I am a Solo Safety Steward. I'm also a fairly junior one, and I've learned
that learning to recognise "safe" and "unsafe" portions of courses is one
of those things that is difficult to teach. Many, many times I have seen
portions of courses I thought were unsafe for one reason or another turn
out to be complete non-issues, and at least once I have failed to recognise
a truly problematic course section even though I walked it about 2 dozen
times.
People acting foolishly is easy to recognise and correct. Problematic
course design is an experience thing. Accordingly, I tend to keep my yap
shut and follow the lead of SSS's more experienced than I when it comes to
intrinsic course safety.
However, I also got bit by this once, at the Peru Pro where we had a couple
of Neons get together and a bunch of close calls due to an intrinsic design
flaw. I missed it during the course walk, but it was immediately apperent
to me that there was a problem once cars started running. Despite how much
that section bothered me, given that there was no shortage of SSS's on
site, I reluctantly decided that if more experienced Safety Stewards than
myself thought that that section fell into the range of "acceptable risk"
then I had no business rocking the boat.
Then we had the incident. Luckily, nobody was hurt.
When that happened, I realized that **I** shared a large part of the
responsibility for that incident. I had recognised the danger, I had a
position of responsibility whose mandate was safety, and I had remained
silent despite my misgivings. That made it MY FAULT.
Needless to say, I wasn't inclined to repeat that. Since then, I have paid
very close attention to any misgivings I might have, and I have resolved
(and I think it's clear to everyone that I'm not afraid to act on my
resolutions) to ensure that any event that I am at where I have a safety
concern will see that concern aired and the problem fixed to my
satisfaction. That is my duty as a SSS, and I will see it carried out.
Since then, I have not encountered a course where I felt that there was a
safety concern that required my action. My car is not short on power, nor
is it short on the ability to put that power down. If anyone is going to
wind up going "too fast for conditions" it's going to be me. I have seen no
evidence of "speed creep" nor do I feel that the current National level
courses are inappropriate.
That's not to say that there isn't room for improvement here and there -
"Larry Park Way" on the South Course at Nationals probably should have been
angled away from Grid a little more (to accomodate brake failure) - but
nothing I have seen gives me any reason to believe there is any general
cause for concern from either a safety or liability standpoint.
I wasn't at Ft Worth. I know enough not to comment on courses I didn't see
and/or drive myself.
Meridian, though, I was at. I ran first heat, in the wet. I was on my "dry"
tires, and I had my "dry, concrete" setup on the car, which is tuned loose
to help the car rotate. At Meridian, there was an opening tight slalom,
followed by a couple of big offsets, followed by a long semi-straight
section with a slight left kink in it. I got on the gas early exiting the
last offset, got a good HARD run up the straight, and had the rear break
loose in the kink while under full power. I distinctly remember thinking
"Oh Shit, I'm going off!" but managed to get the car back under control and
stopped well before the edge of the pavement. I got a good scare, but at no
point was I in danger. That, to me, is a safe course.
I have nowhere near the experience of Mr. Falkner. He may well have access
to information that I do not. It would be foolish for me to stand up and
claim that he is "wrong". But neither have I seen any evidence that would
suggest that we have a "speed creep" safety problem.
What we DO have is a signifigant difference between the nature of a
Regional event (typically small lots, which imples tight courses) and
Divisional/National courses (bigger lots, more open courses, higher average
speeds) Driving competitely at a Nationals course involves different skills
and different setups than Regional courses (on average) It's a different
game.
This, in my opinion, is ENTIRELY APPROPRIATE. We do not expect the town
Little League team to win the World Series. We do not expect the company
golf champ to take on Tiger Woods at the Masters. National competition
SHOULD be faster, more technical, and tougher than Regional competition -
and if that implies a **slightly** higher level of acceptable risk, then so
be it. If it wasn't tough, everyone would be doing it. It's the difficulty
that makes it great.
DG
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