Q: “During a race, should ‘point-bys’ be used to help with an overtake?”
A: A point-by will help both drivers – the passer and passee – so, yes. If you’re coming up to pass me during a race, and I’ve determined that it’s not worth defending or making it as hard as possible for you to pass me, then it’s in my best interest to give you a point-by. When being passed, I want to lose as little time as possible, so if I point you by – and maybe give me throttle a very slight breathe/ease to make it easy for you to get by me – that’ll make the pass better for me, and for you.
If you’re passing me, and you see my point-by, there’s less decision-making needed, less hesitation, and you’ll clear me with both of us losing the least amount of time. It’s also safer for both of us.
Now, let me stress one more thing: the driver being passed must be predictable, and that almost always means staying on the usual line. Again, if you’re coming up to pass me, and I move to the opposite side of the track to “make room” for you, you’re not expecting that. Far too many crashes have happened because the driver being passed moved at the last moment to make room for a passing car. Be predictable – stay on your line.
You may be asking why F1 and Indy car drivers don’t give point-bys. First, in most modern open-wheel cars, it’s somewhere between difficult and impossible to get one’s hand up high enough that a following driver would be able to see above the rear wing. Second, in most cases, drivers are competing for positions, so there is no “I’ll point you by because we’re not racing.” Point-bys are used more often in racing where there are mixed classes and bigger variances between cars.
I think it is appropriate in some racing situations and not others as you said. We do Lemons Endurance racing and there might be a 10 second per lap differential between some of the cars on track. In this case a point-by is a great tool to stay on pace in a field of 170 cars. I have seen similar signals between GT and LMP cars in Le Mans 24 for the same reason.
I don’t expect to see point-by in NASCAR or Indy anytime soon.
You are absolutely correct that the over-taken driver should hold his line. Moving to give the fast line to the faster car will catch that driver by surprise. This applies to all track driving, racing, time trials, or HPDE.
As a SCCA road racing safety steward the only car to car crash I had to write a report for, involved a lapped FF pointing and moving off line. The lead car could not see the point.
Staying on line would have prevented the crash.
Racing in Endurance events (AER), and being in the lower slower classes, I give point bys to faster cars to help me maintain pace. Closing rates are such that I want to know they’re going inside me or outside and by asking them to do so is safer and helpful. I also ussually get a thank you wave.