Gridlife Track Video Opinions

[G.Irish]

Skip to 9:00.  So Matt Farah who does the One Take series shot a video of the Civic Type-R out at Gridlife in Atlanta.  In this little sequence he passed three cars without a point by, which were in the process of passing another car.  So, if you were head instructor or race director what would your call be here?



On r/cars Farah said: 

Haha yeah someone complained about that pass but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, and I needed to make a video so I made a move.

I'm kinda like...soooo you broke the rules and put other drivers at risk for your youtube video?  

[.RJ]

On r/cars Farah said: 

Haha yeah someone complained about that pass but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, and I needed to make a video so I made a move.

I'm kinda like...soooo you broke the rules and put other drivers at risk for your youtube video?  

"you should not have done that"

[Senor_Taylor]

Off topic, but am I the only one seeing this as broken styling? Seems to happen a lot lately on tapatalk.

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[JPolen01]

No I see it too. G's quotes are all jacked up.

[ScottyB]

black flag and sit the session out. any more shenanigans, out for the event.

not only did he break some rules, he broke rules directly related to the safety of the event, in the fastest section of the track, and flaunted it unapologetically. those other people on the track could have potentially been caught up in a major accident due to not expecting him in that place at that time, and as a result could have gone home injured. all for some douchebag's youtube ad money. even at journalistic standards, there's no excuse to pull a maneuver like that in those close quarters.

Farah can eat a deep fried buffet of dicks. his "internet fame" looks like its gone to his head at this point (the only reason a "track regular" would willingly act this way) and i don't think he's a particularly talented driver either, so no loss if he goes away.

[BLINGMW]

Wooooow that was sketchy

[rherold9]

I unsubscribed from Matt about 5 months ago for many reasons and now this makes me feel even better for doing so.

[JPolen01]

Finally had time to check out the video and wow that was sketchy. Talk about literally shooting gap.

[JustinG]

Nothing could have been done mid session without a corner reporting a sketchy pass. Knowing what I do about corner workers it would have never been reported. Then you need to rely on someone reporting the sketchy pass to an official after the session is over, and then showing video, and no one typically wants to invest that much effort into getting someone in trouble unless they bent some sheet metal or had a code brown in the process. He said someone complained, but we dont know if the complaint was to an official or just driver to driver.

Regardless, sketchy pass where he should have fallen in line, slowed, and passed with the group.

If I see this video as an official, you are done for the day, and then depending on your excuse, bye bye for the weekend.

[Sully]

Did anyone keep watching?

Was it just me (with no track classroom time) but did he continue to drive like an ass? If he's in a type of session that gives point bys to begin with, shouldn't be he not be trying to"block" other cars. Now I don't know if he actually tried or if the E46 just couldn't catch him but his comment made it sound like he wouldn't let him by. And I have a hard time believing that viper couldn't have caught him either. Seemed like a decent line of cars behind him when he starts giving point bys.

And also, I don't think that pass on the WRX was completely legal either? And if it was, had the WRX not given a point by or went that wide, it sounded like he would have dive bombed the shit out of him by the way he talked.

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[ScottyB]

Was it just me (with no track classroom time) but did he continue to drive like an ass?

given that the premise of his main show (The Smoking Tire) is to basically speed up and down mountain roads in other peoples' cars in traffic, this is pretty much how he normally operates.  

did it for the views brah!

[ViPER1313]

https://youtu.be/b7iUKaPlBl8

[Jake]

The only place a pass like that would have been acceptable would be in W2W racing.

[G.Irish]

Watching the video at first I was like, 'Ehhh that was no bueno'. But after thinking about this and seeing his explanation, I'm at "BAN HIM". Breaking the rules and endangering others for your internet video shows a wanton disregard for safety in an environment where it could cost someone their life. If I were the head of another track day org I would blacklist him before he had a chance to register for any of my events.

[Jake]

Reading some of his replies, he clearly thinks he's above the rules. Hope he doesn't come to a NASA-MA even and try a stunt like that.

[Sully]

Are the comments on Reddit? All I see on YouTube is a bunch of idiots. There are people saying how great a driver he is because of and how awesome that pass was. They clearly think this is a racing group or have a very very bad misunderstanding of track days (@ the level of the group he's driving in)

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[ScottyB]

YouTube is a bunch of idiots

fairly accurate.  never read the comments.

Farah's reddit circlejerk isn't calling him out on it either, but again you're dealing with a bunch of people that already excuse and/or celebrate the way he drives on public roads, so they couldn't care less.

[Sully]

It's just funny how they think he's this awesome driver for making a pass like that? It wasn't like an amazing pass, he just weaved through a bunch of unsuspecting (most likely) STUDENTS who weren't looking for a jackass making passes like that cause they had not given any point bys. I'm fairly confident that 70-90% of this board could make a pass just as unsafely as he did lol. (But most would not because they have done at least the one track day it takes to know that this is not ok.

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[ScottyB]

It's just funny how they think he's this awesome driver for making a pass like that?

its because none of them have set foot on a track and the most familiarity they probably have is watching people free-for-all on the nurburgring with open passing.  HPDE's are structured the way they are for a reason...too bad nobody outside the real track scene knows that.

[Sully]

In regards to G's latest post, if I was the head of an organization, the pass itself would not necessarily ban him but definitely Black flag and strict talking to. But (although I have not seen them) his comments afterwards for his reasoning and how he thinks he's above the law of the track and the knowing disregard for the safety of fellow drivers would probably get him banned for at least awhile if not permanent. He knows full well what he did was completely wrong and yet did it anyway with a fuck it attitude. Which is a very dangerous attitude to have in an atmosphere such as a racetrack

If I pour all my extra income and free time into a car and am in that group trying to learn and work my way up to a race class and this asshat does that shit and I ball my car up, I'm going to be pretty pissed, not only at him but the organization that let him on track essentially outside his group to film some shitty review.



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