Drop-Down Bumpers: From Someone Who Was There
| 5 March 2015 |
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Following yesterday's post about the controversial CIK-FIA "drop down" front fairing, Glen Plumb sent us his observations of the new homologation bumpers in use at the Winter Cup at Lonato the other week. Glen's son, Brock, competed in the KZ2 class at the famous event.
Hi Mark,
Just thought I would throw my opinion at you on the drop down nose cones currently used in Europe, and some incidents maybe not considered in your previous posts.
My son Brock Plumb recently competed at Lonato in Italy for the Winter Cup along with the Team Australia lads and Lochie Hughes.
My opinion is that all Australians would have made the finals had it not been for these nose cones.
You may read it that this means they were too aggressive. Not so.
At least twice the nose cones were still "attached" but the boys were given 30 second penalties regardless. Also, in KZ, if a driver you are following misses a gear, stalls at the start or has an engine seizure you pay the penalty of 30 sec although you could never avoid him nor have you shown any aggression in driving style.
Also, if you are brake checked after crossing the finish line or brake checked when coming into the in grid (a top tactic if you wish not to have problems from this driver in the next heat), all these incur the 30 sec penalty.
Another fault with the system is the differing nose cone designs.
Plenty of OTK karts were seen to be colliding but few seemed to lose nose cones. Had me rushing around buying OTK nose cone clamps, but on reflection it was purely that some nose cone and clamp designs are very rigid and others have more flex, thus absorbing more force and staying on.
This means that all karts should have the same clamps and nose cones to be fair, otherwise this would be the next way manufacturers would go to gain an advantage.
Seems also that the pass is now made with a huge dive and offering side pod rather than the traditional bump and run, so the tactics have just changed, that's all.
Don't think I'm not for this type of device.
It's just this system is far too open for "playing the system" and needs a lot of refinement before being something I would like to see here.
Regards,
Glen Plumb
Above: Brock Plumb at speed in Italy
pic - KSP
