At least a couple of times this weekend we had a new issue crop up that we had not dealt with recently and I realized that we needed to have a refresher on how it "should" happen.
Probably why we have this issue is that we have had small or irregular lots in the recent past where we have at most one other car on-course (and not 2 or 3 other cars ... or even 4 in some cases) and if there is any "incident" then everyone (e.g. 1 car at most) is flagged down wherever it is on-course. For Fort Macleod and the Westerner this would be correct.
However, with no doubling back on the course design at YYC/Budget/Park 'n Jet, this is not the proper procedure for flagging since there is more than 1 other car on-course.
What I noticed: Car spun out or otherwise. All the corners flagged all cars on the course - 3 cars. All 3 cars are granted re-runs.
What should have happened:
1. Car spins out or otherwise breaks down or stops on-course ... or is caught by a faster car (due to a spin etc.).
2. Corner worker(s)/flagger at station 4 should be alerted by station, say, 5 that a car is not moving or not fast enough etc. to keep an eye out to see if the car can get under way again ... and in time.
3. Flagger at station 4 (the corner before) should watch to see if the next car is going to catch the car ahead and if it appears to be the case, then flag the next car. NO OTHER stations should be flagging any cars at this point in time.
4. Exception: There is a car on fire/big smoke/big breakdown such as a suspension piece, wheel/tire falls off, they flew through a fence etc. .... in which case we KNOW POSITIVELY that the car will not get under way on its own power, then it is OK to flag down all cars on-course.
5. Therefore if done properly there should be no more than 1 re-run if there is a car spun out somewhere at most ... if that.
6. ALSO as a side note, there is a new rule in the SCCA rule book, stating that if a car is red-flagged, they should stop. But once they are given the go-ahead by a corner worker, they are to proceed BRISKLY along the course and out of the way of the next car coming in order to prevent re-runs! Yes, they actually had to put that rule in because people were being too tardy in getting off the course after being red-flagged and cars were catching them resulting in even more re-runs ... unnecessarily ... at the Nationals even ... I have seen that happen. Corner workers waving flags and trying to get cars to hurry along and they were idling along toward the finish oblivious to the fact that someone was catching them! They HAVE to hustle to get out of the way ... say about 80% speed ... and that is QUITE brisk pace-wise ... You have to keep moving. Basic rule-of-thumb, is that it is not competition speed ... no tires squealing ... but definitely NOT SLOW. lol .. .now I have images of people screaming, swearing and gesturing wildly at the cars going too slow on course ... hahaha ... true story ... on more than one occasion. It is frustrating to see. So, moral of the story: Get the hell out of the way!
7. Therefore the benefit is that, we will have only 1 re-run rather than 3. It is a time-saver and, of course, less re-runs ... rubber etc.
8. Another thing I noticed was some cars coming to a stop in the stop chute. It is not necessary to stop and it is discouraged in fact! I noticed at least one case when a car stopped in the straight portion of the chute and they were almost caught by the next car coming in hot! That looked a bit iffy to me ... please, no stopping at the end! It can be a problem.
Hopefully that all makes sense and we can learn from this and do better in the future.
haha....sport is complex isn't it?
But as events get larger we need to run a tighter ship so to speak and those of you who have attended SCCA National-level events such as Packwood, San Diego, San Fran, Lincoln Nats, will know of what I speak. The level of organization at those meets is at a different level and we need to bring some of that to our local larger events to run properly.
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