Astroman

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jrgordonsenior

I think Eric clarified this above but just to be sure, the incident on track (OP & Klaus) had absolutely nothing to do with the incident in the pits with the head scrut and a completely different set of people. I wasn't a witness, but the scrut's behavior as described to me was completely way out of line bordering on contempt which is why I'd like to know if there's written standards of behavior for scruts. Yelling into members faces and pushing them is unacceptable behavior and as the deputy sheriff explained it's criminal assault. A racer would get a 13 for unsportsmanlike conduct for that behavior.....

eric523

Yes, the incident involving the scrut, myself, and the sheriff (my stepfather) was regarding inspection of my customers SP Box engines.

The short of it is one of our cars qualified on pole for SP Box. The scrut told me he wanted to bore and stroke test all of our teams SP Box cars, which happened to be only two at this event. They wanted to do it on Saturday night, but both of those cars are driven to and from the track by the drivers, and they were commuting to their homes about an hour away. We agreed to have them stay a couple hours after their last run sessions and he would be over for the inspection at 3PM. We were to have the cars on jackstands, LR wheel off, and a spark plug removed.

The drivers stayed at the track the extra time, we had both cars on jack stands, and at around 2:30 he came over and called off the inspection for the day because he was too busy. He then told us to have the cars ready for inspection at 8am. We mentioned that we were not needed at the track until 9 but we would bring in drivers and crew an hour and a half early to get these cars ready for inspection. We did, and everyone showed up at 7:30, and the cars were again ready, and the scrut did not show up again.

Then, he came over after qualifying around 10. He asked when it would be convenient for him to inspect the cars. I told him convenience has passed, convenience was yesterday when they were on the stands, convenience was this morning when 5 guys got up early and came in to satisfy his request. He told me he didn't like my attitude. As I began to explain that I didn't really like him missing the appointments he set he yelled "shut up" as he gave me a firm index finger in front of my face. The type of aggression, volume, tone, gesture, and proximity to my face was more than I was comfortable with. It was also a quick turn for the conversation from simple low level discussion to one of aggression. My stepfather quickly walked over to see what was going on and was about the same distance to the scrut as the scrut was to me when he yelled at me. The scrut pushed him away and continued yelling at us for our attitude and then threatened to disqualify all of our drivers and have all of us removed from the event.

He radioed for another scrut to join the situation. He did a few minutes later. I had a fine discussion with him (scrut 2) and explained the order of events over the past two days. Meanwhile, the original scrut was repeating himself that I "had lost my privilege to speak" over and over while I was talking scrut 2. I told him that we would comply with the inspection, but the original scrut was disrespectful of our time, and had been verbally and physically inappropriate. This is also when the sheriff mentioned that he may just file a charge for the shove from the original scrut. I asked that the original scrut not be the guy to do the inspection, not talk to us again, and to leave the area. We agreed, scrut 2 came and completed the test. The test was good, we raced on.

Not something I'm happy about. Not the first time I've had an issue with that particular scrut, who last year in tech told me I had to make a change to my car because he said so. Even though he could not produce where it was illegal and I produced where it was specifically noted as legal. He lost his patience with my persistence and just told me I would not run for the weekend unless I did what he said and that's final. I feel he had just lost his patience with me explaining that having us run around and spend hours waiting on him was not very welcomed. I almost got my two sentences out about it before he yelled at me to shut up, so maybe his patience is just very short... maybe he was having a bad day? Maybe a little of both. Heck, maybe he saw a thread on RL about him? I lost my patience pretty quickly when he told me to shut up and pointed his finger in my face too.

We made several attempts to comply with his inspection. The inspection was passed. We didn't have him arrested for his behavior. We did have him removed from our paddock area. We did not hear about it again for the rest of the weekend from PCA. We were not reprimanded, DQ'd, asked to leave, or even asked to handle it differently once scrut 2 arrived. We had a conversation with scrut 2 about how poorly the original scrut handled himself, how poorly he represented PCA, and how poorly he treated some members. Then went on to win the SP Box races and went home.

I hadn't intended on airing the story online but there ya go...

mooty

never mind.
but eric's logic is right on.

KaiB

Bingo!!!

mklaskin

Have to ask: Who was Scrut 1?

Coochas

Only the TUDOR officials know which car was involved.

Der ABT

So do scruits have sensitivity training

GTgears

Scrut sounds a little too sensitive. Also sounds like he's got a personal problem with Herg that has removed his ability to be an unbiased Marshall.

And even though I said it before, congrats to Alex on his win. His legitimate win.

Weston Dillard

The National Steward is responsible for the race. If you have an issue with a scrut or timing, or a volunteer for that matter, you can take it up with the steward. If you have an issue with the steward, you can take it up with the Chief National Steward (currently Vicki Earnshaw) or the CR Chair (currently Bryan Henderson). If you have a problem with the CR Chair, you can talk to the PCA National Prez (currently Manny Alban).

West

Nizer

Can't imagine anyone having an issue with Bryan Henderson. Great guy. Hope he sticks around for a while.

Gary R.

It was Bryan Henderson?

LuigiVampa

Just curious, but at this level of racing, is there any prize money involved? Or is this just for fun, a trophy and bragging rights. Which are all very important, btw. Just want to gauge why a scrut would get that nutty. Sounds unprofessional in any regard.

Manny Alban

It's official...Rennlist as become the online version of The View

Manny! I resent that! I prefer, some ppoeople who post on Rennlist resemble the folks on The View

Best,

Phokaioglaukos

Wow, this thread sure does produce!