I hate long thank you speaches at late-night year-end banquets, but I now want to take the time to officially thank EVERYONE involved in making the inaugural NASA series such a big success. To those who have yet to try out NASA, you need to give it a try. It is like the organizers applied Buffum's Maine Rally mantra "We always enjoy ourselves" to a whole series. Kudos go out to John, Kendall, Ivan, Olga, Charles, Jean-Georges, etc., etc. The competitors are among the most friendly I have ever been around, and we had a great and competitive season. I am even starting to get to like a few of the Irish guys. ;^)
Many probably don't know the hoops Ivan and Olga had to jump through to put Rally New York USA together in the timeframe available to them. I thought the mix of roads and the compact course was terrific, and I am really sorry about all those cones I destroyed!
We all learn from every incident, and in this event I learned about Red Crosses. While it still remains a mystery how the ambulance responded so quickly to Meegan's crash, we were the first to catch up to it on the course. At first we were dumbfounded, as it displayed no flashing lights, and didn't appear to be moving too quickly (we caught up to it in a hurry). Upon reaching the scene, with the co-driver in the fetal position on the ground, the road blocked, and the crash site blind to the cars approaching downhill at speed, we decided to immediately display the red cross. After all, the stage was at that point over, and we needed to get the cars to STOP, not just slow down. Although the ambulance had been dispatched, the start control obviously didn't get the message, and for the next 17 minutes, cars continued down the stage at speed. What amazed me was the number of drivers that seemed to not recognize the red cross, or know what to do. Several seemed to just plain ignore me in the middle of the road risking life and limb, only to zoom by with foot firmly planted. I suspect it just takes a few moments to get out of "driving mode" into "thinking mode", as we had similar cognitive difficulties when we first saw the ambulance ahead of us. Several competitors reacted instantaneously, Tim Meyer and Paul Kelbel among them. The lesson I learned was to consider ahead of time what you will do when you encounter a red cross on stage. Rehearse in your mind that potential, and you will be able to just react.
Jeff Field
Many probably don't know the hoops Ivan and Olga had to jump through to put Rally New York USA together in the timeframe available to them. I thought the mix of roads and the compact course was terrific, and I am really sorry about all those cones I destroyed!
We all learn from every incident, and in this event I learned about Red Crosses. While it still remains a mystery how the ambulance responded so quickly to Meegan's crash, we were the first to catch up to it on the course. At first we were dumbfounded, as it displayed no flashing lights, and didn't appear to be moving too quickly (we caught up to it in a hurry). Upon reaching the scene, with the co-driver in the fetal position on the ground, the road blocked, and the crash site blind to the cars approaching downhill at speed, we decided to immediately display the red cross. After all, the stage was at that point over, and we needed to get the cars to STOP, not just slow down. Although the ambulance had been dispatched, the start control obviously didn't get the message, and for the next 17 minutes, cars continued down the stage at speed. What amazed me was the number of drivers that seemed to not recognize the red cross, or know what to do. Several seemed to just plain ignore me in the middle of the road risking life and limb, only to zoom by with foot firmly planted. I suspect it just takes a few moments to get out of "driving mode" into "thinking mode", as we had similar cognitive difficulties when we first saw the ambulance ahead of us. Several competitors reacted instantaneously, Tim Meyer and Paul Kelbel among them. The lesson I learned was to consider ahead of time what you will do when you encounter a red cross on stage. Rehearse in your mind that potential, and you will be able to just react.
Jeff Field