Thread: Tony in trouble
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Old 10 Aug 2014, 13:56 (Ref:3443033)   #21
Accident
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Accident should be qualifying in the top 3 on the gridAccident should be qualifying in the top 3 on the gridAccident should be qualifying in the top 3 on the grid
I don't think it's wise to treat the video footage as something clear cut, because it isn't... It doesn't show the lead up to the contact to see the angle he was approaching from and such to see if he indeed move up, and people saying they can hear him hit the gas to accelerate... there are how many cars on a small dirt track? And his car isn't even on screen at the time you hear the acceleration I assume many people are talking about, to see if the car does indeed accelerate.

One thing to keep in mind with sprint cars is that visibility is not great. A slick clay track is shiny with lights shining down on it, it was under a yellow meaning that most of the safety vehicles have their bright lights flashing, drivers are often looking through several layers of tear offs and/or dirty visors, and the right panel of the wing hangs much lower than the left side, and (while it doesn't look to be the case on Tony's car) some of them still run unpainted on the inside of the wing panels and those reflect all the flashing safety lights off the wing itself. He would have had to have been watching for a driver in a dark colored suit to his right (where the low hanging wing is) while also watching the recovery trucks approaching (and the guy on his fourwheeler approaching from the infield on his left) and watching what the other cars are doing.

I'm not saying whether or not he meant to scare the guy or anything, as we will never really know, but there are a lot of factors, and a tight dirt track at night in a sprint car isn't the same as far as visibility and space goes compared to most road courses and the like.

Regardless of the why/how, what happened is a massive shame that will scar both Stewart's career and the history of the small track (and possibly the town if it's anything like some of the small town tracks we have around here).

Thoughts go out to the Ward family.

Quote:
Originally Posted by J Jay View Post
As I don't know the cars very well, do they have throttle telemetry? Even though that wouldn't be conclusive (direct drive, different rear tyre sizes, sliding on dirt, etc.) it would help piece together the sequence of events.
Nothing like that, much too advanced (and therefore expensive) for this kind of stuff.
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