>If we can come up with some suggested guidelines or
>alternate wording, I'll talk to Paul Westwick about it (does
>Paul read stuff here?)
I do read stuff here - I've just been lurking while recovering from the weekend. I also didn't want to weigh in as the event organizer (hey, how come no-one ever told me what was happening at my own event!!!)
As has been written here already, it's over, all inquiry/protest deadlines have passed, so don't read this as suggesting that anything will be done about it for this event.
First of all, I don't think I would distinguish between taking something and receiving something. Remember the stories a few years ago about a certain high profile US team leaving a cache of spares out in the forest? No-one "assisted" them or gave them anything. The stuff just magically appeared out there. On that basis, I would say that taking the part from Alan's road car during the transit is receiving illegal outside assistance.
What could Ross & Alan have done to have made it legal? If they'd had radios, they could have told their service crew in advance to go to the hotel and grab the part off the road car. I don't know it this is the sort of part that Lordco would have had in stock, but they could have radioed their service crew to walk across the parking lot and buy it. (God I love having service in front of an auto parts store!)
Had I been the steward and had this been protested, I would probably have given them a slap on the wrist, on the basis that what they did didn't violate the principle of equal service time to every team, and that they could have accomplished exactly the same thing legally, and they will know how to do it legally next time. They're still a novice team, and I would give them more leeway in this situation than if a top national team tried the same thing.
>I guess the question is what should be allowed from other
>sources outside of the service area. Should fuel and other
>consumables from a service station be allowed? What about
>spares from a store? What about spares from a car not
>associated with a competitor? What about spares from a car
>associated with a competitor?
Part of the point of limited service with ATC in and ATC out is to remove any motivation for speeding on transits. If by driving the transit like a maniac, you could get 10 minutes extra service time, some teams would push that, to the detriment of the sport. Allowing teams to get fuel and parts from service stations along the transits (or from hotels, or random parked cars) opens up the same problem. Borrowing stuff from another team while waiting at a dead-end turn-around doesn't.
Therefore, I would be inclined to rule against receiving (or taking) parts from a car or shop outside the service area, but wouldn't worry about teams helping eachother out in a stage, or while waiting for a turn-around.
Borrowing stuff from another team is technically outside assistance too, but you could argue that it's available equally to everyone. Hell, I've even leant another team my spare tire at a dead-end. One of the things that I really love about rallying is how teams can be competitive and cooperative at the same time.
I would rule against that sort of cooperation if it became a craven end-run around the rules. For example, if a well financed team decided to enter an extra car in the rally, and loaded it up with spare tires and other stuff for their top car, only running that team to transport the stuff to the dead-ends. I would call that illegal outside assistance, but when joe novice runs out of duct tape and borrows some from another team? Come on! Part of what makes a good steward is recognizing when to apply common sense to such rules.
Paul
I think I will take this as an opportunity to figure out what the CARS rule book says and what it means.
