rec.autos.simulators

   In light of the recent Indy 500 pacecar fiasco, I was wondering if anyone
knows the official NASCAR rule regarding passing other cars on the start and
restart of a race.  In the Papyrus sim if you get a good jump as the green flag
starts waving it is possible to pass a good number of cars right away.  I may
be mistaken, but I seem to recall hearing somewhere that in real life it is
illegal to pass on a start/restart until you actually cross the start/finish
line.  While the sim doesn't penalize you or give you a black flag for doing so
I was just curious as to how this is handled in real life.  Anyone know?

Ian McIlroy
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Pat
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Pat Campbell                                                    Go #6, #94  
Huntsville, AL                                          

The Auburn Baseball Tigers--Regular Season SEC West Division Champs!
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Stuart.

Stuart Booth
Transport Routeing Software

Stuart, it was horrific!! Scott Goodyear, on his way to carrying Honda and Firestone
to thier first victory, had a problem all race long with restarts. It seemed that
the Honda required a bit of a run to get going. Goodyear held up the field in anti-
cipation of getting a good run at the start/finish line. He finally floored it as he
entered turn 3, calculating that the pace car would be off the track by then(this is
where the controversy lies). As he screamed around turn 4, he came within a few
feet of tearing the passenger side off of the Corvette pace car! With a 150 yard
lead over the field, the green flag dropped anyways. A lap later, the officials
decided that since he passed the pace car, he would receive the black flag. He
ignored the flag, and with 5 laps led in the race, officials stopped counting his
car. Goodyear claimed after the race that the green lights had come on around the
track and thus, told him that the car was off the track, but the bottom line was that
he passed the pace car. Villenueve and the rest of the field stayed back, and
Jacques held on to take the victory. It's an Indy that will not soon be forgotten...

Hope this satisfied your curiosity...

Julio C. Chacon. Jr
Officially Sanctioned Race Fanatic

[Excellent description munched!]

Certainly did, thanks! I've had a few close shaves like that with cars
coming out of the pit lane in Nascar!!! I'd have loved to have seen
the race but now that Nigel Mansell's not in the Indycar series (nor
Formula One by the look of things!!) we get no coverage on the main
channels over here. Bummer.

Much appreciated.

Stuart.
Stuart Booth
Transport Routeing Software