Fernandez - A Danger To Shipping?

[Vanilla Dice]

Having seen the antics of our old friend 'Yes Way Jose' over the weekend, the big question remains... whether he belongs in the main series or not.

Sure he finished in front of his more highly rated (and more highly paid!) teammate, and is 16th in the points.. in front of Bright, Winterbum, Luff, Skaife, Courtney et al.. but does he really belong?

There were several shots of the Fujitsu car on the weekend (and who besides me cant read the white Fujitsu branding because the orange paint is too light..) sitting in the middle of the road.

The crash with Andy Jones happened because instead of having a blocking move at the end of the straight, the driver was in the middle of the road, on a Sunday drive, and basically turned in on the Sleepyhead Commodore, ruining both days.

Then we see later, the very same car, suitably tarted up after fixing the damage from the spin into the tyres, sitting in the middle of the road as Jason Richards comes up along side him.

Again, the red car moves over on the orange one (does Jose hate Tasman??) and the Lowndes/Courtney/Fernandez/McConville wreck happens for all to see

I think there is a need for Bondy to have a quiet word...

[FalconEL]

Originally Posted by Vanilla Dice

Having seen the antics of our old friend 'Yes Way Jose' over the weekend, the big question remains... whether he belongs in the main series or not.

Sure he finished in front of his more highly rated (and more highly paid!) teammate, and is 16th in the points.. in front of Bright, Winterbum, Luff, Skaife, Courtney et al.. but does he really belong?

There were several shots of the Fujitsu car on the weekend (and who besides me cant read the white Fujitsu branding because the orange paint is too light..) sitting in the middle of the road.

The crash with Andy Jones happened because instead of having a blocking move at the end of the straight, the driver was in the middle of the road, on a Sunday drive, and basically turned in on the Sleepyhead Commodore, ruining both days.

Then we see later, the very same car, suitably tarted up after fixing the damage from the spin into the tyres, sitting in the middle of the road as Jason Richards comes up along side him.

Again, the red car moves over on the orange one (does Jose hate Tasman??) and the Lowndes/Courtney/Fernandez/McConville wreck happens for all to see

I think there is a need for Bondy to have a quiet word...

Open your eyes and have another look at the replays......

If you're not going to decisively pass someone, you should wear the consequences when someone turns in on you. Jones should have done a better job of getting underneath Fernandez, end of story. He didn't get far enough alongside. I also happen to think Lowndes should have done a better job of getting underneath McConville at Turn 9. By your reasoning, should McConville not have turned in on Lowndes? I like your definition of a "Sunday Drive" also, 13th in Race 1 and on the lead lap.....

With regard to the other incident, Jose had to back out of the throttle and had nowhere to go because Winterbottom was limping along in the middle of the road. Mr. "Fake Tan" Jason Richards kept his boot in, which contributed to the consertina. A racing incident, and an unfortunate one, but hardly Jose's fault....

Does he belong, who knows? Time will tell. But to throw blame for both these incidents at his feet is a bit harsh.

[Alan 52]

Winterbottom was at fault in the second incident.He was "doing a Plato" and running at about a quarter of racing speed sitting right on the racing line.

[evo51]

for sure frosty's fault and i was thinking jose done a good job way better than AJ

[Vanilla Dice]

You guys must watch different footage to me.. the #26 car was not in the zone the whole weekend.. picking up points because everyone falls off the road is not the same as leading from the front.

[KE30MAN]

I agree Jose is too slow.

In that incident though, I think Frosty should have been using his mirrors a little better.

[mac]

The pile-up was caused by race officials not ordering the safety car to wave everyone by until the leader was behind him!

I thought Jose was quite well-behaved all weekend, even if a bit slow. He was not to fault for either of the two incidents you have mentioned VD.

[Vanilla Dice]

Jose was less than 0.5s off his more fancied teammate...

[PVDA]

Originally Posted by mac

The pile-up was caused by race officials not ordering the safety car to wave everyone by until the leader was behind him!

I wasn't paying attention during that part of the race but did the leader happen to pit as soon as the SC was called so the car behind him becomes the lead car in the train behind the SC or did RC stuff up the order on this one??

Also didn't the ch10 guys say it was caused by the slower cars having to give way to the quicker cars immediately after a restart??

[speedreader]

Well here we go again with the "Lets blame a slower/rookie driver for accidents without considering the real reason why" game again.

Facts

1 Jose was not the slowest car on the track all weekend and others cars at that end of the field also experienced a lot of accident related problems
2 He did a good job in difficult circumstances of keeping out of the experienced drivers way. I didnt hear anyone complaining specifically about him or any other 'slower' driver throughout the weekend at all (although I only saw the live feed and couldnt hear the chanell 10 commentary so acknowledge some things may have been said that I didnt hear)
3 How anyone can avoid being king hit from behind by another driver who should be able to judge 'minor' differences in speed between cars is beyond me. Its not like Jose magically appeared in from of AJ and startled him is it !
4 Frosty was 100% the cause of that accident. Jose did attempt to avoid a car he was bearing down on at a hell of a rate and to be fair to Jason, he was on the blind side so most likely didnt see Frosty dawdling along on the racing line in the first place.

C'mon guys, I am the first to criticise drivers when they make stupid mistakes (like Murph's red mist at Bathurst last year) but I do make sure I lay blame on the correct drivers, not hit out at the easiest targets. This is one of the best and most competitive grids we have had and the guys at the bottom of the grid sheets are no where near as bad we have seen in the past.

[Vanilla Dice]

No rookie phobias here... a long chat with someone who was trying to get past this driver for a while gave me some interesting insight...

I wonder which driver will get to miss some rounds of the series (like NZ) given that Jose is higher in points in the championship than his teammate

[speedreader]

Hey Vanilla, your on line as we speak

Sorry, I changed my post after you had read it as I thought I was being too tough...

I agree some slower drivers are tougher to overtake than others but this was a very dusty & dirty street circuit on a really hot weekend where some of the more fancied drivers couldnt even last the distance so didnt think the rookies did a bad job really - Just giving credit where it is due.

Re the NZ thing, I thought they could start 32 cars there and there are now only 31 on the grid anyway - am I wrong ?

If so, I think Jose will still step down for Wazza as Wazza was definitely the faster car all weekend but I understand he had a couple of issues including pace car timing woes that saw him fall down the leader board somewhat.

[Vanilla Dice]

Warren Luff was <0.5s a lap quicker than Jose in the race. This is a single lap, not measuring consistency because the 2 cars were in different traffic situations, and the #26 car had fuel feed issues..

There will be 31 cars in NZ. The MSport Mark Porter VY will be car #26 at that event.

[garbo6]

VD I think you'll find that Fernandez was an innocent party in the pileup, and Winterbottom is more than likely innocent as well.

I think that crash is the 2nd major crash caused by poor officialdom in recent years.

Crash 1 - The pileup at turn 8 in 2004. Dumbrell may have been blamed by the fans, and initially the officials, but if you go back a lap, the field was compressed by the safety car. Why was the safety car out? Because, the officials had jumped the gun by deploying the SC before the cars had time to extricate themselves from the crash, which was done within seconds of the SC being deployed.

Crash 2 - The pileup at turn 3 in 2006. Winterbottom caused it by going slow. Why was he going slow, probably because he had to let the cars on the lead lap through thanks to a dimwitted rule change from V8SA.

Overall for the weekend I was impressed by Fernandez. He kept out of trouble for the first race, and that's all he needs to do, when cars and drivers self-destruct all around him.

I sat at turn 8 for the 2 races, and I only ever noticed one car going significantly slower than the other cars and that was Owen during Race 1, and we all know why that was.

[Boxy]

Let's not forget what moblie he has to put with as well.
We all know how well those things go....

[Bodog]

Originally Posted by Vanilla Dice

I think there is a need for Bondy to have a quiet word...

Ok - so now we have established you don't like Jose perhaps we should consider why no one penalised Jose at any time during the weekend for these alleged incidents "he caused' - but hey - what would the race officials know......- and there was a huge amount of carnage overall, but thats bound to happen on a street circuit with 30/31 cars circulating

Seriously - he did well over the weekend - and whilst he's classified as a rookie he did drive the endurance races last year so hes not a newbie

[Sparklehorse]

Jose's fastest lap in race 2 was faster then luff.

Jose has done well, he was a passenger in the turn 4 accident.

There are other people in better cars doing much worse.

[Vanilla Dice]

Like/dislike.. I dont know the bloke well enough to sit either side of that fence. Sure I have met him, shared a beer or two with him after celebrating his first Bathurst attempt (and the mess he thought that was)

I think he needs work on consistency, which more race laps will give him...

[peckstar]

flip flop flip flop

VD or jeykell and hyde ,make your choice

or does it come down to how many bourbans you have had?

[Vanilla Dice]

I only like magical white powder

Bourbon is for sissies

[Driver]

What? Wizz Fizz

[v8babe]

at Driver.

Seriously, why don't we let him prove himself properly. He's a nice guy, talented in his own right, and do you really think that after only a few years of racing a V8 he can match the faster guys straight away? Let him learn and let's make judgements once 2006 is over.

I'm sure Fujitsu Racing know what they're doing and have their own agendas ... and tbh, I'm sure they don't really give a rats what anyone else thinks!

[Vanilla Dice]

MMMMMMM Wizz Fizz.. I always liked the green packs, they seemed to have more kick.. although the little spoons were plastic and melted when you put the lighter under them...

[RotorFan]

Originally Posted by Driver

What? Wizz Fizz

[Vanilla Dice]

Originally Posted by v8babe

I'm sure Fujitsu Racing know what they're doing and have their own agendas ... and tbh, I'm sure they don't really give a rats what anyone else thinks!

Fernandez = Fujitsu Cash
No Fernandez = No Fujitsu Cash
No Fujitsu Cash = No Britek

Economics can be so simple at times

I am in the market for a plasma, would I buy one from Fujitsu on the strength of Britek's racing performances?