Bearing away..........

[mercguy]

simple enough.........

As a Referee I make a point of the bearing away rule at drivers meeting. It can be a difficult call exiting the first turn from the Judges stand. drivers know this and do take advantage of it at times. What I see most is a boat overtaking another boat exiting the turn and the boat being overtaken drifts out. The amount that the boat drifts out of their normal line is where the call can be made. They all have excuses such as I went to hard into the turn and could not turn the boat so i drifted out. Etc.
In the olds days I put oak rub rails on my CU and DU. One who drifted out and wanted to make contact returned to the pits with a hole in the side of there boat. Did not take long for for it to stop.

if the inside boat is pushing you out to the weeds, then it is your fault for letting it happen, hold you lane and the incoming boat will realize you have had enough.......we all try to push out the outside boat some, until that boat quites giving..........

[RichardKCMo]

Still don't have a POrnagraph!~!!

But after all these yrs. , if none have seen Fred Miller or Ron Hill drive a runabout this is moot.
Old days are probly really gone, but as Dan says it ain't all Chocolates, or shouldn't be anyways....
RichardKCMo

[RandY Aveline]

To Quote BW below Rubbin is Racin on the dirt track or on Nascar asphalt

but rubbin is not racin to me in these boats i work too hard to have some yahoo tear up my wood work and paint job cause he want to rub and usually the guy doing the rubbin is the guy that get the bad end of it you want to rub, rub ur dog, rub ur wife or go nas car racing

Good question.....

I have asked this of a couple of Referees and been consistantly told the only time they might consider calling it is if someone "pushed" another driver into a hazardous situation. Like a bridge pier, dock, another driver, or off the course.

Rubbin' is racin', right?

Personally, I think the rule should either be enforced (unlikely), or re-written to reflect the actual way it is implemented.

I can only think of one time I ever saw it called. It was at Lochaven, PA in 25SSR back when we raced under the bridge. Someone tried to push another driver into the bridge pier coming out of the second turn.

Sounds like a good topic to bring up during the "dead time". After the Nats, but before the National Meeting.

Cheers,
BW

[Al Peffley]

It All Gets Back to Safety

Many decisions at APBA Headquarters and the National Meetings are made under the subject title of "Safety". This is a good thing when used in the right areas. This is one of those areas not usually directly addressed by the racing community. This is a good thread. The penalty for every level of bearing away or hacking infraction does not need to be a DQ, but some penalty needs to be regularly enforced so that unsafe driving is discouraged and recognized by all drivers. The medical bills can be devastating to a family and the impact to our insurance rates can be very costly in race fees.

If the offending driver is obviously driving with the intention of eliminating the other competitor and forcing that competitor into the drivng lane of another boat in the field, then the turn judge should call the infraction and the barge should support the turn judge. In other forms of motor racing, judges are trained and certified like inspectors to keep the judgements fair to all participants (new drivers and those old enough to know better.) I don't care how long some turn judges have raced; many judges have not been properly trained by APBA and should not be volunteering to serve in that position (especially in Turn 1).

Turn Judge training should be mandatory for every driver with more than five seasons of racing in APBA on a five-year renewal cycle, and, the existing driving safety "rules" should be reviewed every two years at the National Meeting based on feedback from the annual training sessions in each region. Annual training sessions could be set up by drawing 10 names from that region each year and given just before the start of the racing season -- you don't take the class, you don't race. The sessions would train judges and drivers alike in the name of on-course racing safety.

My thoughts...

[Kip69w]

Ok..
Sell the two turn boats and two motors that power them. Then we get remote controled, panning, highly zoomable digital camera's aimed at turn one and turn two. Of course we'd have to elevate them on 10 to 20 foot high tripods of some kind....

THEN- You fire the four un-edumucated-sunbathing turn judge wanna-be's and get just TWO turn judges operating these cameras at the judges stand.... Kewl?

Problem solved?? All in favor??

[srunne]

Ask Mr. Nydal about bearing away, he teaches it well.

[blueskyracer]

Al, see PM just sent

[Dave M]

Really ?

I could name more than a dozen that bear away at any race on any weekend if you go by the way the rule book is written. We all have done it or had it done to us. Some just do it more than others without mentioning any names.