- 11
- BenKrishman
As I've been racing online more and more recently(and coming across a surprising number of fun clean races) I've been running into more and more situations where I feel like I'm giving up time and letting my opponent through just to make sure that no contact is made. When I'm racing with someone where the competition is good and close(2-3 carlengths) I find it very easy to race cleanly. Brake a bit early, wait for an opening and capitalize if it's there. Keep speed on the straights but not too much if I can't pass, and try to anticipate their acceleration to keep the gap close. However when the racing starts getting really close I find it much harder to race with absolutely no contact and still keep things competitive. If there is a ca rlength or less between the two cars, and one is not significantly faster than the other either through the corners or on the straights it seems to make passing almost possible, but very difficult leading to some situations where contact could be highly possible.
And example of this would be on Suzuka leading up to and through 130R. Say you have 2 cars running identical tunes, so one should not be faster than the other. Coming out of Spoon the car in the lead just misses the apex but the car behind him hits it gaining a mph or 2 advantage. Coming down the stretch with that advantage and the draft he is able to close the gap a lot and as the car in first place rides the right side of the road preparing for the turn ahead, and the car behind, with a slight speed advantage now swings out to his left to try and pass. However as they're approaching the front of the trailing(and passing) car is only up to the door of the leader(who has the outside line at this point). Now if I'm leading, and the car behind me pulls up inside, to my door he may be near my blindspot(depending on my car) but I pretty much know he's there. My question is who has the right of way in this situation, who needs to yield the line? Should the driver in front, holding the outside line(which is very necessary to take 130R at speed) be able to turn in and make the driver attempting to pass back down or should the passing car hold his line and attempt to make the pass through the corner?
I figure that there is probably not much of a clear cut answer to this, but I'd really like to hear what everyone has to say about situations like these.
And example of this would be on Suzuka leading up to and through 130R. Say you have 2 cars running identical tunes, so one should not be faster than the other. Coming out of Spoon the car in the lead just misses the apex but the car behind him hits it gaining a mph or 2 advantage. Coming down the stretch with that advantage and the draft he is able to close the gap a lot and as the car in first place rides the right side of the road preparing for the turn ahead, and the car behind, with a slight speed advantage now swings out to his left to try and pass. However as they're approaching the front of the trailing(and passing) car is only up to the door of the leader(who has the outside line at this point). Now if I'm leading, and the car behind me pulls up inside, to my door he may be near my blindspot(depending on my car) but I pretty much know he's there. My question is who has the right of way in this situation, who needs to yield the line? Should the driver in front, holding the outside line(which is very necessary to take 130R at speed) be able to turn in and make the driver attempting to pass back down or should the passing car hold his line and attempt to make the pass through the corner?
I figure that there is probably not much of a clear cut answer to this, but I'd really like to hear what everyone has to say about situations like these.