Quote:
Originally Posted by telecasterguru
Can someone give me a reason why they go faster than the speed limit?
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I'll give you one Frank, but it'll involve a bit of a story so please be patient.
Each year in November I compete in a 6 Hour relay race at Winton motor raceway. As I also help to organise the event I drive up on Friday arvo in the racecar packed to the rafters with spares etc. I get to the event and start to help setup my team's garage and the event administration. On the way up I travel at or about the posted speed limit (110kmh), usually for the last hour or so of the two and a bit hour trip I am struggling with fatigue, even though I have stopped along the way.
During the weekend I have been competing in a three person team, I was due to go out last for a two hour stint. One of the cars broke down a bit early so I ended up going out for about 2.5 hours. The idea of the race is to set a lap time and try to reproduce it, there are 40 odd other cars on the circuit with me, we have to negotiate each other and drive pretty much flat out whilst trying to be consistent. I haven't suffered from fatigue yet, of course I do end up tired, but mentally sharp.
On the way home (on the Monday after the race) I again suffer during the last hour of the trip home.
So my conclusion is that travelling at 110kmh is not stimulating enough to make me concentrate. As the stats show fatigue is the cause of the crash, not speed. If I use my road car it is even less stimulating as I use the cruise control. If I was allowed to go faster I would as I would be less likely to fall foul of fatigue.
During my time on the track I have rarely seen an accident caused by speed. I have seen many caused by driver inexperience. I have spun my car at about 150kmh on the final turn at Phillip Island and ended up rearwards into the pit wall. I can usually go through that particular turn at full throttle, by the track conditions had changed and I ignored the feedback I was getting from the car and relied on the experience I had gained through many laps of the circuit. I also should have changed the tyres as the ones I had were worn out, but I was being cheap (yeah, that worked!). However if the coppers analysed the accident they would have concluded that I went through the corner too fast so would have blamed speed.
Cheers
Stuart