No wonder there's too many yellows in modern era of Indycar street course races. Look at this race and how many disabled cars scattered throughout the course. It took them what seems to be forever to get it off the track.
I Have a New Auto Racing Movie Called Five Angry Men. Starring Roger Penske. Rick Mears. Steffan Johanssen. Al Unser Jr. Rick Galles. And Also Starring Wally Dalenbach As The Crooked Race Official.
When the replay pauses at 30:42, the flagman has the yellow flag in hand, but he withdraws it to wave the green. According to the rulebook, as read by Paul Page, the start was validated by the flagman, and therefore legal. Like Uncle Bobby at Indy in 1981, the rule was written poorly, yet what happened on track was not worthy of a penalty.
If the car on the pole isn't supposed to cross the line first, then what the hell's the point of being/starting first? It pretty clearly looked like Emmo had a car-length on Nigel before the green flag flew. A drive thru should have been sufficient (but they were all about stop and go's back then), or giving the position back. I felt that the penalty was fair...I think there was backlash because it was the European Rookie (reigning F1 champ) "caused" it.
These guys were the best IndyCar broadcasting team ever, but I'm baffled at how wrongly they described Emo's penalty. It wasn't about who crossed the LINE first. It was that Emo jumped Mansell by easily a car length BEFORE the green was thrown. 28:12 The starter blew it. Never should have thrown the green. Pole sitter has the right to control the start-that is, be in front-at the green.
