lateapex911
Super Moderator
Lessons I learned this summer (about racing):
As it stands, with the current system, :
1- If you see or think something is wrong, try to determine the reality of your suspicion, and the cause. Is it malicious? Major? A mistake? A different interpretation? Perhaps discussing it, without spreading rumours and innuendo with other respected racers will help your opinion.
2- Approach the guy/girl that you have an issue with. Your approach will be dependant on what your opinion of the issue is, but obviously, it shouldn't be overly aggressive or accusatory.
3- Depending on the results of that conversation, you will be faced with a possible decision. Is this a significant issue that the other guy is refusing to resolve? Or will he take care of it?
(To me, I'm not going to waste my time with minor non performance enhancing items....there are bigger fish to fry)
If you find that the issue is significant and you feel strongly that is is not being resolved, then you need to run it through the system.
4- This is the part that sucks. Write the protest. Lots of people will try to talk you out of it, for various reasons:
a- If you loose you'll look like a jerk
b- You have better things to do with your time.(It can be very time consuming...hours and hours)
c- There will be bad blood, regardless of the outcome
d- It's hard to write an effective protest.
e- The protest procedure has been proven to be sketchy in it's ability to resolve the situation cleanly.
f- The officials have better things to do with their time.
When I was planning the protest discussed in "A Protest Story", I heard each of those resons, from various people I consulted with.
My comments on those are:
a- If I present a well reasoned protest, and handle myself professionally, then reasonable people will not think of me as a jerk. If others do, I can't be worried about their opinion.
b- The time quotient is significant. Propper planning can alleviate that.
c- There already IS bad blood! If the guys a cheater, lets get it out. If he's legal, then I figure walk over, shake his hand, and say, "Sorry to put you through this, I was wrong in my suspicions and it looks like you are doing an awesome drivng job, fair enough."
d- It IS hard to write an effective protest. Do your homework. Know what IS and what ISN'T supposed to be on the car, and spell it out clearly in black and white. Be sure to have alternative measures spelled out in the protest to handle things that are ambigious. In our protest we threw in a last minute item that seemed obvious. Well, we didn't read the rule carefully, and while we shook our heads at what the rule lets FWD cars get away with, it was legal. We should have read more carefully and tested it ourselves before including it.
e- This I was warned about, but I am still surprised with the decisions that were made in the protest referred to above.. I worry about decisions that were flat wrong, either due to inexplicable 'brain farts', or favoritism. I don't feel it will happen that way every time however. And writing a good protest can go a long way to eliminate issues. If things DO go wrong, and the protest crew makes mistakes, a well written protest will be the item that makes it super easy to appeal and win. So, while we all hope for a clean and quick resolution, the system doesn't always deliver it ...not right away at least.
f- We have tons of officials. That is why they signed up. By the same token, don't be a jerk and save a huge protest until the very last minute. Technically, you can, but the downsides outweigh the positives of that approach.
Finally, while the "system" clearly has issues, without a complete rebuilding of it, we need to work it. Without practice, it will only get rustier and more broken.
------------------
Jake Gulick
CarriageHouse Motorsports
ITA 57 RX-7
New England Region
[email protected]
As it stands, with the current system, :
1- If you see or think something is wrong, try to determine the reality of your suspicion, and the cause. Is it malicious? Major? A mistake? A different interpretation? Perhaps discussing it, without spreading rumours and innuendo with other respected racers will help your opinion.
2- Approach the guy/girl that you have an issue with. Your approach will be dependant on what your opinion of the issue is, but obviously, it shouldn't be overly aggressive or accusatory.
3- Depending on the results of that conversation, you will be faced with a possible decision. Is this a significant issue that the other guy is refusing to resolve? Or will he take care of it?
(To me, I'm not going to waste my time with minor non performance enhancing items....there are bigger fish to fry)
If you find that the issue is significant and you feel strongly that is is not being resolved, then you need to run it through the system.
4- This is the part that sucks. Write the protest. Lots of people will try to talk you out of it, for various reasons:
a- If you loose you'll look like a jerk
b- You have better things to do with your time.(It can be very time consuming...hours and hours)
c- There will be bad blood, regardless of the outcome
d- It's hard to write an effective protest.
e- The protest procedure has been proven to be sketchy in it's ability to resolve the situation cleanly.
f- The officials have better things to do with their time.
When I was planning the protest discussed in "A Protest Story", I heard each of those resons, from various people I consulted with.
My comments on those are:
a- If I present a well reasoned protest, and handle myself professionally, then reasonable people will not think of me as a jerk. If others do, I can't be worried about their opinion.
b- The time quotient is significant. Propper planning can alleviate that.
c- There already IS bad blood! If the guys a cheater, lets get it out. If he's legal, then I figure walk over, shake his hand, and say, "Sorry to put you through this, I was wrong in my suspicions and it looks like you are doing an awesome drivng job, fair enough."
d- It IS hard to write an effective protest. Do your homework. Know what IS and what ISN'T supposed to be on the car, and spell it out clearly in black and white. Be sure to have alternative measures spelled out in the protest to handle things that are ambigious. In our protest we threw in a last minute item that seemed obvious. Well, we didn't read the rule carefully, and while we shook our heads at what the rule lets FWD cars get away with, it was legal. We should have read more carefully and tested it ourselves before including it.
e- This I was warned about, but I am still surprised with the decisions that were made in the protest referred to above.. I worry about decisions that were flat wrong, either due to inexplicable 'brain farts', or favoritism. I don't feel it will happen that way every time however. And writing a good protest can go a long way to eliminate issues. If things DO go wrong, and the protest crew makes mistakes, a well written protest will be the item that makes it super easy to appeal and win. So, while we all hope for a clean and quick resolution, the system doesn't always deliver it ...not right away at least.
f- We have tons of officials. That is why they signed up. By the same token, don't be a jerk and save a huge protest until the very last minute. Technically, you can, but the downsides outweigh the positives of that approach.
Finally, while the "system" clearly has issues, without a complete rebuilding of it, we need to work it. Without practice, it will only get rustier and more broken.
------------------
Jake Gulick
CarriageHouse Motorsports
ITA 57 RX-7
New England Region
[email protected]
