dirty driving. Not the way to win a race.

 

I feel your pain, but could you not post it in one forum instead of three? It will still show up in "New Posts".

 

Your kidding right? I saw racing and isn't that common?

Byron

 

my bad.

just bummed

 

there were penalties on pit road for bumping earlier in the race, this is gentleman's racing. i there are to be penalties for avoidable contact then be consistent. btw, if the roles were reversed i would have thought the porsche should be penalized. otherwise you encourage bad driving by saying the ends justifies the means. had the stewards not held the ferrari for 20 seconds it would be moot. Since the steward let it go, i would,unfortunately ,expect that somewhere during the season the ferrari and mela (sp) will be on the other end of a "racing" bump. this is what happens with unenforced rules..

 

The door was left open on the inside of turn 17. Good hard racing!!!!

 

The Porshe made the pass, but the Mole made a great brake move to allow himself to get back underneath, Porsche should have closed the door harder. The second bump on the front straight really killed the momentum.

End of the day it is the end of a 12 hour race and you can't expect the guy is going to do less. Would have been nice if he did not throw the second bump and the had a true drag race to the finish, it would have made the finish even better than it was.

Lesson learned, that won't happen to our friend again!

Don't forget if you go back two laps when he made up the last second it was the Penske Porsche P2 car that seemed to have trouble in 1 and 2 which hurt the F car momentum - was that a coincidence?

JCM

 

i agree with you, that was a penalty situation as well. the rules are "clear" on this with all the appropriate "in the opinion of the stewards, which is not subject to review."

had the idiot pit crew member remembered to put his visor down none of this would have happened.

when the vette was beaten by the aston at lime rock (july o6)by about the same or a little less margin no beating and banging going on.

that the racing was that close after 12 hours is why i prefer to be involved with the alms.

 

Not quite.

Jorg mentioned this and you can see it. The first time jorg passed melo on the straight melo CLEARLY was running him into the wall. Melo knew he couldnt beat the porsche unless jorg messed up or melo MADE him mess up. Since jorg just wopped his *** racing by making up 10 secnds in 10 minutes melo had to bump him.

If you watch the slow-mo melo could have just taken the inside like he did (great move), but he pushed out to hit jorg's rear end to make him loose. The porsche was faster out of the corner than the ferrari and melo knew that. Jorg saved it so melo pushed him to the wall forcing jorg to either have to let go of the gas or hit the brakes so he could win.

It was a cheap *** move and EVERYONE there knew it even melo, you could see it in his face during the interview. It is racing but its sad that melo would fall to that level just to win one race.

I applaud jorg for his class act in the interview, and I highly doubt he will do the same to melo later in the season(because hes cearly a WAY better driver). I wouldnt be surprised however if a few porsches make traffic a real ***** for melo and his team later in the season.

 

No question Melo bumped Jorg off Nascar style as that was the only way he could get back by and that I agree with you, it was a cheap win, especially after 12 hours. Jorg did handle the interview very well.

I wasn't suggesting Jorg would do likewise and put Melo in the wall at a later date. I think he will brake slightly sooner and force Melo or whoever to beat him on the outside, which was not going to happen. No question Melo tried to push him into the wall after 16, Jorg should have held his position right then and banged a bit, maybe Melo would not have been as aggressive in 17. Jorg did a beautiful job setting him up on 16 and got a great run.

As far a penalty goes that would have been a tough call for the Steward to make - it was a no win for ALMS. They decided to let it stand, so I guess they have set the precedent for what is acceptable race behavior to get a win, and banging is ok - so everyone needs to take note and be prepared for that for the rest of the season.

JCM

 

I would have to respectfully disagree with that statement. There was nothing dirty with any of that. Welcome to racing at the highest level. When a driver knows that he or his car is not as fast, he will (and should) do anything within the guidlines of racing to win. Explaining to his team owner and sponsors that he "moved over" to be a gentleman, would not be a good career move. It would however put him into "gentleman's racing", known as "Club Racing".

 

See I dont mind bumping(exspecially around a much needed corner), braking early, making a guy have to get around you. But to me melo clearly took out jorg's back end to make him loose, and that I find cheap.

 

As someone noted, Melo giving the race away would not be in his best interest career wise.

However, after re playing the finish 5 or 6 times that old tv show
Destruction Derby does come to mind.

 

Ageed, which is why I called it Nascar style. Tune into Bristol next week and you will see a lot of that!

JCM