WE, Jaime and I, took action...
I don't recall anyone making any comments about your kids specifically, nor do I recall any specific issues (though I recall you got accosted at the last event for stuff your kids maybe weren't responsible for?)
But in the end, just like vehicle compliance, it's something we have to handle amongst ourselves, lest someone handle it for us. Allow me a bit of a metaphor: I don't have kids but I have dogs, and I like to bring my dogs to the track and other public places. I also recognize that it's my responsibility to keep my dogs under control, out of danger, out of other peoples' way (who may not appreciate how special my dogs are - yet they are). I also understand it's my responsibility to "pick up after them".
But by the same token, I am very easily victimized by other people not taking that same stance. Unlike with kids, it's very easy for a track to simply declare "no pets at all" and I lose that opportunity, so I make a point of watching for other people to not follow the rules, and I will make it clear to them when they do not (and I will even "pick up" after them if they refuse to). And when that happens, I bring it to the attention of the folks in charge.
So, Dan, while you're a responsible parent, and while your kids may be much better behaved than others, it's in your best interest to bring the issues to the attention of other parent-competitors, or the authorities, lest the track decide to make changes. I am certainly not going to police them, because I don't have kids and I really don't have a vested interest in whether they're restricted or not (and, I expect you'd probably not pick up after my dogs if you saw me ignoring it...)
And in the end, it's a race track, not a playground.
Just food for thought.
I've gotten a couple PMs about the Turn 6 donuts, mostly asking "why was that a problem?" So I figured I'd respond publicly as well.
- We were trying to keep the pace of the weekend going (note how we beat the schedule quite handily both days?) so after the last car took the checkered for each session, and while victory laps were going on, Race Control was coordinating numerous other activities on the track to keep the flow going, including but not limited to:
-- Giving the Grid an "all clear" 5-minute warning to get the next group on track
-- Other victory laps
-- Re-positioning the pace car behind victory laps from the Pits back to the Grid
-- Workers cleaning/sweeping the track
-- Re-positioning wreckers, emergency/rescue vehicles, etc.
All of these activities are predicated on a base expectation of smooth, unobstructed, fully-in-control track flow during the cool-down and victory laps, and none of these activities are expecting to encounter a vehicle blocking the track.
Race Control cannot see over in Turn 6. I'm not aware that anyone called that activity in so as far as I know it was completely unknown to Race Control. However, had Race Control known that this was going to happen, or subsequently became aware of it as it was happening, we could have stopped all track activity (see above list) and waited for each victory lap to arrive back into the pits safely before we released the next one, then started that whole turnover process.
Hey, with some heads-up, the track coulda been all yours.
Finally, I know that some cars were taking victory laps with unharnessed passengers inside...I'm hoping yours was not one of them. If we suspect that someone may do that, then we cannot allow passengers during victory laps.
Just some more food for thought.
GA, who notes that more and more supps are
explicitly disallowing post-race hooning...
