Almost certainly there would be the opposite reaction if the passing auto deprived fuel from the passed auto which is essentially what the passing windward boat does to the leeward boat. And while I do not watch Nascar racing, I do occasionally read in the paper about all the feuds going on about some car "bumping" another to push them out of the way. It is amazing to me that this is allowed, (as opposed to severely punished) especially considering the much more severe effects that can have on the cars and drivers compared to sailboat racing. The closest I ever got to that was on Hobie 21s in the Prosail Series back in the day and, guess what? That was run by a group that sponsored Nascar racing!
it's off topic; but they did make an escalating effort to disallow the aggressive driving in NASCAR a couple of years ago. It culminated with the last Talladega race last year where they told the drivers that bump drafting or nudging in the turns would be heavily penalized. It was the single most boring race in the world - the drivers hated it and ended up in a three hour parade with hardly any position changes up until the last 10 laps of the race. The fans hated it. It was dumb. The NASCAR ratings had been in a multi year decline and that one race hurt them even worse.
So this year? The NASCAR organization said "screw it" and told the drivers to police themselves. An eye for an eye. Play nice or risk sanctioned retaliation. The result? A pretty exciting year so far full of drama. If a driver decides to nudge another driver's rear bumper to loosen them up in the corner, he better have a faster car when he gets in front of them or there will be hell to pay!
Now, that said, I don't care to have this on my race course...nobody is paying for my boat and giving me a salary. I get enough drama off the start line and playing the shifts around the course!
