Rubbing isn’t racing

Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall): No, no, he didn’t slam you, he didn’t bump you, he didn’t nudge you… he rubbed you. And rubbin, son, is racin’.

Iconic movie quotes aside, rubbing is not racing. You’re not supposed to make contact with other cars and many racing series have explicit rules against car contact. The common 13/13 rule states that any at-fault contact with another car puts you on probation for 13 months. If you get into another such incident during probation, it gets you suspended for 13 months. This incident happened in 24 Hours of LeMons and the penalty in situations like these is generally harsh language.

Who is at fault here? There’s no question that the Miata instigated the incident by cutting off the 240Z (camera car). That was bad driving. But if you’re going to race in a crapcan series, you have to expect bad driving. The accident could have been avoided had the 240Z driver slowed or given more room. Sometimes it’s not possible to do that and you just have to take a little contact and keep driving. That’s easier to do when you keep two hands on the wheel. When the Miata touched the 240Z, the steering wheel spun out of the driver’s hand, which resulted an extreme steering angle and all the nonsense that followed.