Expect incompetence

If you’re a carpenter, you need to be able to hammer nails without smashing your fingers. If you’re a chef, you need to be able to cut vegetables without slicing your hand. If you’re a racecar driver, you need to be able to recover from oversteer without flying across the track and smashing into other cars. Unfortunately, many of the drivers in a budget endurance race have bandaged hands (as it were).

If you find yourself in close proximity to such an event, it could be the end of your race weekend. Here’s a view of the same event from the car that got hit.

FWD cars are especially prone to decelerating oversteer because they don’t have much weight in the rear to begin with. If you’re approaching a high speed or decreasing radius turn,  expect some drivers to brake or lift at the wrong time. Keep a safe distance. If you find yourself approaching a car that has just started to spin, slow down and point your car at them. If they’re ricocheting across track, they probably won’t be in front of you for very long. And if there is contact, it’s better to absorb it on your bumper than your wheel.