SpecRacer.com

What happened at Thunderhill last weekend that took out 10 cars on the 1st lap?

I wasn't there, but this YouTube video showed-up in a search.

https://youtu.be/foKwnlcDQps

Thanks, Ed. Enquiring minds were curious.

I was in the 71 car. In the "middle" of where all hell broke loose. It was the second race - spun after reacting (lifting/braking) to some brake lights and/or slowing of the cars ahead. Spun on inside of T4, caught it, did a quick tank slapper. Spun, then stopped in the middle of the track - sideways was OK at that point but then got hit in the LR. In the meantime all hell broke loose and the there was a multi car chain reaction among other the 11 spec racers. The incident was compounded lots of things, including being in a close stack - going two/three wide in the turns, there was a lot of first lap wins the race thinking" (lil guilty of that - had a bad qually and "had" to make up some positions) and by several drivers having their first race weekend ever at the track. Perfect storm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSpRXDSTYCA

Quick addition: After the red flag, the race was restarted in original qualifying order (did not know that was the proper way to restart a race) and there was a second accident which took out two cars for a total of 13 cars out of about 30 SRF's entered.

Jerry A. wrote:I was in the 71 car. In the "middle" of where all hell broke loose. It was the second race - spun after reacting (lifting/braking) to some brake lights and/or slowing of the cars ahead. Spun on inside of T4, caught it, did a quick tank slapper. Spun, then stopped in the middle of the track - sideways was OK at that point but then got hit in the LR. In the meantime all hell broke loose and the there was a multi car chain reaction among other the 11 spec racers. The incident was compounded lots of things, including being in a close stack - going two/three wide in the turns, there was a lot of first lap wins the race thinking" (lil guilty of that - had a bad qually and "had" to make up some positions) and by several drivers having their first race weekend ever at the track. Perfect storm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSpRXDSTYCA

6.8. RESTARTING A RACE
If a race is stopped, the Race Director or Chief Steward may:
A. Under full course yellow flags, restart in the original starting order.
B. Under full course yellow flags, restart the cars single file in the physical order they crossed the control line on the last completely scored lap.

(bold is mine)

Yes, I believe a FCY was thrown right after the incident, but then RED flags were thrown shortly thereafter. All the surviving cars were guided back to the hot pits to wait patiently while the first wave of wrecked cars were towed off the track. The E-Crew left the second wave of cars off on a side road and towed them to impound after the final race of the day. My understanding is that the RED flag required/enabled? the stewards to: 1) Stop the time clock when the RED flag was thrown and 2) Re-grid the cars back to the original qualifying order and then re-start the race in that order. I heard from several drivers that they were not happy to "lose" the passes they made before the RED flag was thrown.

Jerry A. wrote:Yes, I believe a FCY was thrown right after the incident, but then RED flags were thrown shortly thereafter. All the surviving cars were guided back to the hot pits to wait patiently while the first wave of wrecked cars were towed off the track. The E-Crew left the second wave of cars off on a side road and towed them to impound after the final race of the day. My understanding is that the RED flag required/enabled? the stewards to: 1) Stop the time clock when the RED flag was thrown and 2) Re-grid the cars back to the original qualifying order and then re-start the race in that order. I heard from several drivers that they were not happy to "lose" the passes they made before the RED flag was thrown.

If this was a Majors/Super Tour the red is used to stop the clock, but a black flag all would accomplish the same thing except keep the clock running. A red flag isn't as significant a restart problem for SRFs, but formula cars, even on the first lap, will heat soak quickly and have trouble starting. There are ways around the problem. An immediate full course yellow and direct cars into pit lane and then display the red gets it done.

Further in that section is an explanation of how to score the situation. Short version: last completely scored lap. Since it was the first lap of the race the grid is the thing.

If red is thrown before the 1st lap completes, those two options are the same.
I know I wasn't happy to lose some passes I made before crossing the finish line and encountered a red flag at a race a few years back, but I understood that going back to the last scored lap was the only way to sort out the mess equitably.

Since it was first lap going back to original starting grid makes logical sense as was no completed lap before all hell broke lose. Also having a red thrown was probably a good decision. Bring the yellow out to get some sort of control, then throwing the red. Don't want people stopping on track at various speeds and creating another pile up.

I am sure one reason a red was thrown so all service vehicles could be dispatched from all points of the facility. As a flagger and emergency services team member, I can tell you times were even under a double yellow had cars not behaving due to wanting to catch up or what not. Being in the hot seat on a truck while driving in traffic is awesome, trying to do an extraction, medical procedures or cleanup with race speed traffic...not so much.

The new driver side i me I also feel the field being reset is a small price to pay to being able to not have race cut extremely short or just be a parade behind a pace car.