Steph, you are right on! Metal to metal contact, shoving, etc MUST NOT be allowed. This is serious stuff, and there is a high risk of injury or worse. There will always be racing incidents and 'racing incidents', however even these MUST be avoided. In defense of true racing incidents, I have come close, once when a car dive bombed me after I started my turn in and the side of windowsill of the brick I was driving was about six inches highter than normal and his hood was much lower (I did not see him until I saw his roof). When I had checked my mirrors, he was twenty-thirty feet behind me. You can't keep watching your mirrors all the time, gots to see where you need to be turning!.

But back to racing incidents. Today we lost a fellow driver, from what I understand was a racing incident, not a single car incident. I did not see the incident, and it is still being investigated, but while I was at the track, I did not hear any comments that implied that there was any contact or deliberate offensive driving. One does not have to be grossly negligent in our sport to cause bodily injury. Deliberate stupidity cannot be allowed to continue.

Bonehead driving MUST be stopped. I read most of the reports of the COA, and I do not remember any appeal that involved a fine. Don't we issue fines anymore? They are still available as penalties. And in the case of metal to metal contact, how about if a large percentage of the fine was awarded to the offended driver to help fix the damage to his car.

But, again, even if there are no fines, a protest would establish a paper trail that could be reviewed at license renewal time. I am glad that I have a video acquisition system in my car, and would be willing to use any video as evidence. I have one video (taken at Nelson Ledges, by the way) of a SM at the start of the Saturday race at the Great Pumpkin last year that absolutely hammered an ITC car at the start of the race. Investigation of the data and two of the three camera recordings show that the driver of the car that was hit was not shifting at the point of impact. Looking at the video from the rear camera shows the SM intentionally dropping back and getting a good run on Karl. And the cockpit camera shows his head flying back againt the seat on impact. Speed data shows a instantaneous increase in speed by about 5 mph at the time of the impact. Karl was too nice to persue the matter.

And I do stress sportsmanship and good judgement with the students that I instruct at drivers' school.

OK, I'll get off my soap box now.