Wrecked Magazine
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Ever since Formula D added Evergreen Speedway to the calendar in 2006, there has been more carnage in the Final Four at Evergreen than at any other track. For four of the first five years at the track, a major crash happened in the final four every single year. From Okubo and Yamamoto colliding in 2006 in the final to Forsberg crashing against Vaughn Gittin Jr in the semis of 2007, followed by JR and Eric O’Sullivan colliding in the semi-finals in 2009 and Tuerck crashing against Foust in the final in 2010, the Monroe racetrack has been a track that has produced excitement in one way or another.
This year, at Evergreen Speedway, a very rare situation came into play where a driver de-beaded a tire, and was not allowed to change his tire because he had already used his sole ‘competition timeout’ to fix a similar issue earlier in the evening. Odi Bakchis was relegated to the Consolation round to fight for the final podium position. As Aasbo collided with Forsberg and was unable to fix his car within the competition timeout period, I assumed that Odi had automatically won third place, similar to how Eric O’Sullivan won second place at Evergreen Speedway back in 2009.
However, Aasbo appeared at the line over 8 minutes later, and the run continued. I was confused.
CLICK HERE to replay the livestream broadcast of the final four. The Aasbo / Forsberg collision happens at 9:30 in the stream. While we can’t determine when the 5-minute competition timeout starts (as the time starts when the car hits the ground in the pits and there wasn’t a camera in the pits), we can hear the announcement that Aasbo’s 5 minute competition timeout has expired at 24:10. Flashing back to our competition timeout post from after New Jersey, you’ll note some key verbiage in the rule as it stands now in the rulebook:
Competitors who fail to make the necessary repairs the allotted time limits will be disqualified from the competition and forfeit to the opposing driver. Teams may only use one (1) Competition Timeout throughout the competition. Additional and concurrent Competition Timeout requests are not allowed unless cited in other sections of these rules.
Watching the livestream further, we see Fredric Aasbo appear in the frame around 32:10, more than 8 minutes after his DQ from missing the 5-minute timeout window. As we know, Odi lost the round due to another de-beaded tire in the One More Time battle, and not being allowed the 30 seconds to change the tire. Should this run have even happened?
After the competition, I had a casual conversation with an FD official and was asked why Aasbo was allowed to compete in the Consolation round, since he missed his 5-minute window. That official responded by asking if I wanted to see a show or see a round where a winner was announced without a battle. The irony was that a winner had been determined by a rule, and the final run of consolation had not been run, so that was a moot point.
In my opinion, the rulebook clearly states that a driver who can’t make it to the line for a 5-minute rule is done for the day. Allowing for additional time for a driver to make it to a consolation battle but not allowing 30-seconds or so to change a de-beaded tire is inconsistent and unfair. In no way do I want to discredit Fredric Aasbo or the Papadakis Racing team for getting the car back together and on the podium. This is more a post about the inconsistency that exists in the rules.
Tomorrow, in our second part of this series, we will give you the explanation as it was given to us from Formula D, as well as reaction from Odi Bakchis.
What’s your opinion? Did Odi deserve the 3rd place win due to Aasbo failing to make it to the line after his competition timeout? Or is it OK to allow for additional time for Aasbo after already missing the 5-minute window?
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