Re:See it as you wish. (Score 1)

Wow, you definitely demonstrated how much classier and less arrogant you are then Michigan.

Based on your discussion of the results, I'm assuming you're from Aurora.

Michigan catches a lot of hell for a) having a lot of sponsors and b) not letting people in our garage at the track and c) wanting to win. Strangely, Nuon, for whom all 3 things are true (they show up for an afternoon to run about 3 practice laps then leave rather than staying with the other teams, to prevent teams from seeing their car more than necessary), never gets bashed. And I can't blame them really, it's ridiculously hectic at the track and having lots of strangers in and out of your garage risks damage to your ridiculously expensive vehicle you spent two years to build, and also distracts you from making sure your car is safe and ready to roll. It's not a product of arrogance or meanness, just concern to maintain a tight ship and avoid unfortunate accidents.

We get all our stuff by working our butts off with sponsors and having a well organized business team - it's not like money fairies come along and drop dollar bills from the sky because we're special or something. Apparently "working hard, being successful, and being proud of it" = arrogance. And that big trailer with a machine shop Michigan gets called arrogant for having has helped other teams get back on the road a lot more often than it's been needed for the Michigan car. Whatever, I guess teams in every sport just need someone to hate.

You're right that it's up to the car behind to maintain a safe distance, which is why Stanford cannot be legally faulted. But I challenge you to prove that you always maintain a completely safe stopping distance, all the time, either in your solar car or in your personal vehicle. Bad things happen outside of your control sometimes. The fact is that a lot of accidents are avoided by luck, even if all the rules are followed to the letter. We tried to maintain a greater distance in the race but had to pull tighter in traffic to avoid gawkers and agressive drivers trying to weave in and out of our caravan, which seemed a lot more dangerous at the time (we rear ended our lead once, but suffered at least a dozen very, very near misses when drivers cut in without leaving enough room between their rear bumper and the front of the solar car, or when they would cut in, reducing our safe stopping distance, and then unexpectedly slow down). It's hardly as simple as you try to make it sound. The accident was the result of a series of unfortunate circumstances and mistakes by both teams involved. If Michigan had more separation, maybe they would have been fine, and maybe they would have ended up rear-ending a civilian who thought that big cushy spot between our cars looked too tempting, safe stopping distance be damned. Who can really know? Of course, none of that excuses the race officials from blatantly failing to follow their own safety rules due to a poorly organized event start that endangered the lives of the competitors.

The WSC could seriously learn a lot from the NASC in terms of safely and effectively organizing an event. Rules are well defined before hand (not made up during the race, a la the 2007 WSC stage stop), starts are well organized to run smoothly, safety requirements on all parts of the vehicle are stricter, and regulations are enforced by the book (e.g. egress in x seconds MEANS egress in x seconds). And I say that in good faith - such organization would really improve the safety and fairness of the sport. Unfortunately, speaking of arrogance, the WSC seems to like to pretend that NASC doesn't exist, and how dare those bloody Yanks think they can suggest anything to us.