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RE: Safety Car?
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posted by drscope
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I was just going through my notes from this season and came across something I wanted to share. I didn't make the race at Pocono South, broke during practice. And I didn't go to Lime Rock. I don't take real detailed notes and there are things that don't get recorded. So I was a bit surprised to see in my notes that our group was "Black Flagged All" 11 times in 2006.
This is what is recorded in my notes from practice, qualifying and races. These are just the ones that stand out in my mind at the end of a weekend. There may have been more that I didn't record.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I think this is really way too many. This is at least 11 times this season that we had to go back to the pits for a restart. 11 times we had to get back up to speed. 11 times we had to get the tires back up to temp, and 11 times we put our crew people through dealing with a restart.
This was just a major inconvenience, but after seeing 11 reports in my records of black flag all, it really starts to come to light. This has got to stop. We need to have a safety car! And maybe it's time we stood up as a group and say we arn't going out on track unless we get on.
I'd like to hear your comments
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RE: Safety Car?
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posted by ric
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think i was having a seizure when i hit the enter key.
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RE: Safety Car?
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posted by drscope
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I took Len's advice and posted this on the EMRA boards. I think it irritated some and I got some serious off line responses. as a result, I have been in contact with a few EMRA BIG WHEELS on this. I'm pretty sure it will be resolved and in place for our next regularly schedualed event.
If anyone has any ideas on how this can be done, or on any other issues regarding our participation, please let me know and I will see that they get passed up the food chain.
And Ric, it's O.K. if you post 3 times!
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RE: Safety Car?
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posted by Lindsey
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A number of us have reasonable complaints and expect EMRA to address them. But the big difference between EMRA and other clubs is that EMRA does listen and will fix things, they just may not do it fast enough for some. In fairness to Summit, the qualifying incident with Ric caused the track to be blocked and a black flag had to be used. The race restart in which I took a slide off turn 1 was related to cold tires but that is my fault. I don't know why we had a black for that restart , but Bob Hill already has the Open Wheel situation on the list for discussion at the Dec. board meeting.
I still believe EMRA is the best club and things will get fixed.
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RE: Safety Car?
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posted by ric
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oopps, posted twice....uhh make that 3 times
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RE: Safety Car?
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posted by ric
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what color is that? just so i know for future reference.
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RE: Safety Car?
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posted by ric3@elp.rr.com
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what color is that? just so i know for future reference.
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RE: Safety Car?
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posted by drscope
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Right on Len! We need to get this addressed before the first race of the 2007 season. Chances are we will be picking up a lot of new drivers from SCCA who will want to come give us a try. If they have to go through the BS that we have been put through, they won't come back.
I just ran the Turkey Bowl at Summit Point. An extreamly low key event with hours and hours of track time. Not once during the entire 3 days, did any race group have to suffer through what we have been put through with EMRA. All the workers are volunteer.
And I got to see something that I have missed this past year....The PASSING FLAG BEING DISPLAYED TO SLOWER CARS!!!
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RE: Safety Car?
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posted by Len FC11
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This should really be posted on the EMRA board as they are the sectioning body. While it's nice to have this forum to speak amongst ourselves there is nothing that can be accomplished here.
As Tony stated, we brought this up, along with other items, my laps, sitting on false grid while our cars get heat soaked, speed of pace car, and communication from staff to drivers or driver's rep, and they seemed to understand and agree with everything we said. But as you all can clearly see, not much has changed.
Next year is a pivotal year as I see it, many cars changing hands, some of us upgrading, some running a limited schedule, some done for good. Along with DC region booting big open wheel cars from their MARRS series, we can either see a big decrease or increase in car counts. I believe if things continue to run the way they have, chances are our group will not grow. I see drivers/ teams are becoming increasingly frustrated with the way EMRA is handling our type of cars, and understandably so. We have a large group that is miss understood by the 'tin top' crowd and if we don't collectively see to it they understand our needs we will see it fragmented as has happened in other formula car clubs.
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RE: Safety Car?
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posted by Dani
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I thought this was resolved and they were going to keep us moving :( I got really frustrated because the communication was NON EXISTENT to the drivers while we sat there. I understand many of their safety workers are volunteer, but we are paying good money, they should be efficient.
We have to be aware that a November race weekend is going to be cold and give the tires a chance to come up to temp...if we stay on the track then we dont need them to tow us out of the gravel either. I know it happens... But we only hurt ourselves sometimes.
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RE: Safety Car?
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posted by Tony FC#8
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We (Len and myself) addressed this at the EMRA board meeting 2 or 3 months ago. The answer we got was "no problem". I am not sure why it didnt happen this weekend. My biggest peave was only getting 2 green qualifying laps, sit in the hot pits for 15 minutes, then get sent back to the paddock. My feeling was, they should have let the 10 minute "hardship prractice" be timed for qualifying...
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Safety Car?
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posted by drscope
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Is anybody else irritated by the lack of a safety car at Summit Point? Just my opinion, but maybe if we had a safety car on track in place of being brought into the pits for Saturday mornings practice, we would not have had an attitional incident when the session was resumed.
And maybe during the race, the leader would have had enough heat in his tires when we went green again to NOT fall off in turn one.
Maybe it's just me, but I sure am tired of having to go back into the pits everytime we just get up to speed. It's hard on the cars, hard on the crews, and hard on the drivers.
Heck, if we would have had a safety car and made the laps count, it would even help keep things on schedual.
Now that I've vented, Thanks to all who did things to make this season possible!
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