The finish last night was great, with all four classes having a 1-2 battle of less than one second differential when I tuned back in with 11 minutes to go.
Question for the hive, is flashing your brights while in 2nd at the 1st place driver who you're chasing in the dark a solid distraction tactic? Or poor sportsmanship?
Up front in GTP, the Cadillac driven by Sebastian Bourdais (01) was in the lead being chased down by Louis Deletraz in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura (40). It was a great battle, but it didn't sit well with me that Deletraz was constantly flashing his brights, and not for the purpose of dealing with any slower traffic. He would eventually go on to make the pass in the last 5 minutes and win the race. The announcer made mention that he'd been doing that for the last 25 minutes.
Thoughts?
Good question. I have no good answer.
Watched it happening. Is it any different than weaving left to right behind a competitor in the daylight to try to distract. Don't know.
On board view from the Acura of the last 30 minutes. The flashing of his brights begins about 8:30 into the video.
https://youtu.be/ov91vSK_ORw?si=_riDS-ZMuhdRZoJl
great battle to watch regardless of the light flash tactic
FWIW, Bordais did it back to him, as the announcers expected.
I'll let the drivers tell us if it's bad or not. Seems as distracting to the following driver, since they have to focus on flashing the lights. But I don't do that as a profession.
Its a euro thing thats allowed,personally if we did nights in our endurance series and someone starts flashing me I'd let them go and park myself on their bumper lights on full.
alfadriver said:
FWIW, Bordais did it back to him, as the announcers expected.
I'll let the drivers tell us if it's bad or not. Seems as distracting to the following driver, since they have to focus on flashing the lights. But I don't do that as a profession.
While he did do it back, the expectation of it felt more like an expected payback, vs. a valid normal thing to do akin to what kevlarcorolla said in his post.
In reply to xflowgolf (Forum Supporter) :
As far as I can tell, the "payback" part was speculation. Bordais may have done it to try to distract him, too. We just don't know that.
If the drivers have a problem with it, take it up with race control to change the rules.
It happens in every race. It's used to signal that a faster car is coming up from behind and it's also common for a driver to use it as a distraction.
As an aside, way back in the day Mark Donohue had a toggle switch in his Penske Camaro that was connected to the brake lights. Donohue would enter the braking zones and hit the toggle which made the cars behind hit their brakes early...giving him an "unfair advantage" as he hit his brakes later.
For the record I have no issue it with it being used by a faster class to make the slower class driver aware he/she is coming up.
If I get out smarted with racecraft thats fine,some douche flashing lights in the brake zone well that's gonna be dealt with.
This tweet from Jordan explains everything you need to know in an easy to digest format:
https://twitter.com/jordan10taylor/status/1323733010395631618?lang=en
kevlarcorolla said:
Its a euro thing thats allowed,personally if we did nights in our endurance series and someone starts flashing me I'd let them go and park myself on their bumper lights on full.
You may find yourself looking for a new team real quickly if you gave up track position, let alone first place overall, just because you got mad about this. Imagine explaining why you gave up points (i.e. money) to the team of mechanics, the team owner, and sponsors. 
Plus, "lights on full" is how their lights work. I don't think they have "high beam/low beam" like a street car.
In reply to Coniglio Rampante :
Its ok,I'm just an old decent amateur racer....no one to answer to but 2 buddies ;)
If a professional driver like Bourdais with his years of experience driving in Europe and the US gets distracted by flashing lights he should retire. He probably thought that Deletraz was pulling a rookie trick that was easily ignored. Bourdais called in to report that his tires were used up and he couldn't hold off Deletraz.
IIRC, it was banned in Grand Am. Was allowed back in with the take over from ALMS because they wouldn't give that up.
j_tso
Dork
3/18/24 8:34 a.m.
In reply to jmabarone :
Just don't take away peeling out in pit lane
j_tso said:
In reply to jmabarone :
Just don't take away peeling out in pit lane
if they do, it's because of ACO alignment. No wheelspin in the pits at Le Mans.
Hoppps
Reader
3/18/24 10:36 a.m.
In reply to red_stapler :
Can someone screenshot the tweet? I can't view twitter
I'm not a racer, of course, but that does seem a little bit like poor racecraft. It offers zero benefits and only increases the chances of a (potentially dangerous) driver error.
j_tso
Dork
3/18/24 1:29 p.m.
brandonsmash said:
I'm not a racer, of course, but that does seem a little bit like poor racecraft. It offers zero benefits and only increases the chances of a (potentially dangerous) driver error.
Yep. This is my favorite example of that:
So... nobody gonna talk about Derani getting turned in the Fangio esses (by a Ferrari GTD, what a surprise) and ending upside down on the tire wall?
racerfink said:
So... nobody gonna talk about Derani getting turned in the Fangio esses (by a Ferrari GTD, what a surprise) and ending upside down on the tire wall
He should have flashed his lights.
Flashing lights is so lame:
