Joined
·
718 Posts
There are still problems with the rule and its application. Rule says everybody who has not finished when the stage is stopped gets the determined time. "When the stage is stopped" is not well defined. There is no practical way to notify the 10 cars or whatever that have started and not yet finished. So when the start is stopped, the stage is still not fully stopped. The cars still on stage are at speed, and their times do count. The best definition of "when the stage is stopped" is probably "everything behind the last car that started before the decision" or whatever. Or, in a case like this when spectator concerns were slowing people down on stage, "everything from the first affected car back". What about people like Bob Olson, who started prior to the start being stopped, and then slid off and got stuck, but was then extracted by Bob Nielsen as he was transiting through after the break? Olson was not fully or partially responsible for the stoppage - he should have gotten the 8:10 time that Lurch posted. That could be considered force majeurely beneficial for him. I don't know exactly how this was applied here, because several cars ('way more than the 2 max that would be allowed by the rule) had times in excess of the 8:10 time that was applied to many of the back of the pack. (For those of you who haven't consulted the rule, the organizers are supposed to take the worst time posted before the stoppage, or at least one of the worst 3 times, if the worst one is abnormally bad. So there should never be more than 2 times worse than the assigned time.) I suspect it was done well (intelligently, but not by the book), because although there were some informal inquiries, there were no official claims.
Best rule might incorporate a little more clear definition and specify ideal actions, but specifically state the authority of the officials to take the actions that are appropriate to the circumstances. It may be appropriate for someone who understands it really well to draft up an intelligent rule clarification.
Best rule might incorporate a little more clear definition and specify ideal actions, but specifically state the authority of the officials to take the actions that are appropriate to the circumstances. It may be appropriate for someone who understands it really well to draft up an intelligent rule clarification.
