In the interest of full disclosure, I'll own up to one of my early lessons in racecraft I learned the hard way.
I was coming up on a Rookie/slower racer in a tight right-hand corner at a pretty good rate. I decided to stay way to the inside to "give him room", only to be horrified as he came all the way down to the apex from a late turn in/apex, and I couldn't square off the corner or back off enough enough to avoid hitting him hard in the mid passenger door. I was pretty unhappy to hear that he "never saw me", and I felt I had position.
Bryan Cohn, our race director at the time, and a very experienced racer took me aside and explained some basic, but maybe not obvious errors on my part that set up this situation. He later used this as an example for the rest of the group at large, and then comp school. Oh, the shame! (but I learned
![](http://944-spec.org/944SPEC/components/com_kunena/template/default/images/emoticons/blush.png)
). Nothing like a little good natured public humiliation to drive home the point!
My instinct to leave a wide berth was well meaning, but flawed, with several bad unintended consequences.
1) It put me in a terrible position to exit the corner and complete the pass.
2) It put me in a position that made it hard for him to see me.
3) It made the resulting contact hard, because closing speeds were greater from being further apart.
In contrast, if I had "skinned" the new guy, I would have been in a much better situation:
1) I would have been in control of the corner, and been able to delay his turn in, ruining his exit instead of mine.
2) The close proximity (and noise) of being right next to him would have made my presence *much* more obvious.
3) If there was contact, it would have just been a little rub, as the was no space to build any closing speed.
So now, I think of passing (especially in corner-entry situations) more in terms of how I can control the corner, and less about how I can speed by him. If I don't think I can put myself in a situation where I can control the corner, or at least set up for the next one, I should rethink the pass, and work at getting him at track out, or another corner/lap.
I often think of this lesson in situations where someone is complaining that the other guy "didn't see me". This goes double for the guys who are are frequently "hit" by others - the serial "victim" of contact. Often, it is because they put themselves in situations and positions that make contact more likely, or severe, even if an individual incident is "not their fault".
So, hopefully we've made something good and constructive out of all this!