Steward B.

Thanks for the kind comments about the staff of PCA club racing.

OK, first, full disclosure, I've had two 13/13's, both of them deserved.

At the Clash at The Glen, as any of those who were there can attest, we had torrential downpours mid to late afternoon every day, even though the days had started either with clear skies or at least no rain in sight. Two of our races that started under dry conditions, with racers accordingly on dry tires, were cut short because of heavy rain. The second blue sprint race was scheduled for 15 laps and was checkered at 10. The second enduro was black flagged roughly 30 minutes in and then the heavens opened.

Watkins Glen is a hilly track. With hills in a heavy rain you get rivers running down the track at various spots, including into the toe of the boot and down the climbing S's (turn 2, etc.)

After the early checker in the blue sprint race and after the black all in the enduro, we had a number of cars spin off with one car according to the corner workers literally appearing to slide backwards off track, all as they hit the rivers of water running down the track.

Some had no damage, unfortunately two cars, one in each race, had damage.

The corner workers were adamant that the cars were going slowly. The conditions had clearly changed from the previous lap.

Ron Mistak and I discussed the two incidents and came to the conclusion that this is no different than if a car blows its engine, oiling the track and the car immediately behind goes off after hitting the oil and hits a wall. Note that I said "immediately behind", I should also add "and the cornerworkers haven't gotten the debris flag up yet but do thereafter".

We do not believe that either of the incidents were "at fault" incidents in which the damage was under the driver's control.

That doesn't mean that we are going to start giving free passes to drivers who hit things in the rain. It is your choice as to whether you continue racing in the rain. If the involved drivers had spun off during the actual race, they would have received 13's, as they were clearly making the conscious decision to continue racing even though the conditions were deteriorating.

Does this mean that we are going to give free passes to drivers who have off's on cool down laps? NO.

Remember that in club racing practice sessions you can continue to race after the checker but need to be particularly sure that the passes you are making are being done safely as not all racers remember that the track is still hot even though the checker is out for that practice session.

The weather conditions at The Glen were unusual. We watched the flags on the grandstands continually indicate changing wind conditions every afternoon. One of the storms blew in, blew out and then came back in a few minutes, as if it wanted to make sure that we'd really gotten Mother Nature's message.

The good news at The Glen was that we had relatively few incidents total. The race at MidOhio also had few incidents but both races had some great, close, clean racing. People were giving each other room but racing hard.

If anyone has any other questions, don't hesitate to send me a direct email to clubracingchair@pca.org. I may not get back to you the same day but will get back to you shortly.

Regards and see you at the track,
Bruce Boeder

TD in DC

Thanks for the explanation. I had a fantastic time at the Glen, and I really appreciate all the work that you and the other volunteers do to make the weekends so great!

TREMPER

I am truly amazed at all of the hard work our National Club Racing staff does at each and every club race. All of this effort is done so we, the racers, can have a good time. Once you have personally witnessed the "control" center at on of our large races, you can understand the complexity of their roles during our fun weekend.
Thank you for all of your dedication....
Pete

bobt993

Mark, since he removed the dots from his car, his color vision and understanding of mixing colors has gone ..................

A.Wayne

Yeah, You should , as you tend to overwork the Flag stations ...

TREMPER

From a long time follower of the Manny mobile, I can assure you that when yellow and blue mix into green..his color blindness can not see green as green..

esscape26

The PR coordinator has had 13/13, too.

#26

bobt993

Pete, is that why the dots came off the car? Did Manny have a hard time finding his car in the parking lot?

BTW, I got a 13 and I am yet to start a thread about how the scruts conspired against me. First time off a track, unfortunate nobody hurt very minor damage, but that's the rules.

TREMPER

To show how observant I am..I was following Manny down I-95 to Sebring this past February and it was four hours into the trip before I noticed the "wonder bread" dots were missing...
Pete

230ERACER

I have found that the 13/13 rule supports exactly what it is intended to do. It keeps us all in line with remembering that this is a hobby and we do this for the fun of it and the comraderie. I have only been involved with DE and Club Racing for 4 years but now have some of the best friends that I've ever had by doing this with my wife and myself.

As far as neutrality with the stewards...they are always looking at the big picture and make their decisions on that.

Been there done that...got my first 13 in my first Club Race on the Saturday warm up because I had my head up my you know what.

Can't wait for the next race! See you all at Mosport.