The primary issue for CSRG (and doubtless others) is how to convince the
insurers that our racing is safe and will continue to be safe. The insurers
will make their assessment of risk and charge premiums accordingly.
Implementing more restrictive tire rules may change the spectrum of who
passes who, but is an adminsrative nightmare to stay on top of, given the
constantly changing availability.
AND it wont make any fewer incidents. It wont even make the insurers any
happier since the highest incidents groups already have the most restrictive
tire rules. Thats going to be a hard sell to the insurers, looking at stats
is what they do.
I think that some effort toward rewarding sporting behaviour would a good
idea. As I recall, at CRSG end of season meetings in the past there have
been awards for several worthy people for long time contributions to our
sport. Perhaps we could reward people for short term contributions like not
running into anyone and not banzai-ing anyone. For example we could devise a
points system though the year culminating in an award for sportsmanship at
the end of the season. Although I havnt thought through all the
possibilities and difficulties of implementation, job 1 is to see if anyone
likes the idea enough to try and make something work.
By contrast, perhaps we could keep a running tally of bad behaviour. I
understand how it must be onerous for a club official to send someone
(possibly an old friend) home after an incident of poor behaviour, however
if points were accumulated for poor behaviour though the season or across a
rolling 3 event sample period, an entry could be refused if the points tally
got too high. If poor behaviour points were accumulated in small
increments, drivers would be less likely to get really steamed up following
a specific incident when they were possibly not to blame and where
collecting evidence would be difficult and time consuming and just wouldnt
get done given the time available.
For example, last weekend my friend reported that I passed him under yellow.
I am not at all sure that I did, but I have done in the past, so I guess I
am not immune. If I accumulated a single bad driving point point for this,
it would not be worth the effort to dispute it.. However if I collect 2 or
3 every race weekend, pretty soon a pattern would emerge which would be
plain for all to see and I wouldnt have a leg to stand on if my entry was
refused.
Oh and by the way, dont we already have enough black flag listings to refuse
entries to bad sports? Do drivers ever have their entries refused for a bad
sportsmanship?
Malcolm Cox
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