Labor Day In Sonoma....

[Z3_GoCar]

I was just looking at the results for last weekend race at Infineon. I'm curious about the protest on Sunday.... Any stories?

[JoshS]

I was just looking at the results for last weekend race at Infineon. I'm curious about the protest on Sunday.... Any stories?

An ITS competitor protested another one for 5 items:
- Illegal MAF addition (MAF for piggyback ECU was added in front of the original AFM)
- Modified original AFM
- Bore
- Stroke
- Compression ratio

The MAF addition is something that the ITAC has received a letter on and in fact the same item was discussed on this forum, I think. But as of right now, anyway, it would seem to be illegal.

The other items were apparently a fishing expedition. The issue was that the protested driver had a flight to Paris to catch on Sunday evening, and the 3:20 scheduled race wouldn't have allowed a teardown to start until 4:00 at the earliest. It was pretty much impossible for him to stick around for a teardown and still make his flight. The paperwork was filed in the morning and the protestee was notified before the qualifying session at about 8:00am. So rather than go through the process, he decided to just withdraw from the race.

Unfortunately, he did not know about the mandatory penalty for refusing to be inspected. Doesn't matter much anyway, since he saw that as pretty much his only option given the schedule for the day. He was notified a couple of hours later of his penalty, which it appears is in fact mandatory per the GCR.

On a personal note, as far as I know the MAF issue is a real issue and likely would have resulted in a DQ, but the other items (the ones that caused him to withdraw) were baseless (again, as far as I know). The drivers involved had discussed the MAF issue in the past (and that's what prompted the letter to the ITAC about that rule), but the other items were surprises to the protestee. However, I appreciate that the protestor wrote paper. This is a competitor-policed sport and I'm fine with seeing paper get written, in fact, I'd encourage more of it.

Question for the other racers: what would you have done if you had been protested under these circumstances? Is it really all of our responsibility to make sure that we could stay at the track for several hours after the conclusion of our final race, just in case we get protested? Do you all do that? Do you think a mandatory 6-month suspension is appropriate in this circumstance? Right now the driver is pretty upset about the whole thing and is thinking that he'll be switching to NASA as a result.

[Z3_GoCar]

Wow, that's a tough break... One would think that he could use the stock MAF, but having to run two MAF's! Then being forced to stick around to defend aginst a protest. I suspose a similar situation could happen in NASA....

What would happen if a protest happened with out the proper tools for tear down? Could you put your car the care of a third neutral party untill the proper tool's obtained? Then who pay's for the tools? Is that part of the protest bond? How about the quality of your tech staff, do you really trust them to perform a complete tear down without breaking things? What about all the one time use fasteners? Would you get reimbursed for them if they find nothing?

[Marcus Miller]

James- search for 'a protest story' on this forum; its a good read.

Josh-
A) I would have found a way to have someone I trust stay with the car, while I left for Paris. Results are what they are.
yes, by the rules you must be prepared to stay several hours after the race.
C) Rules in the GCR are there in black and white - 6 months is 6 months.
D) Tech is more invasive, hopefully he is ready. Protests happen too, they just don't create the public spectacle they do in the SCCA. He would be welcome, his history or crashing and contact, maybe not so much.

[JoshS]

James- search for 'a protest story' on this forum; its a good read.

https://improvedtouring.com...ad.php?t=12127

[Z3_GoCar]

Thanks for the link Josh, and thanks Marcus for the suggestion. I believe that I was just lurking this board then, so I might have missed it the first time. So, he got to tear his own engine down. Also, because Jake found the pistons had domes he didn't get reimbursed for gaskets and one time use bolts, or maybe Honda's get to reuse them all. I wonder if he's still racing of if OSB or maybe OSBB ( other sanctioning bodies beckoned.)