We are starting our new “You Are There” series that will take you inside some of the more exciting, controversial and scary moments from the past few years in H1 Unlimited history. Here Steve David explains the call from a VERY crowded start of the 2012 Seafair Cup Heat 3A: In this video things get very tight at the entry to turn 3 and at the apex approaching the start: At 10 seconds the 5 passes the 1 minute (commitment buoy), shortly thereafter the 1 moves in then out. At 26 seconds the 5 loses his lane by virtue of the 5 boat overlap rule (5 boats before start, 7 boat lengths after the start). At 34 seconds 6 has overlap and moves to lane 2 with the 11 in lane 1, the 5 in lane 3 and the 1 in lane 4. At 35 seconds 5 has no lane as the 1 has moved over. At 37 seconds the 5 moves to lane 3. All looks OK for 2 seconds. At 41 seconds the 1 moves over into the 5s lane, at 42 seconds the 5 turns hard left to avoid hitting the 1 and hits the 6. Shortly thereafter the 5 jumps outside and makes his start. The Call: The 1 is penalized for lane encroachment with a 1 lap penalty and I think $250 fine, and the 6 (me) is penalized 1 lap for lane encroachment. I was rather upset with the call against me. I went to the KIRO truck to review all of their angles. Shortly thereafter officials at H-1 said no one could see the KIRO video and chided KIRO for allowing us into their production truck. (It was at this point that I said to myself, golly, if I ever ran this sport, the videos would be public as soon as possible,,,,,) A final takeaway, sometimes it just isnt your race. When a lane disappears it disappears. You hope the right call is made and you do the best with what you still have left. I remember driving the T-Plus in Kansas City in the mid 90s heading into turn 3 with maybe 1,000 feet before the entry pin. The Bud, the Circus and the Winston were all about 5 boat lengths in front of me (and they were slowly extending that lead) and I had maybe 3 feet of clearance on either side with roostertails becoming more pronounced on each sponson. Do I hang in there and hope to get thru the turn right side up, or wait for another opportunity? Stay tuned next week for another video in the You Are There series :)
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 21:06:26 +0000
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