Hot Lap : Crossing the Mustard
I may be on your side when you see me, but I'll be on my side when you pass me.
Chances are, you, the reader, fit into the overwhelming majority of folks who like to hit the backroads in your favorite (insert-car-here) and you look down on dudes like me.
Hi. I'm Smokey, and I cross the mustard. Whenever I feel like it. You're a nerd for clutching your pearls. Even if there are far more of you then there are of me, and I'm fine with that.
You see, in my previous post I mentioned that where I'm from, everyone crosses the double-yellow, cops do it, your grandma does it, here... it's normal. (It's also normal to be on a one-lane road, doing 50mph, come around a corner and be met with another vehicle, also doing 50mph, and neither of you hit the brakes whilst diving into the ditch to narrowly avoid each other – even waving as you pass by, mirrors nearly clapping.)
Now I've been lambasted by folks who I'd assume would agree in considering each other equals, until the moment they saw me, or heard me say I cross the mustard freely. They go on and on from their ivory tower about how they're a better driver because they paint inside the lines. How they feel as though the true goal, the real skill, is taking every turn within the confines of their lane.
I have taken their scoldings with humility, with grace, and said 'Hey man, it's okay if you feel that way, but I don't.'
See, in my humble view, the point behind the drive is not to take unnecessary routes, or 'lines' so to speak. It is my view that the entire point of any racing, door-to-door or cat-and-mouse "Touge Style", is to get from Point A, to Point B, as fast as you can. The fastest way between those points is a Straight Line. If the track/trail/route/whatever is not straight, you have to negotiate the obstacles (curves) to make them as straight as possible.
If you've spent any amount of time behind a wheel, in video games or the real world, and you go around a corner... what do we see people doing, from the inception of automobile racing, to tomorrow... You swing outside, "wide," at the entrance... you turn in to as close as you can get to the apex, and you swing back wide on the exit. There are exceptions to this rule, depending on layout and general geometry... but that is, by and large, the rule.
I intend to use all available real estate whenever possible, simple as.
I know what you're thinking, or have thought, while reading this. But it's dangerous! You could kill someone! You can kill someone by driving above the speed limit, too (and under it, let's be honest). Don't act like you're better than me because you chose one less risk than I did.
I also don't cross the mustard into blind corners in the daylight, as most of you invariably insinuate. If I can see the turn in it's entirety, or can see the road behind it for a reasonable enough distance to make an educated guess whether there's any traffic oncoming... I go for it. In the dark where you can see headlights coming? I'll go Mayo-to-Mayo. It has always infuriated me when someone thinks I'm bragging about lane-bullying oncoming traffic into the ditches so that I can mentally log a world breaking record no one will ever know about. Get real. Who does that?
I've even heard guys say 'I can be fast, AND I can stay in my lane.'
No you can't.
If I cut, and you don't, I traveled a measurable shorter distance, and if you kept up? That's on me, not you. But I still would argue that I wore my tires less because I didn't have to pull the same Lateral-G to stay at a similar pace.
It ain't personal.