I was involved in a mechanical protest of a fellow ITA competitor's car this weekend. I wanted to offer the facts of the situation here first-person, in case there's any rumors flying around. Also, a couple of things happened, somewhat unexpected, that I didn't like and I wanted to pass along.

I and three other competitors - I'll let them offer their identities, as I did not ask them if I could post this - protested the Acura Integra of Windell Holmes for several items, primarily engine- and power-related (although there were some non-engine related items as well). What those specific items were is not particularly relevant, other than to say we were prepared to post the necessary bonds to partially disassemble the engine. Also note that we requested he be allowed to compete through the weekend, but we wanted his car impounded/babysat during that time frame.

We filed the protest immediately following Saturday's qualifying session. A court was convened to review our protest, and Windell was called up to the Stewards. After lunch the stewards came to us and notified us that Windell had chosen to withdraw rather than allow us to check his car, choosing to take the automatic 6 months license suspension and $250 fine. However, he further implied that he was not going to pay the fine, instead he was going to withdraw his SCCA membership and race EMRA and NASA exclusively from now on.

This wasn't necessarily surprising; we recognized that this was a tact he could take. It's not what we wanted: I certainly don't like the idea of a competitor simply walking away unhappy. I wanted Windell to compete with us; in point of fact, we welcome everyone. I also wasn't disappointed that I couldn't take a "shot" at him. The problem is, right or wrong, we believed that Windell's car was illegal and this is the only course of action we can take to verify it.

Further troubling, per the steward Windell said he felt like he was an outsider, that he wasn't part of "the clique". Therefore, I infer he felt he was being singled out and being told to go away by us. NOTHING could be farther from the truth. As noted above we welcome all competitors, and we welcomed Windell as best we could; it's just that we welcome him in a legal vehicle. If he was found during the protest to be legal I would have been the FIRST person to walk up to him, apologize, and make sure that all of his expenses were covered.

In the end, though, I'm left to simultaneously wonder if he ever was legal, and bemoan the loss of a good ITA competitor.

I'm really sorry it came to that.

Greg