Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Harte
No, it's much simpler than that; black flag the errant driver, and exclude him from the races for the day. 2nd contact, and exclusion from the Championship. Problem should be sorted in the 1st race.
I raced in the Redex Championship in the 60s, completing in about 100 races over 4/5 years. I cannot recall any incident of "rubbing" or push-to-pass, and we also had 30 odd competitors participating in each race. And grids were formed, on the same "narrow" tracks that posters have mentioned, on a 3-2 basis. Yet we all seem to manage to avoid each other throughout the races, which could be pretty frenetic at times. Much like the BTC (or whatever the Championship was called back then) in the 60s and 70s; it was all non-contact. There are some terrific YouTube videos out there showing how close and competitive the racing was then, on narrow tracks lined with trees with no run-off areas and no curbs to launch you around corners.
I'm afraid that on the whole we revere today's drivers too much. Yes, there are some excellent pilots on the grid, and you can see them in action at Goodwood, and who are capable of pretty decent car control, but I would like to see them driving with the same verve in a car that was identical to those from 40/50 years ago. Nobody can convince me that the 60s' saloons that we see racing today, especially at Goodwood, are exactly as they were when first raced.
But just because the safety elements of saloon racing, well actually all forms of racing, are so much superior to the "old days" doesn't mean that it's OK to allow a few panels to be bashed for the sake of entertainment.
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Mike, I know where you're coming from here. I've been a huge fan of what I'd generally call 'saloon car racing' for over 40 years, I've always preferred it to open wheelers.
Over the past couple of days I've watched (on youtube) the BTCC Touring Car Greats episodes 1 & 2 during my lunchbreak.
In episond 2 (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fk9dnaoeYI) Tim Harvey (who raced for a number of works teams in the BTCC) explained that "When the manufacturers came into the series, the whole attitude of the drivers changed, and things became more aggressive. We would do everything we could to stop another make of car getting in front of us because the manufacturer's honour was at stake." (I've put this in quotation marks but it may not be word for word exactly what he said). So that was when it appears to have become acceptable.
Sadly I feel that this has become too out of hand, plus a lot of the drivers just don't know how far is too far which is why we're getting these horrendous shunts. I also agree with your sentiment that maybe the cars are too safe now (and this doesn't just relate to BTCC) so the drivers don't appear to have the worry about hurting themselves, which is something else that would make them think twice!
Back to the Touring Car Legends programmes, in the early years you could see that the cars like the Cortina Lotus & Jaguars that competed in the British Saloon Car Championship didn't even have a roll cage!