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First thanks to everyone that came out to the Barber race. The same people (the stewards) that operate the other races in SEDIV are the same stewards that operated the Barber race. The Ala. region has no control over how many laps a group gets, when the track goes green, etc. etc. So the same very experienced people that run Road Atlanta, Roebling, CMP, or VIR were in Race Control during the race. The region's responsibility is in "production" i.e., making sure there is enough staff (we had 90+), doing all the paddock parking, feeding workers, and doing all the pre-race paperwork. That the region did.
Saturday started less then five minutes after the published time. It rained like hell all day long. I was up in control as Race Admin. for the region (pretty much to make sure the stewards had hot coffee). There were a LOT of cars that went off in the rain. We had both the flatbed and the hook wrecker trucks. But as I saw on several occasions there were more cars disabled then the number of wreckers and so time got burned up taking badly damaged cars to tech and then having to come back out and get yet another car. It was unfortunate but unavoidable. The standard time figured between sessions is 10 minutes which got blown due to conditions. Rain soaked soggy grass hampers vehicle recovery too. The Ala. region has no control over EV services or the wrecker either. I heard one steward say we were the only rain event so far in 07 (don't know how accurate that is for SEDIV). Sunday the track was dry and things were different then. As to going cold we had until 5:15pm per Barber's rules/decision. I think the stewards did the best job that could be done under the conditions and appreciate all the hard work that was done.
Sorry you feel you didn't get your "money's worth".
Barry H.
Ala. Region Admin.
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But after calling group 6 at 7 laps we somehow found time to run group 7 full distance with plenty of cars off. Not a moneys worth deal Barry--just a fairness deal. Rain sucks and we should have all had equal time. No need to carry this further on this forum on my side. I spoke to the stewards about my objections at the race and understand how they got to the point they made the decision they did. Enough said. I will be at the mid-year meeting if you want to discuss it further.