Quote:
Originally Posted by joeb
I had to leave for the last hour, but just caught up on the recording. I was watching with my mother-in-law who has never seen a race and when that last lap move happened in 5-6 I said "that's a penalty" and had to explain to her why.
|
I posted this on Facebook, sorry to repeat---
For the first part of the move, Tincknell went wide on the right and then headed back across the track—and across Cameron’s nose—almost in a continuous motion. Tincknell then moved back to the center of the track blocking Cameron.
The first move was possibly a reactionary move---which is a penalty. However, it could also be seen as a continuataion of Tincknell's path across the track from the extreme right edge and and back to the left lane.
The second move—well, drivers aren’t allowed a second move, nor a reactionary move, and this was both.
However—the Acura Hit the Mazda when Cameron made his aggressive move to the right to get past Tincknell on the other side. So … was that avoidable contact? And after going frame by frame through the video, it seems Cameron hit Tincknell before Ticknell reacted and moved back to the middle.
That would mean the Cameron in the Acura gets the penalty. But, since Tincknell moved after Cameron hit him, should it be offsetting penalties?
Or—how about, it was just good, hard racing?
Mitigating factors—Montoya had been blocking pretty aggressively during his stint, and —most important—Last Lap of the Race.
It has been pretty well established that IMSA lets a little slide on the final lap. I have seen a few things happen this year which might have warranted attention in the opening laps but slid by because IMSA wants drivers going for it for the win.
For one thing, it is hard racing, which excites fans. For another no matter who wins, everyone is talking about it, which attracts sponsors.
Since I can see grounds for penalizing both drivers here …. Which would give the win to Ollie Jarvis in the #77 Mazda, and create even more outrage—I’d say a no-call is a good call in this situation.