I watched the video on my phone yesterday, I'm not going to watch it again. My thoughts-
When you ride that outside line, in these open wheel cars the berm can be your worst enemy.. You want to be able to ride that cushion, but if you get pushed into the berm you are going to go for a ride.
Going into turn 1, Tony had what looked to be a slower car riding the low side, causing him to move up to that middle line. Ward, on the outside would have saw that same car on the bottom, and would have known that Tony was going to try to take him on the outside. Which to me, someone who raced smaller versions of these cars in my younger days would have resulted in me either 1. checking up for a split second, and riding tonys ass around the slower car. or 2. checking up a little longer, trying to get to the low side of tony, hoping tony comes out of the corner high enough to leave room for me to go low of him, and pass the slower car high. (I'm just assuming that the car in front of these two was a touch slower, and Tony went into turn one expecting to pass and clear that car) As Tony took that middle lane, you can see his car start to drift high. There isnt much you can do about that, and still stay up to speed. So you ride it out. If I'm coming around a car on the outside, and that car starts to drift up, I'm checking up. Tony can hear Wards car, so he knows he's close, but doesnt know how close. I was always taught that the car ahead of you has the right of way. Ward stayed on the throttle, kept that high line, got into some loose stuff which sent him into the berm. I really dont see any evidence that shows they even touched tires. To me, this was a typical racing accident, and not something that should have resulted in getting out of the car, and confronting the driver on the track.
I pulled into the pits once, and threw my helmet. I was p!ssed, and was planning on heading over to the other drives pit, to have a talk. After I threw my helmet, I went to climb out of my car. My dad was there, and practically drug me out of the car. "A kid that looses his cool, has no business on a track.. plus, your mother just bought you that helmet". I've never gotten out of my car on the track, unless the safety crew told me to. My dad would have killed me. There are a million things going on under caution. Checking gauges, changing the position of the wing, changing suspension, checking out different lines on the track, trying to spot your dad in the pit grandstands to get one of the many hand signals we had. The last thing you need to worry about is somebody standing there. The only damage I noticed was a flat right rear. Should have sat in his car, got towed back, had the tire changed, and I'm sure they would have let him back on the track during the next caution.
So. now Ward is on the track. walking down the track. I mentioned the things you are dealing with going around the track under caution. The right side view is blocked pretty good by the wing. I'm 90% sure Tony didnt see him until it was too late. It does look like he hit the gas, which kicked the rear out, making it look like he turned to the right. I didnt watch the slow mo video, but I'm pretty sure the only reason it looks like he turned to the right, is because the rear end kicked out, the front tires stay where they are, and the rest of the car kicks to the right, when you let off, it straightens out.
Idk. I wasent there. This just seems like a freak accident that could have been avoided if the kid would have stayed in the car.
