<<see two priors to this thread below>>
Doug and the VR list,
Bud Merrill, SVRA's Chief Steward, said that after Friday's confusion he
restated the Red Flag/Black Flag all policy at the Saturday Driver's
meeting. The policy has not changed in the last few years: Stop racing
when you see the first black flag at a station other than the black flag
station, slow down to a crawl and proceed to the pits expecting that the
track may be blocked at any point, if it is blocked pull over and park.
When asked why some corner workers were waving red flags and motioning
drivers to pull over while others were waving yellows and motioning cars
forward, he replied that the new corner working organization was going to do
it the "Watkins Glen Way" which is to stop the cars on the course. Bud could
not or would not change SVRA policy especially since everyone knows half the
drivers would not be at the drivers meeting. Nobody backed down and
apparently each corner captain did something a little different which added
to the confusion.
I had the pleasure of working with the "Race Communications Association" as
a corner worker at the Glen just two years ago at the SVRA event. They were
very professional and had 30-40 workers on Friday and 50-70 on Saturday and
Sunday. I joined the RCA and get their newsletter. I was surprised to
learn that a splinter group outbid them for the annual contract with WGI.
The sad tone of the last few mailings was an indication that some of the RCA
members had joined the new group and some had not. There were obviously
significantly fewer workers each day this year and I saw several incidences
of overflagging and stations not manned at all or with one obvious beginner.
The red flag procedure two years ago was clearly explained by Bud in a
meeting with all the RCA workers and they had no problem following our
procedure.
The black flag all procedure is weak. The black flags are hard to spot and
are stationary. I was leading the second lap of the Group 6 race at
Mid-Ohio when I spotted a black flag at turn 8, I looked ahead and saw one
at 9. I put my arm up and began to slow and was passed by two cars at 9,
three more passed into 10 and one at 11 and I came into the pits in seventh.
The car in the sandtrap which caused the red was at 10. Bottom line, it was
actually more dangerous at 10 with three cars passing the leader, than if a
waving yellow at 10 was displayed with a stationery yellow at 9.
Waving red flags or waving double yellow flags would be much more effective.
Something has to wave to get SVRA drivers' immediate attention since
stationary flags are seen so often that they are semi-ignored by the part of
the brain that handles peripherals. This needs to be addressed immediately
since there were at least 10 red flagged sessions at the Glen and several
sessions were red flagged twice.
In my 11 years with SVRA (over 90 events) I have seen every kind of drivers
meeting you can imagine. Since the last change of ownership the emphasis
has been on brief driver's meetings and Bud assumes that everyone has heard
it before and doesn't want to hear it again. This year we had an incredible
number of cars and drivers that have not been to SVRA recently if ever. The
whole 911 variant feature, the GTP feature, the Stock Car feature, the
Formula Junior feature, the MG feature, the new Group 10, all of these had
more new SVRA drivers than regulars. The number of "street looking" cars
with black tape numbers was up too.
Not since Jeff Brooks had a staff position called "Competition Director" has
SVRA had a person whose job it was to coordinate all these driver related
safety issues. Under previous ownership I worked hard and long to push for
such a position. Frank Rupp would never tolerate a person with that much
power, and he did not do that job himself. He delegated it to two weekend
stewards: Bud Merrill in the tower and Walt McCarthy as safety steward.
Walt does a great job sorting things out after a crash, and there's no one
more fair than Walt, but drivers meetings, rejecting entries of known
problem drivers and stern driver talks are not in his job description. Other
than drivers meetings, Bud is in the tower running race control. One of
SVRA's strengths used to be the quality of the drivers you could expect.
They were indeed screened and watched closely as were the cars. No more.
Carl Jensen was given the job of "Competition Director" by Syd Silverman
(then Chairman) early last season as Frank was losing his grip on SVRA, but
after the ownership change he became a part time "event director" and as of
this last race, he is no longer with SVRA.
Concerned list members may send their opinions to race@svra.com
Let me know if you get a response.
Pat Ryan
SVRA Member since 1988
In a message dated 9/14/99 9:16:41 PM, vscjohn@huntnet.net writes:
<<<<Yellow flags are commonly disobeyed, and far too many "racers" don't
know
what they, or the other flags for that matter, tell them.>>
Doug Meis reply of 9/14 9:38PM was
<< I agree that yellow flags are often not taken seriously enough. In
this
<<case, it was compounded by the fact that there were fewer corner workers
on
hand and I believe that the only yellow going up the hill in the esses were
the yellow course lights. This is harder to judge than a corner worker
vigourously waving a yellow. Race control did put out a red flag, but it
was
displayed in turn 1 only after some cars, including our sports racer, had
already passed turn 1 and were headed into the esses. I don't know if the
red was out when the MGC passed turn 1. I think a lot of racers, myself
included, are lulled by all the yellows they see that are not a serious
incident and don't require any evasive action. Maybe this incident will
help
serve to remind people to think twice when a yellow is displayed.
As for the other flags, if you polled drivers at most events about red
flag procedure, you will get a lot of different answers. At the Glen, an
SVRA official was chastising the drivers at a drivers meeting for not
stopping on course when the red was displayed. He was interrupted by
several
drivers who pointed out that the printed material provided in the entry
package instructed drivers to reduce speed and proceed to the pits under a
red flag! The Watkins Glen official on hand said that their red flag
procedure is to stop on course until instructed otherwise. So it's not just
the driver's who don't know what all the flags mean!
For the record, I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that the proper
red
flag procedure is to come to a safe controlled stop on course and await
further instructions. It goes without saying that one should pull to the
side of the course to allow room for any emergency vehicles to pass.
Black flag procedure is for all cars to slow immediately and return to
the hot pit.
P.S. We haven't written off our sports racer yet, we plan to repair it
if at all possible.
Doug Meis - Team Escargot
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