Who's to blame? There's been a lot of debate on the LeMons forums about who bears most of the responsibility for the wreck. You decide, below.
Here's the view from inside the ONSET Cavalier. We see the Cavalier's driver going for a pass in Turn 10 at Infineon, apparently trying to use the #25 Team Automatica E30 as a "pick" on the #44 No Whining Wracing Team Maxima. The Maxima's driver moves over, PITs the Cavalier, which then hits the E30… and then terrible stuff happens, culminating in a horrible impact with a concrete wall and a cracked vertebrae for the Cavalier driver.
Tyler, the Cavalier's driver, is going to be fine; no surgery needed (though he'll spend quite a while in a neck brace), but there's been a lot of debate on the LeMons forums about who bears most of the responsibility for the wreck. The Maxima's driver visited Tyler in the hospital and there appear to be no hard feelings there, but the mood at the track was virulently anti-Maxima at the time; in fact, the Nissan won the People's Curse as a result. Fanning the flames was the fact that the ONSET team has been racing Cavaliers in LeMons forever and its members are much beloved by the veterans, while the Maxima guys are relative newcomers.
Here's the incident as captured from the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys' Peugeot 505:
Here's the immediate aftermath, as seen from the Metro-Gnome, showing Tyler escaping the burning car.
So, racing experts (and everyone else), on whom would you place the blame here? Cavalier? Maxima? Both? If both, what's the percentage blame split?