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Of course people, sometimes do need to pit in (for space) and thus pit out in a hot session...

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

Actually, at VIR, no this doesn't happen often because of the proximity of the armco vs. where the cars are released from. But it does happen at CMP and Roebling Road.

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Good thing about both of those tracks, is the view down the oncoming straights are unobstructed. So its very easy for the Pit-out person to know when a car is coming.

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Stacy King
Midlife Crisis Participant

That only works for the start of the session and should not be relevant. You have to have a manageable way to safely get cars out onto a hot track. If trains are forming, an instructor just wants their student to pull in for a minute, driver feels something and wants to pull in to give car a quick once over, and several other reasons. You will always have someone that will come off hot grid onto a hot track.

I agree with Vincent. I'm looking over to the tower and the bottom of it as I go towards the kink. Someone is giving you the "push over" signal to let you know a car is entering the track. I think VIR staff is very good about that. I'm not aware of any club I have run with that does not have a worker there to do it.

I see two issues with entering a hot track. First is when the car on track and on line arrives at T1 with the car entering who is off line. Both drivers are where they should be. But one has to give right of way to the other. We do not go 2 wide in T1 at a DE. If the two drivers communicate there is no drama. The other issue is the one that should get someone black flagged and a visit to the principals office. You enter track and decided you're going to move onto the line. You force the car coming down the track to do any type of evasive maneuver. You are the problem.

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http://www.greywinds.com

Graham... see above: " "

I think we do a pretty good job getting this blend-line message across in both the morning driver's meetings and the classroom sessions. Could we do better? I'm sure we could. And while we may have a rare instance of it, I really don't think its a big problem at our events.

Also... bear in mind that Cal-speedway infield, using the pit-out as FOC was, puts cars entering the track directly onto the hot preferred line going into T1. Patriot course was the ONLY track config that we've run on that does that, but I dare say that the elevation there is such that its very easy to see whats coming down the hill. The only other track that even remotely comes close is South Course, but the blend line is well before the on-line braking zone, and if done right, cars will be tracking right there while going up the hill anyway (if running a straight line from Oak tree to the braking zone for T1).

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Stacy King
Midlife Crisis Participant