What will it mean if Daigo wins the Championship?

[Bebop]

I watch F1, World Challenge, Rolex Series, ALMS and a few other series on a weekly basis. And I think anyone who watches these sports will all agree its most entertaining when the battles are close dog fights.

Nobody wants to watch Sebastian Vettel stretch out a 30 second lead.

Nobody wants to watch 2+ car gap tandem battles.

I for one still care about the technical side of the sport. But I know to make the battles more exciting everything just cant be based of the biggest widest qualifying line and angle. When a F1 driver lines up on grid hes not thinking to himself "If I do exactly what I did in qualifying I'm going win" because that's a totally different strategy for a totally different task.

[boxmod]

we all agree that it is more exciting when cars are close together.

but if you are playing it safe to do so it is not really impressive to me. i thought that FD's decision to allow a shallow entry really made to much room for drivers to cut in. The first transition going into the outer zone is where drivers should be able to toss their car in close as they enter the braking zone.

but ok, lets agree that the judges allowed the follow car to enter shallow... they didn't say that the lead car could do so.

Ryan even said on the mic that "maybe there is a language barrier that is causing Daigo to not understand that when leading he needs to be wide." Conrad was trying to do it right and go wide WITH him and ride his door, but Daigo cut it short when he was not supposed to. THATS where the majority of his gap on Conrad came from, not from Conrad lacking so much. There was no way for Conrad to anticipate Daigo to enter on that early line when leading.

I have watched and driven so much tandem, its very hard to stick to someone that deviates from a given line/instruction. We talk about it in ProAm all the time, how the judges want us together but lots of times in ProAm you can't trust the other guy to even not spin, let alone be on line and at speed.

I agree 100% with you Bebop on how its exciting, but I don't agree about how the judges 'made it easy' for people to follow close. Jarod used to call this move "bee-lining" but now its encouraged.

I think that the OMT was given because the judges saw "Daigo was offline leading" vs "Conrad let Daigo create a gap".... which is a result from Daigo's mistake. To me, a driver's error should not be allowed to give him an advantage.

It will be interesting to see what line 'flexibility' there is at Wall, and how the judges handle someone riding the middle/low line on the bank when leading.

We all want the same result (close tandem).

[my 1 88 u]

What is safe about the way Daigo follows and why aren't more drivers doing it?
Less angle is not the same as shallow angle. If you can chase like Daigo while matching or bettering angle then you obviously deserve a strong advantage.

[boxmod]

I just wateched more video from the battle we are talking about with Conrad. During his lead run Conrad pulls a gap on Saito after saito was close and then Saito gets really low angle to get back on Conrads door.... yet when leading Saito has no issue keeping distance with big angle. It all comes down to being aggressive on transitions and throwing the angle into it and maintaining speed. Daigo plays it safe by not tossing in as much angle behind someone and then getting up to them then dialing some angle back in. I'm not saying others dont, I'm just saying people are praising him for a style that we have seen in FD get shunned/caused losses for years.

Saito leads: watch how much angle saito has on his lead run in the outer zone (and note his front bumper on the cones on entry). though Conrad never closes the gap, his angle is great the whole time (though he does dive in, then brake, giving Daigo a gap again).
then watch
conrad leads: has a mid/wider line, and saito matches him on the entry very well, but then in the outer zone get really low angle and gets on conrad who has much better angle and line there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDr-I_kl0OU

i understand the reason Daigo won (based on the 'allowances' by the judging criteria), but I guess I'd like to see him on the right line when leading and carry more angle when following. We all know he is super badass driver that can do magic with a car.

[sytfu]

so what you're saying is, you want everyone on full lock at all times througout the entire run?

[Bebop]

This is just starting to become a debate between American Style and Traditional (Japanese) Style... and some are just really failing to grasp the concept of bringing the two together which is what we have here now.

I hope the insider show really fully explains the new criteria on the next episode.

Until then Go Daigo I guess...

[boxmod]

@at guy on last page
are you able to read or just put words in my mouth. i said the follow driver should have to maintain the angle of the lead car (like FD has always said) instead of this less angle is ok because we know its a hard course and doing it is hard. This is FD. FD used to be a straight=0 and 2 wheels off =0....

now we have deductions for not drifting a section and its ok to be offline and low angle so you can be close.

i dont know how this is confusing... drifting is about angle, and line, with a hint of speed. to be badass, you do that next to someone. in competitions your supposed to drive better (more angle, more speed, more correct line, snappier transitions) than the other guy. if we focus this much on proximity that we let drivers shallow up its going make the lead car start to sacrifice to keep his gap so he doesnt get beat... soon itll be a road course drag race with poweslides.

Daigo is such a good driver, i guarantee that if FD says chase drivers must match leader, he will still be able to be close while doing that, And you know thats even better.

Your acting like I'm being unreasonable or saying someone isnt good.

@bebop yea i guess you're right, but as a fan of the art, i still like driving to most angle possible every
run for the fun of it. i cant dial it back 20% to play it safe or the run feels boring. just my personal take on it.

[my 1 88 u]

If the cars aren't close it isn't a tandem. Following extremely close with slightly less angle is more risky and requires a hell of a lot more skill than matching angle safely at two car lengths back.

Of course the ultimate follow is extremely close through out the entire course, matching or bettering angle. The best chases I've ever seen is Ueo at Sekia Hills touching his rear bumper to the rear bumpers of the lead drivers. I also loved seeing Taniguchi set up a pass from two turns back. His style was late apex the first corner, early apex the second corner to stick his nose in then pass on the outside on the switch back. Like what JR should have done to Daigo in Atlanta.

[ASD Team]

I don't really care which way FD goes with this. Our cars and drivers will react accordingly.

The part I'm not stoked on right now is that no one really knows what is preferred for tandem battles. Drivers meeting says one thing, past history in FD implies something different, but reaction to runs on track at Palm Beach created a third standard that wasn't described in drivers meeting for the event and also wasn't what has been acceptable in the past.

Give the fans whatever they want. And then just as importantly, explain very carefully to the teams and drivers what that is, and don't change it during the event so we are all playing by the same standards and have a fair fight on track. And stop changing it for a while, give everyone a chance to get on the same page so the confusion stops and we have awesome tandem battles and everyone knows how they are judged - fans, teams, and drivers alike.

At that point, may the best man win.

For the record, I'm stoked that Daigo has come to FD. I just want a level established playing field so we know how to run him. Then it will start being really fun and the tandem battles will be insane. You haven't seen anything yet once we all get on the same page, its going to be epic.

[stedriftward]

One thing that has remained true through out the history of judging in FD is point deductions for understeer during entry and of course the cause of a spin......Put two and two together and I'm sure you'll get what I'm talking about..........Want a hint?

JTP's follow run in the final four at PBIR.

Check the live stream archives.....It's apparent.

[my 1 88 u]

Let's not forget he punted the outside clip and corrected his steering to almost straight on his lead.

[Bebop]

As long as you put the wheel spacers up front its all good!

[Mike Peters]

How to win FD no matter what the judging has ''changed'' to from a follow position

1) Stick to dudebro's door, match his line/speed angle.

That has always been that way.

[Lifer]

Bingo we have a weiner

[Bebop]

.

That has always been that way.

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