Crash video

Are you posting looking for opinions on fault? You can blame both for racing karts on such a high speed track.

You can blame the kart on the inside which took the outside kart up to the wall and beyond. You can blame the outside kart for not backing off.

It's just racing. Anything that happens racing is the total responsibility of every driver. The inside kart is responsible for going under and taking the outside kart to the wall. Weather it was intentional or done because of lack of experience, can only be told by the driver of the inside kart. Dealing with your own lack of experience and others lack of experience is part of racing. The outside kart either intentionally gutted it out and stayed in there or stayed in the because of the drivers lack of experience. It's a racing incident and neither driver is to blame.

It's easy to say the inside driver took out the outside driver. My feelings are every driver is totally responsible for what happens on the track. If they get caught up in something because the other drivers lack of skill, its still their short coming because their skill level did not recognize, the other drivers lack of skill. Racing has a pecking order and the more you race with the same racers, the stronger the pecking order becomes. It's up to you to know where you stand and when and where to force an issue. In the case of the video, we will never know if an issue was even being forced, let alone which driver was intentionally forcing the issue or which driver contributed the most to the incident because of lack of skill.

It's just a racing issue, nothing more nothing less.

Racers can gain trust in other racers. The trust you have or don't have in other racers a learned thing. Yes you are a thinking sole with a mind, but learning to trust is the result of something physical which happens because of physical connection in your brain and hormones. Being it's actually physical, it can be in error. Out on the track, you should never trust your trust. Your out there dealing with situations, not trust.

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I see racing karts on that track in the same way I see racing Winged Sprint Cars at Williams Grove. It's more like a gun fight at the OK Coral, there is no playing games, taking chances or trust. If you even think you might need to back off, you back off. There's no get even, there are just different situations which may need a little less then you might like. It doesn't matter weather you duck a punch or block a punch, the idea is to not get hit and win.
 
IMO track is too long for an oval asphalt kart and the wall makes it very dangerous. Many tracks just use part of the oval and the inside pit area to make a shorter track for karts. JMO
 
Its Why you should think twice about racing karts on a car track with concrete walls. Concrete walls and karts are a seriously bad combination. And bad things may happen as it is racing.
 
No Mr. Paulish,
Not looking to assign blame. Not looking for opinions. Just providing those interested in seeing the video an opportunity to view it.
 
"Out on the track, you should never trust your trust"
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I don't think this is the most useless statement I have ever heard, but it is high among them!!

Yes, it is a racing incident. Thank you for making that abundantly obvious.
 
I only offered an opinion of the way I see it. I didn't mean to or try to assign blame to either.

The trust thing I offered was because of recently watching one of those TV programs on how the mind works. It looked at trust as the result of something physical happening inside your head. It explained it's normal under stress to look for trust. I mentioned not trusting your trust, because your acquired trust out on the track may be the result of a personnel need for it because of stress, not because of reasoning. I passed along the idea hoping it might keep someone from getting into trouble trusting because of stress, without reason for trust.

I think that's significant, especially when your out on a fast stressful track and your life is on the line.
 
i race on a 4/10 mile paved oval. the concrete wall is only along the front stretch seperating the track from the stands and at the bottom of the track around the pit area. we have a no contact rule that all the racers abide by. we've had two incidents (same driver) that was bumped and hit the wall...granted it was hard, but at the speeds we are running, we take safety, very, very seriously. you can't blame the track tho...the same could have happened at a small oval hitting hay bales....and i've seen a street luge racer hit hay bales at 35mph and almost shear his left foot completely off. and this is with a set of leathers and racing boots. it's call assumed risk...we are racers, we assume the risk that something like this might happen and our persoanl safety will be compromised. you don't want to race on a track like this? stay home.....i'd love to race there, but that's a haul from middle georgia!! the track looks fast and fun!!

and i think the most useless statement is from some racers that i know.... "hey guys!! hold my beer and watch this!!!" that! is a useless statement that always ends badly for the person saying it!!
 
That's fine and we have had that conversation before about "No Contact Allowed", in the end its racing and things will happen. When they do, I would rather not hit a concrete wall. Hay bails, plastic linked walls, chain link fence is bad enough. Everyone has to consider what they are getting into and at what speed, I love going fast as do others.
 
You sure wouldn't see me out there. Not only did he get hurt but I bet the kart is junk now also!! Watch out might be for sale!
 
Not that it makes it any better to some, but this isn't a 1/4 mile track, it's a 3/8 mile, which means it's faster than a 1/4 mile. However the amount of people that actually go into the wall at this track during karting is low from my observations. If it was frequent, then they would certainly shut us down. There has been some talk about lining the walls with bails of hay, but that has not materialized. This was my GoPro video that Comp posted.

Personally, I like the speed. Granted, I don't like how that wall comes up pretty quick at times, but I try and stay away from it as much as possible. But I think the issue here is more about respect and awareness. Respect for fellow racers and being aware of your surroundings. I hear many racers saying that you never look back, but you'll see in my vid that I frequently check my right and left for karts that may have a line on me before I go into a turn. I do that for the safety of myself and my fellow racers. I'll lay up before I am the cause or a bystandard to a collision. "Rubbing is racing" is garbage. My father races formula ford with nice, big open tires...and you try rubbing with those and you go flying. Back before karts had nerf bars and body kits, people stayed away from each other or else the took a tire to the leg or went flying. Too many people watched Days of Thunder and automatically thought that people are supposed to play bumper cars out there. That movie is the worst thing that ever happened to racing. Intentionally bumping, pushing, or chopping down on people isn't just stupid, it's dangerous, whether you driving 70 mph or 40 mph makes no difference. People can get hurt just as bad at half the speed we are going.

But this is racing. It's not a calm bicycle ride in the neighborhood. If it wasn't dangerous, then we wouldn't be required to wear safety equipment. We all get in our karts and assume the personal liability of what may happen.

And just to let everyone know, his kart is actually fine. The worst thing was that he banged up his header. No one is pointing fingers at any blame, both drivers could have done things a lot differently.
 
And technically speaking, this is not a "crash" video. It's a feature race video that happens to have a crash in it.
 
nice words depdaddy! my son and i race at watermelon capital speedway and we have a blast! it's high speed and low drag. the track makes us race in the two lowest grooves on the front stretch...reason being is that they can't see the karts further up and it keeps a safety margine between us and the wall. we do have a no contact rule and if your caught bumping or bump drafting, anywhere on the track, then the tower stops scoring you and you wind up with a DQ. it's only taken one time and none of us do it anymore. but! you have some on here that believe the "if you can't pass them, knock them out of the way" rule....and to those...well lets say that idiots have a leg up in the smarts department on them.......

and you can argue all you want and tell me that i don't know what i'm talking about and all the rest....if your that fast, then there is no reason on God's green earth to beat and bang on anyone. period.....
 
Mikey,

I like your track rules. I think it, as well as ours, should go one step further though and issue more black flags. Not only take away points, but send them to the pits. The first one is a warning with penalty, the second is a 1 race suspension, and a third is a DQ for the year.

"If you can't pass them, knock them out of the way"...I agree with your view 100%. People that believe in this philosophy are generally also the same type of people that walk up to the faster racers in the pits and strike up some fake friendly conversation only to try and eyeball the person's kart gearing. They head back to their pit and change their gearing, only to find that it hurt them with their current setup.

I'm a 36 year old rookie driver. I have not been in the sport for years like some people out here, but I have been around racing enough growing up with my father running open wheels to know racing etiquette. There will always be those drivers that no one likes because somewhere along the lines they were taught to win at any cost, including but not limited to wrecking someone else. I would like to hold on to my naive notion of thinking everyone has the best intentions, and sometimes crap happens. I race for fun, not for a $30 trophy. I'm not a child. I don't need a few pieces of plastic on my mantle to tell me that I did a good job. Seeing my body and kart in one piece at the end of a race weekend tells me that I did something right, even if that was all I did correctly. I come home and see my beatuiful wife and daughter, they ask how I did (becasue they weren't there to see it), and I tell them I did okay.

Our local track is a big, wide track. There is plenty of room for everyone. There is NO reason anyone should be turning down on anyone.
 
So Mikey how do they legislate unintentional contact? Is there common sense involved or just blinders? I get the whole bump drafting thing and am against the knockem' sockem' thing.
 
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