'in time', there was no way to change the committed position.

Hence the problem with 500+hp tube-framed, winged and slicked cars running with production cars with 200hp on Radials.

[Butch Kummer]

In Atlanta Region we run ITR with ITS, so I DO support the idea. All I'm saying is DC Region has what they believe are valid reasons (mainly a well-subscribed ITB class) to not do that. In addition, Summit Point is a whole different ball game relative to closing speeds than Pocono.