THIS. There are so many people out there who run in multiple series for any number of reasons......schedule, location, etc.

 

I didn't read that as PCA talking directly to my doctor to mediate with the committee. That line is overly broad IMO, and at the time of inquiry, the racer should know specifically what the information is being used for and they should have a role in this 'mediation.' (FYI< there were days when DE drivers, never mind racers, were being canceled by insurers, which is what originally gives me trepidation about personal health info or what you told your doctor getting passed around. So yes, I think another release at the time of inquiry would be helpful.

FYI: On the waiver for your medical, PCA has you write the language based on their 'prompts' but not a template, are you kidding me?

 

You ain't lived until you've had a lot lizard hop in your right seat with no notice.....

 

This is a large part of the problem - what is the medical committee's authority? In all my research I have never found out when it was formed, how it was formed, and if it is a committee or sub-committee. What are its rules of governance? Who has oversight over the medical committee?

The medical committee have only published two pieces of information - a concussion policy and the medical evaluation form. That's it. No writings, rules or minimum standards. The elected and appointed leaders, whom the medical committee should be subordinate to, don't want to exercise their authority because that would be deemed "overruling doctors." The medical committee operates without oversight and with impunity.

I've been told by people that I trust the judgment of that the medical committee does good things for PCA, but there needs to be checks and balances, as well as proper governance, for when it doesn't.

Keep in mind that throughout this past three months Harry Kintzi, the chair of the medical committee, has maintained his position that drivers can fall asleep behind the wheel of a racecar. Its ridiculous for anyone to say, and the fact that Kintzi used to club race, makes it all the more fancible.

I'm still waiting to be told where the minimum standard is that requires me to provide the information being requested. This should have been over the day I raised this issue because there is no minimum standard.

If there is no minimum standard the Executive Committee is not overruling the doctors - they are saying that a rule being enforced doesn't exist.

 

Yuck

 

Lot Lizards are truck stop hookers. They "hop" from one cab to the next.

Surprised you didn't know they were called that, with all your truck stop experience and all...

Edit: And just to keep this post thread related, from what I understand, most of the truckers DO INDEED FALL ASLEEP when the lizard finishes and hops out....

 

Seems to me that a lot of this PCA volunteer stuff is handled pretty informally, and the medical committee isn't any sort of official committee. Since the scope of the committee relates only to club racing, it seems to be an ad hoc subcommittee in the club racing committee, to the extent that it's a committee at all. I don't see any reason why the medical subcommittee should have any authority at all, they should only be advisory. When I was Safety Chair in my region, my role was similarly advisory, I had no authority whatsoever, either officially or implied. It's the paternalistic bureaucratic activism of the medical subcommittee which is creating a situation where the EC feels pressured to defer to them.

 

Come on Manny, please try to keep this thread truck stop/lot lizard related. Why the hijack?

Also, see you at Pitt tomorrow to Sunday?

 

i don't think there is much that is informal at the national level. There is a nominating committee that is very involved.

 

Perhaps, but whatever this 'medical committee' is, it's not listed as one of the National Committees and resides within the Club Racing Committee:

https://www.pca.org/connect/national-committee-chairs

https://www.pca.org/connect/club-racing

 

Unfortunately, haven't made it to the track yet this season. Dealing with 'life stuff' ...

 

Oh man, sorry to hear that. Hope it all works out for you and you get some laps in soon. Good luck....

 

I'm trying so hard to bite my tongue and stay silent, but so many of these comments are just moving resolution backwards. I want to preface this comment by saying that I have agreed with the content of virtually all of @Manifold 's posts throughout this thread. But this representation of the impact of OSA ("since the effect is comparable to being tired") is just objectively false. Long-term deprivation of oxygen -- the unambiguous result of not using CPAP regularly -- does not have a binary result of "sleep or no sleep" impact. Those who don't use it are significantly impaired, whether they fall asleep or not. The entire body is deprived of oxygen over a long period of time --- it is totally different than somebody who just didn't get enough sleep the night before. If you don't get enough sleep, you're fine as soon as you get sufficient rest. It takes weeks of consistent CPAP usage to recover from long-term oxygen deprivation. Those two things seem similar, but they are not, at all. To say anything else is only magnify the point that people without medical knowledge should not be making proclamations about medical issues.

Nobody with OSA, who hasn't used a CPAP consistently, should be on track. Period. From that perspective, it's not a bad idea to get data to confirm usage. Is PCA's decision to require data necessary? Should they take the racer's word for it (especially the word of a top driver with years of experience in the series) rather than require the data? Should a doctor's general statement about suitability for racing override their concern for confirming usage? These are all judgment calls -- and we can all debate whether they made the right calls or not in this case. But it moves the resolution backwards to dismiss the seriousness of non-use -- asking for "a pass" on proof of usage, when the entire dialog is trying to portray the issue as non-serious, does not help that request at all (for reasons that should be very obvious).

.

 

The Bylaws do not permit subcommittees and I have heard that the medical committee does work outside of club racing. Also, why do they not refer to themselves as the medical sub-committee?

Again, sloppy governance, especially for so powerful of a "committee".

 

Then do they have to ask for insulin usage proof from diabetics? Hypertension medication usage? I'm not a doctor, but I've slid on a slippery slope once or twice.