We had a DE this Saturday at Limerock and the powers that be decided not to have anyone at Pit-out. The cars were lined up at Pit-In and when released drove down the Hot pit and right onto the track. While the 1st group of cars entered fine because the track was empty the cars that came on late or after pitting in had to go out on their own. There were no "incidents". I have my own take on this and it varies from track to track, this is about LRP.

 

no pit out person proved problematic even in an advanced only DE...might have been been some HANS moments that I saw though

 

Below are the PCA National minimum standards on the subject

 

I should have added that the issue was the California Ferrari / CGT thing so keep that in mind when voting as my guess is a lot of Regions are thinking the same thing..

 

There was a "Pit out Marshall" (volunteer) at this event.. he just happened to be standing at the other end of the pit...

 

I never trust any Pit Out person anyway, and know that it is my responsibility to safely enter the track as well as deal with others entering the track.

 

I agree with you Bob, and i've had volunteers try and send me out with cars coming two wide down the main straight before. Try and think about it from a regular DE standpoint with a varied mix of drivers..

 

Not sure I have ever seen a "professional" pit-out worker. It's always been a "volunteer" - someone assigned by the club as part of a work assignment.

There should definitely be someone there. That someone needs to be experienced because I've seen some pretty interesting stuff working pit-out.

 

At Limerock, with a HANs device and the track wall, you cannot see cars comming up the track. It isn't until you are on the track at the blend line that you can begin to see cars and adjust your speed to fit into the group.

 

At least at limerock the fast car can stay wide if the two are pacing about equal come the turn-in point. As long as the car coming on track stays inside everything is ok. In California the fast car was required to cross the path of the pit out car to set up for the next corner and that's where fundamentally they had a problem.

 

I'm with Bob on this one. I don't care who waves me out, I'll still check my own mirrors. Having been assigned to work pit-out, I know the caliber of people manning that station....

 

It 'should' be able to be unmanned. Everyone should have the ability to watch their mirrors/stay inside of a blend line and not make a sudden move to drivers left until after turn 1.

'Should'

However, brainfarts, senior moments, cranial-rectal implantation along with other issues probably show that it should be manned.

 

Agreed, but as long as *I* don't have the brainfart and decide to go outside the blend line, then I'm ok. And, if I do have the brainfart (or somebody else does) then it really doesn't matter if it is manned or not.

Normally I don't care, but the problem with an inexperienced person manning the station is that they generally won't let you out on the track even if there is only one person coming down the front straight. If there are enough people running, you might have to wait a long time for that opening.

 

There needs to be a pit out person IMHO. They not only are there to watch for oncoming traffic they also need to help space out the cars entering the track.

Most drivers left on their own will just ride the bumper in front of them.

 

I can't see the track because of my HANS and I'm so low in the car that I can't see over the guard rail