Indeed, Stirling Moss (please spell his name correctly) bent some
Trans-Am sheet metal last year and was sternly talked to. I was
surprised to see him back this year, and saddened by the damage to the
Aston.
Not only was his pass ill-advised, it was against the "rules" of the
event - these drivers aren't supposed to put two wheels in the dirt.
And contact is certainly a no-no.
You and I and the spectators may think/agree this is "racing" ... but
according to Steve Earle, it's a demonstration. Period. Those are the
rules of engagement. We like it when the drivers put on a good show
(Trans-Am is particularly good at this), but some of these car parts
*are* damned hard to replace. A buddy of mine says he could never go
vintage racing because he *raced* those cars and couldn't bring
himself to just motor in them - if he gets in one, he's going to
drive it as he did then. And that's just not cricket.
That said, from my vantage point as a flagger at turn 5, I saw far too
many drivers who backed out of a pass in a too-gentlemanly fashion -
backing out of an almost completed pass in an unsafe manner, which
could well have taken the driver behind by a bit of a surprise. In
fact, one version of the events at Turn 2 is just that - that a driver
in front of Moss braked in a surprising fashion and caused part of the
subsequent chain of events. I wasn't there, didn't see it, so I can't
comment.
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