> If the timing and scoring people don't care, why should you?
As one who has worked T&S at both road races (National license) and solos,
I can tell ya T&S is pretty powerless in such situations.
Oh, they threaten not to time a car, but it almost never happens. Instead the
errant driver is told, and told again, and yet again, to get his markings
right ... and then the event is over.
Now most of the time, a driver is told to fix a number or class letters and
he does so pleasantly (or at least makes a valiant attempt), but sometimes you
get the dickhead out there who just has better things to do than fix his
markings. We complain to the driver, to the stewards, to whomever seems in
authority to fix it, and sometimes it gets fixed, sometimes not.
What gets done is usually accomplished by requesting, pleading, cajoling,
wheedling ... virtually never by T&S exerting some "authority" to enforce
the needed fix. the authority just ain't there. It rests in the stewards or
in whomever is in overall charge of the event.
It is a bigger problem in races, where a bad number can be so distracting as
to screw up the times of other cars racing in close proximity (you hunt for
the bad number and miss the cars close behind). But in racing you have a
steward structure that is much more formal and designed to take care of such
things.
In solo, such structure is much more informal. As a result, such matters often
go unresolved if the individual is not inclined to be cooperative.
It is not that T&S doesn't care. They are more frustrated by the jerk than
anyone else ... but 20 second later they have someone else requiring their
attention, and then someone else. If the problem cannot be handled easily
(read; the driver chooses not to bother fixing the problem), then it usually
does not get handled at all. the crew in T&S would usually cheer to learn the\
bozo who refused to fix a bad number just got DQ'd by the event steward. But
I've never heard of that happening.
--Rocky
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