^^This. Glad to see bb623 using 8 of his 10 career posts in this thread pointing fingers. You can clearly see that there is contact preceding the massive rotation of the MINI. You can't hear it, but at that speed it doesn't take a whole lot of contact to the rear quarters of any vehicle(particularly if it's tires that touch) to cause what happened. BThayer23 has assessed it pretty clearly to answer your multiple posts questioning "what it looks like". The more I look at the 13second mark, the more it looks like the right front of the Mazda drives into the Rear Left of the MINI.
However, 2 very talent(ed) drivers battling for the lead at 100+ mph obviously makes it much easier for things like this to happen. Amen, brother....
This is exactly what I see. There is definitely steering wheel movement to the right before the obvious contact. As there is no way to determine the reason for the wheel movement from the video, let's just say that this was an unfortunate accident that ruined BOTH drivers day. There is no way that Trinkler was going to purposely put him and the other car at risk. Much to dangerous for that and Trinkler is no Jonsson.
This was also posted in another thread. ------------------------------------ " BB623 " as in Mazda 623??? I wonder if BB's comments are objective?? ------------------------- Our in car video shows NO movement by Owen. The buffeting of two cars side by side at +125mph is obvious, BUT there was no lateral movement by the Mini. The simple fact is . . . Owen was in front. It's the Mazda's duty to effect a safe pass. There is no rule against blocking, even though He wasn't. It was unfortunate for all concerned. Kudos to Andrew and Owen at Watkins Glen. They diced for awhile and BOTH drove a clean race. No retribution by either party. They are both real pros and it showed. The teams aren't complaining . . . maybe the outsiders should follow their lead. Time to move on . . . Randy
Sucks for both of them. Throw away a car like that.. BIG $$$$ for both to cover. It's interesting reading this thread because one of my buddies here in town is pretty good friends with Derek, Andrew and Tom (myself as well but not as close as he is). I didn't hear of this till today and it was my buddy calling up to say .... "wow have you seen the video yet of Owen taking out Andrew?" Based on that statement it sounds like the opinion is quite the oppsite in the freedom camp. So with that Said, The Other Freedom Video makes it look a little different ... [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdR8_KFJY9w[/ame] This also doesn't look like top end limiting as it's near the end of the straight and punching a pretty good hole in the air. The car in the back with a draft should be able to pull out and pass at will. Anyone watch the TDI cup? Every lap 2nd place goes to 1st from a drafting pass in = hp cars. Draft makes a big difference. In our protege at Road Atlanta it's over 1 second (And 4 or 5mph) a lap finding someone to catch a draft with down the back straight in qualifying. Just my $0.02.
It still looks to be a simple case of two cars getting to close together. Unfortunately they got together in a way that caused an accident. If the cars had been a bit more side by side there would not have been that kind of outcome. But it still appears that the Mazda could have moved over even more to make the pass as he had a full lane+ of room. No need to put the car at risk by getting so close if there is room available.
That's exactly the thought I had when I saw the first video. If the MINI took away the inside passing line, why would you compromise corner entry by trying to squeeze him down like that? Go for the over / under!
