[Ntfsprint5w]

Originally Posted by Stevensville Mike Okay, I'll play the Devil's Advocate here: These boys are paid to go hard and go for the gap. There are seams in the track down the Long Pond Straight. They run the whole length of the straight and are perfectly parallel to the ones (on each side of them). If you watch the replay from Rossi's car, as Sato is coming past him, at a very high rate of speed, on the outside, and timing his move, Rossi's RF wheel can actually be seen going to the right, towards the wall, as noted by the seam in the track. Sato, coming down, maybe never figured Rossi would try and move right to set up his entry into Turn 2? Sato is not an idiot. He is good. Take your non-American blindfolds off. And besides, unlike Rossi, he has nothing to lose for he is not in the championship run. Maybe Rossi should have used a little bit of head and breathed the throttle? Hell, it was only Lap 1 and he has a lot to lose. These guys are going for all of the marbles. Had A.J. Foyt made a move like this 40 years ago, he would have been hailed a daredevil/hero/icon/badass. Two sides to every story. Sometimes three. But Sato is a badass shoe. Far from an idiot.

Dont care what year it is, or if it was AJ. If AJ took out 5 cars on lap one of a 500 mile race people would say it was a stupid move too. If there was a handful of laps to go? sure go for that move and if it happens it still sucks, but at least then there would be an understandable reason for the move. Lap one? hell no. Plus, this has ZERO to do with "non-american blindfolds" thats just race baiting at its finest. Dont care who it was that would have made that move, just so happens it was as driver who happens to be non-american.

[mc/rider]

Originally Posted by Stevensville Mike Okay, I'll play the Devil's Advocate here: These boys are paid to go hard and go for the gap. There are seams in the track down the Long Pond Straight. They run the whole length of the straight and are perfectly parallel to the ones (on each side of them). If you watch the replay from Rossi's car, as Sato is coming past him, at a very high rate of speed, on the outside, and timing his move, Rossi's RF wheel can actually be seen going to the right, towards the wall, as noted by the seam in the track. Sato, coming down, maybe never figured Rossi would try and move right to set up his entry into Turn 2? Sato is not an idiot. He is good. Take your non-American blindfolds off. And besides, unlike Rossi, he has nothing to lose for he is not in the championship run. Maybe Rossi should have used a little bit of head and breathed the throttle? Hell, it was only Lap 1 and he has a lot to lose. These guys are going for all of the marbles. Had A.J. Foyt made a move like this 40 years ago, he would have been hailed a daredevil/hero/icon/badass. Two sides to every story. Sometimes three. But Sato is a badass shoe. Far from an idiot.

It does look like Rossi was drifting right setting up the turn

[PJ Wright]

Originally Posted by Stevensville Mike These guys are going for all of the marbles. Had A.J. Foyt made a move like this 40 years ago, he would have been hailed a daredevil/hero/icon/badass.

Comparing AJ to Sato is a bit of a stretch, don't you think? AJ earned those accolades without wrecking everyone near him. You weren't comparing apples to apples or even oranges. Your analogy was more like comparing apples to anchovies.

By the way, your "non-American" comment was bull.

[davidm]

Originally Posted by Jonr When it comes to safety, we always say we need to learn from our past. The crash that we had yesterday was very similar to last years crash. We are just lucky that a driver was not hurt. All of the ingredients of a bad wreck were present. Two years in a row of a violent wreck is definitely a trend. I am not sure how you can watch any of the videos of Robert Wickens rehab and not be convinced that a change is needed.

But you could say that about every oval they race on and a number of Road and Street courses too. Anytime you get an Indy Car up fast enough that it can take off and get into a fence you can have a crash similar to what happened to Robert. Look at the Houston crash Dario had at Houston in 2013. Looked a lot like what happened to Robert.

There is always room for change and improvement for safety. We saw how one of these improvements worked with Hinches onboard video Sunday.

[Puppy]

Sato definitely made a mistake, but it doesn't mean he's driving over his head or an idiot. Wickens made a bad move last year too and it cost him dearly. None of this is the tracks fault
Yes it is harder to pass, so making up positions on starts/restarts is a way to make some hay, but this is true in any series on any track from the pros to Paragon.