Daytona

[Rob May]

Tell us about it!!

[ECR]

Rob... Don't know about the nationals, but as far as the ECR' s, total goat rope!
From a tech check immediately prior to saturday's enduro, which caused some cars to lose their grid position due to being late, to black flag penalties applied mid race for infractions of rules that have yet to be written. All in all, amazing.


ECR

[jmracer17]

had a blast. first time on the track. anyone heard anything about how the driver in the fire is doing?

[Richy Gonzalez]

Wow, what a mess. From what I saw and also listening to one the worker radios, here's what went down.

Problem 1: Something with timing and scoring got screwed up. They brought everyone in after the first lap. ...at least this is what we where told.

Problem 2: After the restart, there was a Miata driver that had some fire underneath the car. The Miata driver drove to the fire truck and they proceeded to put the fire out. This caused the race to be red flagged eventhough the car was off the track and fire was put out without any damage.

Problem 3: During the red flag, several drivers did not stop immediately. This caused a the whole field to be black flagged.

I don't know what happen while all the cars where in the pits but the workers got everyone back in line and the race resumed.

I went to impound after the race and every racer that tried to express their discontent, they got their butts chewed!

[GKR_17]

I went to impound after the race and every racer that tried to express their discontent, they got their butts chewed!

Count me in there. I felt like I had a legitimate gripe since there was no warning given to the lead cars before they were sent back on the track after the first black flag all. I had my helmet off, which may have been dumb, but every other black flag situation I've seen we got at least a short warning (if not a five minute). Needless to say I was steamed when a third of the field drove by... When I pointed this out at impound I got chewed out for the mess caused by a several other careless folks.

There is no excuse for blowing the red flag, especially when cars are parked all over the side of the track. But the officials should have called those folks in and lectured or penalized them, not the whole field.

Then there's the whole SM tire debacle. Once again the CFR folks show they have no respect for the rules, but that's not IT related so I won't draw that out here.

Grafton

[wcmcarlos]

What was the tech check that delayed the grid?

This is a shame, the CFR has some of the most professional workers anywhere, it is a shame that the reputation of all is besmirched by the incompetence of a few in the control booth.

[GKR_17]

I suspect it was the SM tire check for the group 2 race. Anyone running ITA and SM probably got held up in that mess.

[krysdean]

Just so everyone is on the same page, the first black flag all was due to a car that had to be moved. Daytona wont load cars on a hot track, there was no problem with timing. I don't know about any "Mystery" black flags, but maybe you are talking about the guy that came out of the paddock (not from the grid), onto the track and tried to catch up to the pack prior to the start, If you are not on the grid before the 5 minute warning you have to start from pit lane, and then only with the permission of the Chief Steward. Mystery black flags? The leader, Irish Mike was black flagged for a stop and go penalty for his failure to follow the pace car on the initial parade lap, and when I talked to him about it after the race, he said "I did it, I made a mistake and I knew better, you were right to black flag me", and while we are on the subject of flags, lets talk about the red flag situation, we had a car fire, when you have a car fire, you don't sit on your ass, you stop the race, and take care of the driver. I would rather have everyone of you sitting in a hot car, out of the way than have one driver sitting in a burning car, I know I have been there. I would have been happy to let those drivers go who didn't screw up the red flag, without having to listen to a diatribe if I knew exactly who they BOTH were, and by the way, a red flag is always followed by a black flag all, the cars have to be brought in and regridded as they were on the last green flag lap.

Your right this race was a fiasco, Licensed drivers who dont know enough to follow the pace car? a car spun by two others on the trioval, at the starter stand on the FIRST lap of a 90 minute enduro? at least 7 drivers penalized for BLATANT passes under the red flag? There should have been twenty more written up. All in all it was the most embarresing display of driving I have ever seen. I know my ECR drivers are better than that, you guys were just not thinking. I don't know about any delay on Saturday beause of tech, but you all had at least an hour and a half between your qualifying session and your race, so there was no excuse for anyone to be late for the Saturday race. As for a warning prior to restarting after the first black flag, there is no requirement to give ANY warning and I am not sure why anyone would take off their gear or get out of their car under a black flag situation unless you were told to by an official, our intent from the beginning was to get you back on track as soon as possible, you were the last race of the day and we were already cutting it close.

You guys need to know that Central Florida Region did an excellent job, just as they always do, especially tech, the problems of the weekend had a lot more to do with people being careless, inattentive or just too wrapped up in the Red Fog to think about what they were doing.

And you are right, you DON'T want to go near the spec tire thing.

Look, I know that when a race gets as screwed up as this one, it is natural to start taking shots at everyone, but before you do, just ask yourself if you might have done something a little different, would the weekend have gone a little better.

If I stepped on some toes, I apologise, but guys we are all volunteers, we spend our own money to come help you race and when you trash us for something we had virtually no contol over, it makes us wonder why we do it. I know why I do it, I am a driver and I want to give a little back when I can, but when I screw up, and I do screw up, then I have to take responsibility for it, every time I have screwed the pooch, it has never been an officials mistake, it has always been because I wasn't paying attention, started to late, or was just plain careless.

By the way, lest you think I am trying to say a ran a perfect race, I am not, I didn't, but the biggest mistake I made on Saturday was in not throwing a checker when I brought you in after the red flag, I won't make that mistake again.

Krys Dean
ECR Chief STeward, South

[ECR]

Krys; Let me start by telling you that as a long time racer I wholeheartedly agree that the job corner workers, stewards , and all manner of volunteers such as yourself do is priceless. I also agree that nobody's perfect and putting on an event of this magnitude is equivalent to planning the invasion of Normandy and sometimes must be run in the same manner.I also agree that safety is paramount. I would have sent the red flag scofflaws home, not to return after at least one SCCA driver school wearing an orange driver suit and a dunce cap.
That having been said, a realization has to be made that the member racers/entrants/attendees are clients and should. to a certain extent be catered to. I believe that as racers we should expect som rule uniformity and also some scheduling planning if invasive tech is to be performed. Specifically, as this weekend's schedule was written, there was only a 20 minute window on Saturday between gr2 qualifying ant the gr1 enduro. As it happened, gr2 was held at tech while the SM cars were subjected to additional inspections. The problem that this caused was that some SM cars also run in different classes( ITA. ITS) that were to run in the Sat enduro, scheduled to start right after gr4 qualifying. Basically, the enduro was gridding and receiving 5 min and 1 min warnings while some competitors, having been held at tech, were scrambling to prepare for an enduro, which caused them to be late.
Besides being unfair to those affected, it could lead to an unsafe situation when teams have to rush to change cars over from qualifying trim to enduro trim, which in some instances varies greatly.




Just my dos pesos

[krysdean]

I see what you are saying, there wasn't much I could have done at that point even had I kown, but I understand what happened now.

The SM compliance team prefers not to advertise the fact that they are attending an event, for obvious reasons. That being said, I will make it a point to bring this particular problem up at the Stewards Training Seminar on Saturday. My ECR drivers are the best there are, I am proud of every one of them, but just like my kids, sometimes they PI** me off so bad I could throttle them, the important point now is that we have had our BAD race for the season and I am sure the rest of them are gonna be great fun.

Krys

[GMIV]

I agree that this race was the srewiest the since 2007 Daytona ECR where we got to sit on the grid for 30 minutes to see what the weather was going to do only to find out that the safety crews had packed it in and we all got to go home. As racers, I don't think we can lay blame on the volunteers, unless we ourselves bring the scheduling to their attention prior to the event. I further fell that the Red Flag issue was unfortunate. Having watched Krys be pulled from her burning car not so long ago and carted off on a stretcher, I can understand why we got the lecture.

[jmracer17]

Agreed. My dad was the corner worker that pulled Krys from the car. I dont blame them for what they did. Just wish those things wouldnt have happened so we could have gotten all 90 min.

[krysdean]

Just to reiterate, Central Florida Region put on a good event, they always do, it was the circumstances that caused all the trouble. We wouldn't have had as much racing as we had if it wasn't for the hard work of the CFR volunteers. I apologise to you guys for the fact that you didn't get your full 90 minutes, but given what we had going on, I guess we need to be happy with what we got. And thanks to all the racers that make the events worth the effort, IT and Enduro drivers are my favorites, but sometimes you try my patience, not often, but once in a while, the beauty of it is that next time will be picture perfect and for that I thank you in advance.

Krys