Monday, January 23, 2006

What would you do?

Raced at Bristol last night. I run online once a week with the same group of guys. We keep track of points and we have a great time. Until we got to Bristol. I love racing at this half mile track, I just don't love the other drivers. When I got up front I would gain a lead of several seconds. Then someone would crash and the caution would come out. I should have won this race but several frustrations stopped that from happening.

The first two frustrations I have illustrated with evidence 'A' and 'B'. Tires are important here and I pitted almost every caution. Sometimes this would restart me in the back of the group. Both of these first two pictures show a car that spun themselves out in front of me. Going into a corner at 100mph, it can be very difficult to not hit a car broadside in front of you.First spinner. I'm the yellow car. I didn't hit this guy until he turned sideways in front of me.
Here's the view I had of the second spinner. He tried hitting the brakes while turning in too fast. If you ever drive at Bristol, don't do that.

A little damage wouldn't slow me down much. It was just a little frustrating. After working my way back to second place I tried to be patient with the driver up front. He was slower, but I was waiting for my opportunity to pass him without causing him to wreck. That's when the jerk in third rear ended me and sent me spinning into the wall. Shown in this third picture.
After fixing damage and getting some more tires, I was almost half a lap down on the restart. I was now getting very frustrated. Pushing forward, I got within five seconds of the leader before another caution came out.
On the next restart, I was again in second place, behind a car that didn't pit and was slower than me. The jerk from earlier was again behind me. This is a guy I race with every week, and normally don't have any problems with. Just as before, I tried to find my place to pass without causing a wreck. If I wanted to, I could have lightly hit his back bumper and pushed him to the wall. That move would cause no damage to me and let me pass him. Before we got to that point, the jerk behind me went into the corner too fast and smashed into my back. Sending my car in circles until I came to a rest against the inside wall.
This is the second time this jerk decided to take me out.

I made a couple of not so nice comments to him over the mic and then left the race. As I tried to calm myself down a bit, I thought about how I should handle this. Yelling at him didn't seem like a great answer. It may help me feel better for that night, but would do no good. Not talking to him for a week and ignoring his e-mails was a possibility I thought of too. Seemed immature. I'll just take care of this the Nascar way. The next time he is in front of me, I guarantee he will be in the wall. I only hope he is leading when I destroy him. Of course, when that happens, it will be an "accident".
"Oh, I'm sorry.", I'll tell him.

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