I have never been a fan of the STPR tracker cars, but I may not fully understand the purpose.
Now that I know they can PASS eligible rally vehicles I am even less of a fan.
(RANT MODE ON)
Does the tracker car do more than locate disabled cars?
What I do know: while working the service area radio a few years ago I was instructed to not give teams with disabled cars location info until the tracker car verifies location.
This practice alone seems a waste of everyone's time. The quicker we can get a crew to the location of a disabled vehicle and team the quicker everyone gets home. Once a car is confirmed out, send the service crew to the start or finish and have them wait until the stage is done to retrieve the vehicle.
It is not always possible to get accurate info before the stage is done, but we typically know if the incident is mechanical or in the woods, if the info is unsure the smart thing to do is hold the service crew with a radio operator until we know what the action should be. Med Sweep or Sweep is soon enough in these situations.
The rally and teams should have a plan before the event, many won't, but the radio net should be able to communicate team locations and movement intentions.
I also advocate a medical sweep vehicle -- a first responder on the road one minute behind the last car. No need to run at speed, but you'll find most qualified people for this position will drive safely just a bit slower than the last car on the road.
If a tracker vehicle is on the road in front of a competitor, is there still a medical sweep, where are they, are they following the last car?
Any non-competition car on stage should end the stage. The dust at STPR is enough of a reason to never put a non-competition vehicle in the middle of competition vehicles.
Having passed many a rally car on stage (4 alone last year at LSPR, but that is another story), I can tell you that as a driver I try to pass as quickly (safely) as possible. Yes I calculate these moves, but in last year's example there were at least two competitors that likely did not know I was there until we were door-to-door. These are high risk moves for both cars; the likely-hood of getting bumped and bumped off the road at any-point is very high. STPR roads are not exactly wide... Are tracker cars caged, are drivers belted and helmeted, are these 'teams' prepared to suffer body damage, or a trip into the woods?
As said, I do not fully understand the function of the tracker cars. AND importantly we have not yet implemented a perfect solution to securing the safety of the last few cars. (These cars tend to get spread out and by the rules sweep waits 30 minutes for even the last car on the road -- which compromises safety. This issue can be reduced in severity with good net communications and smart use of sequence numbers, but response will be delayed.)
FYI - solutions technically exist for the safety of the last cars and all the cars. A combination of GPS tracking, emergency response devices (modified Marine type - EPIRB) and common radio communications in all cars could significantly reduce the unknowns. Add a helicopter and there would be almost no situation that could not be verified and acted upon in less than 10 minutes. NO I don't expect this, it is possible.
Back to tracker cars: I trust the intentions are sound, I am not sure the implementation is sound.
To be honest any extra vehicle on stage, any official, any press, any last minute worker movement, and any extra sweep vehicle is a liability. There will be situations at almost all events that require extra vehicles on stage, to solve problems quiclkly. We have enough specific and important tasks without adding to the train of vehicles that are running the stages.
I hope that the STPR committee will review the planned use of tracker cars, the need, and the implementation.
See ya all in the woods.
Mike
