Jim: Totally agree that desert racing is different animal to an extent, but passing is passing and take sports car racing where multiple classes are on the course at the same time: Your always catch slower cars and have to deal with traffic. And if it's not a lap race and you are catching them; it is because you are down but regardless as pro drivers they always tell you to hold your line or in the desert move over if/when possible and the passer is responsible for a clean pass. Maybe racers watch much Days of Thunder too many times...
In the dez: Yes, they should yield if/when possible and a bump in a reasonable manner in a place to let them know is correct SOP! But they shouldn't be expected smash themselves off course to avoid the conflict nail driver... With the logic of they need to move now: What happens on a tree lined single line ridge? Uraphan, Goat Trail, Summit, Primm downhill whoops with the bollards, La Rumorosa, single line trench-wash after aquaduct in Parker (425), Mikes road, Beer Bottle Pass, Mikes to Melling trail? Go over the edge or into the rocks? Hold your line? Duck in where possible and if it's not enough, do you push them off so you can advance??? Dust is an age old issue in the sport and if people can't deal with it, maybe tarmac racing is a better option.
I know most on here don't know long time desert race legends like: Roeseler, McChaceran, Le Duc, Mark McMillin, Ashley etc... but it's funny, as you never hear those name affiliated with any big nerf incidents, yet those guys have more wins and overalls: Not only class wins but BAJA & lap race OVERALLS than any of us can even conceive or have or will race. How'd they do it without smashing their way around?
Sidebar Jim: I agree with your and Casey's (RIP) comments! In fact in our little TSCO deal: My wife who was leading and not blocking as he was down and never gave her a chance to block if she wanted to; the co-dog saw them way back and a hand went up and stayed up waiving. They never slowed but she moved right looking for a hole and there was a line to the left and the DICKHEAD plowed them out of frustration. I went after Casey at the finish and he came back at me, then on the podium I commented on the incident and asked the responsible party to let me know what happened and if it was legit, I owe them a beer. Ironically the whole team was parked 50' away and heard me, but we didn't know it was them until a few weeks later. I sent Casey an email Tuesday after the race and he said racing incident as there was no proof and we didn't know the car etc... When Casey became aware of it via another email after we saw the video and I reached out the them off the airways to find out WTF they were thinking, and they lied and played the we are rich TT dickweeds etc,: When Casey saw the incar they posted and the comment which went something like: "We were trying to make up time and had to do what we had to do". CASEY called the boys and tore them a new one and then he called me and apologized for telling me it was probably a racing incident. When he found out the rest of the story from the PM I hadn't told him in my email, where they lied to me and him he went off at them again, very hard. The next week I got 3 calls from Casey as he read the thread on RDC on bad nerfs and saw their comments, we talked a lot about stupide nerfs, entitlements and clueless racers.
Moral of the story: There is a right way and wrong way and we all have a choice to be part of the problem or part of the solution. Most will not say a thing or follow the cool kids as they are lemmings, but some of us will and karma is a bitch...
