I'm disappointed that rulings of compliance where made where it could not be determined.

I would be much happier if the officials just fessed up that they could not make a ruling in the manner requested for reasons x,y, and z. I'd be a lot happier if they would have considered alternate methods of determining compliance, but in their defense, it appears the means for determining compliance were agreed upon in advance, therefore it wouldn't necessarily seem appropriate to change the "rules of engagement" in the middle of the process.

I think Jake that you may have been able to protest the Chairman of the SOM for returning the throttle body (assuming you don't accept the negotiated "rules of engagement" is where the protest stops.

Back to the issue of the return of the throttle body, GCR 13.4.6 states: "Any recorded evidence such as technical data or inspectors' reports or measurements shall be forwarded to the Club Office with the tear down bond (See 13.3.4). The Chairman SOM shall accept any parts tendered by the owner for safekeeping pending appeal. The SOM shall have the authority to impound parts."

So, (and my interpretation may be off here) it appears to me that the Chairman SOM did not keep the parts safe pending appeal. To my mind, what they did was deprive you of your right to appeal their decision.

All of this of course again depends upon how you view the negotiated "rules of engagement." I certainly can see a case being made that the protest procedure stops at the agreed to point of determining legality.

Great thread Jake. Very educational. I'm sure we'll all learn from this process.

BTW, I'm surprised at not being able to include more than one person on a protest. The only protest I was a party to was leveled my two other drivers besides myself against the Chief Steward (IIRC) regarding a totally botched qualifying where the three of us (and others) were directed to the garage during a black flag all when the rest of the field was sent out for additional qualifying. The result for me was effectively no qualifying time since it was my first event at the track and I was spending the first half of qualifying learning the track and trying a few things here and there with a plan to go for a time in the last half. Grrrr.... BTW, our protest was considered well founded, but the protest committee couldn't offer any solution.


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George Roffe
Houston, TX
84 944 ITS car under construction
92 ITS Sentra SE-R occasionally borrowed
http://www.nissport.com