Turn 2 Debate: IMSA Pit Lane Etiquette

Column By: DAYLON BARR & JOHN DOUGLAS / RPW – In this week’s Turn 2 Debate, we take a look at the rules in IMSA surrounding pit lane etiquette. Should drivers be forced to merge safely? Does endurance racing need more excitement on pit lane? Daylon Barr, Photographer for RPW and lead IMSA Editor, and John Douglas, Lead IMSA, Indycar and NHRA writer for RPW debate the issue:

Daylon: “This has been the rule for as long as they’ve had it, (2015) and it’s now affected a couple drivers in Daytona, and now Sebring, possibly preventing a win.”

John: “I’ve seen this done in Europe before.It’s done mostly for safety, to make sure there’s no real incidents on pit road. With place like Sebring that have purpose built Sports Car style garage areas with the paddock built into the pit lane, I think it’s a good rule. You’ve got a lot more crew members out there, and a lot more exposure for people to get hurt.”

Daylon: ” As well as crews, they also allow photographers out there as long as they are in a fire suit but I personally believe a hot pit road is nowhere for media personnel, whether that be broadcast, or photographers. Pit road is someplace you can really make up some ground, make up some time. If you’re forced to get over to the right lane, even if it’s a millimeter the car has established on your rear bumper, you have to give ground to them, and if there’s a car behind them, you have to give ground to that car too. That’s two spots you can lose when you don’t beat them out of your pit box.”

John: “Absolutely, that’s a great point. Most of the time you’re going to see these kind of calls made during an endurance event.Where you have more chance for a “Choke point” caution. Where everyone pits at the same time and the entire field is on pit road. You’re not going to see that as much in the short sprint events. In the endurance events, you have plenty of time to make that loss of ground on pit lane back up. In reality, even though a 24 hour race can be run like a sprint race, driers still have time on their side, with cautions, wave around procedures and the large amount of traffic on track holding people up.”

Daylon: “It would have really cost the 911 Porsche a legitimate shot at the win in Sebring. They came out, they were ahead of the Ferrari and had half a car length on them and they did not give way. The Ferrari ended up falling behind and giving way to the Porsche. Now the Porsche was penalized for running over an air hose but it would have still been a penalty for not yielding in the pit lane and would’ve prevented them from getting the win. It just kills, kills, kills in the final hour when having a shot to even get close to victory lane.”

John: “I feel for those guys. They were on a charge. I think the came from ninth to third in the stint before the pit stop. Although I do agree you don’t need penalties to kill a race. That’s the last thing a promoter or sanctioning body wants to do. They do not enjoy having to make that call. The only thing I’m saying, is if you’re going to allow media and other personnel to be out in the pit lane, you have to have some kind of safety rule in effect to make sure those cars are coming down as single file as possible, and not seeing drag races down the pit lane. Now unfortunately other series have that, like NASCAR and Indy Car but at most sports car events they have a Formula 1 style pit lane, which is very narrow, with very large pit boxes. It makes it very difficult for a side by side battle on pit lane with the narrow lane and large boxes. It’s hard to justify pit lane battles with such narrow road, when two cars just need to touch wheels the wrong way and have a car sitting in a pit box it was never supposed to be in.”

Daylon: “Even though this is more formal, and structured racing, once these drivers leave their pit box they should still be able to be given right away if they beat the car next to them out by a nose. you shouldn’t have to penalize someone if they have the position coming out.”

John: “It’s every bit as dangerous as any other pit lane in racing already. I do think personally that if they need to take up as much space in a pit lane as they do for these teams to set up their fueling rigs and other equipment, that widening pit lane out would be a good option. There’s a major choke point at the entry and exit of pit boxes. You have to understand that these people driving these cars are racers first. They are competitors and they are going to try to gain every inch they can during every second of a race event.Maybe widening out the actual pit lane road itself by another six feet so cars have more room to run side by side is the answer?”

Daylon: “Have you seen how wide that Sebring front stretch is? They could add another half a lane easily to that pit road. IT’s still not going to change the rule about merging.”

John: “Well if they make the pit lane wider they can change that rule.”

Daylon: “So you’re saying they could run side by side?”

John: “If they had more space like at Pocono in NASCAR, it’s a hell of a lot wider pit lane than at Martinsville. If they can at least race out of the pit box to establish who’s in front and who’s behind, the car behind should give right of way to the car in front and merge that way. If two cars come to a stop sign at the same time the rule is the guy on the right gets to go. Well in this scenario if the pit lane is wide enough, then you can safely release cars side by side and establish who’s in front of who and the car behind must give way.”

Daylon: “Exactly. Your crew performed better than the other crew, or just beat a car coming off the track on to the pit lane. You should be rewarded for that.”