Contact is a touchy concept (Yeah, I went there
),Ironic that I should be posting in this thread as I am notorious for putting my self in situations for incidental and sometimes intentional contact. There are way too many forms of contact found on the race way, the hard part is telling the what is what. Telling what is intentional and uncalled for, intentional and appropriate, intentional for fun, Intentional for communication, unintentional mistake on their part, unintentional on ones own fault, just to name a few is tough at best. The only way to learn this is through experience. That said about 90 to 95% of all contact among the Tunas is unintentional.
Incidental contact, it happens, and it happens a lot at least for me it does. You have all heard exchanged between me and someone else who bumped me in a corner..."Sorry Ronin" "I'm alive, it's all good" and you know what...it is all good, it tells me people are trying and willing to admit an oops as long as it's in moderation. When you are oopsing in every corner and a couple of straights....then we have an issue.
That 5 to 10% of intentional contact that I have seen is all most all ways all in good fun and goes to improve our racing experience. I love contact when it's all in good fun. Lets say for example you are side by side on the final lap approaching the finish line and you decide it's be fun to grind the door handled of your car and the one next to you....That's awesome, Eggs and I did this the other night, we finished 0:00.003 seconds apart...as allstar would say...."Pure..Adrenaline" and this was a race for forth and fifth of six I think it was. I will admit too there have been a couple times where I know I have made some intentional contact with a little more vindictive intent for lack of a better phrase. One notable incident, one of our better drivers made a bone headed move and crowded me off the track with an uncharacteristic dive and I got no apology. I belted him for it, didn't damage his race any but it made a fuck of a lot of noise and I got my apology.
When it comes to getting belted into the fairway bunkers and the other guy just keeps going....I have no problem saying something. I don't say names because who ever did it knows who they are but yeah, I'm sure a hand full of yall have heard me say the words, "Yeah, I got fucking belted".
For those instances that have been mentioned where some one pulls over for a little door grinding thinking it was unnecessary....If we are bumping and rubbing and I am still right there, don't worry about it. Take that spot or die trying because I intend to try to keep it or die trying. What I prefer over just pulling over after contact is just run your race and if someone suddenly drops off or wrecks in close proximity to you, keep going but ask. "Was that my doing?", "Did we get together back there?", It goes a lot further than just driving off or pulling over "Just in case". If I screw up in close proximity to someone and crash on my own, I'll admit it. On the reverse, if it was someone else's fault and they ask, I'll say so generally in a fairly calm manor. If I wreck wile racing for position and I am enjoying the battle, I'm generally more than willing to let it go, contact induced or not.