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I wanted to slap that official myself!
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As a grid official myself, I can assure you she’s not in the wrong. Yes, Grid put him in the wrong spot, or maybe timing and scoring screwed up the sheets that grid works off, that we don’t know. Either way, if the driver knows something is wrong he should get grid’s attention asap. It looks like the driver decided to let the other guy go and then intended to pull out behind him, but this was obviously not communicated to Grid, who has 72 other cars to look out for, and once those other cars start moving… well you get the picture. In that situation Grid has a split second to make a decision, and it could be both dangerous and confusing to others if they chop and change their minds;
The interesting thing here is that he was not black flagged before the start or soon after, they let him race and then chastised him. That’s very odd. 63 passes under a double yellow is impossible to miss!
Other points… the rookie is competing in his second race ever, I’m betting his drivers school was not far behind him… which means he would have just read the rule book, and attended a two day classroom session before even hitting the track, he should be fully up to date with what the flags mean and more than anything, he should have been painfully aware of what to do if he had a problem on grid or with t & s… you run your race and then make a formal complaint to the chief steward for review. You don’t decide what it is you’re going to do on grid, you’re not in charge, grid is – and they need to know if you have an issue.
Ok ok, I’m getting off the soapbox now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif
RG /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gif