It has been a long time since I was as angry as I was today at an individual (participant) at a race. I have over the years watched many instances of poor sportsmanship from aggressive driving, intentional ballast weight cheating, and total neglect for following race rules, etc. What I watched today was an individual flipping off one of the other drivers after he was not able to pass him. This was done with intent (the driver had to swerve in front of another car to do it) and was done in front of the primary viewing crowd. It is recorded on the lap counting camera.
I was not running this race, but did bring it to the attention of the race steward. The driver was stopped and talked to, for a total of 44 seconds. A couple of other witnesses to the incident commented about it to me and that nothing was really done to the driver.
So my question is to others:
Do you feel that this action is acceptable in a high school sporting event?
Was he treated too severely of not sever enough?
What is an appropriate action for an official in a school sporting event in a situation such as this?
If I was running the race, I would have pulled the driver from the race. If it was one of our drivers he would never have been in a race again until he apologized to the other driver. I personally think a 44 second penalty showed the driver what he did was not that unacceptable. Am I asking to much to expect sportsmanlike conduct from this team?
Aaron
iguy said
May 9, 2010
I completely agree you you Aaron. If it were my race I would have done the same thing.
Cent-ECAR-man said
May 9, 2010
I have to agree as well. It is completely rediculous for a driver to "flip off" another driver for any reason especially infront of the main through way. This puts a bad name on us when it comes to spectators.
The other problem i see here is bad drivers. Being a former racer myself i can contest to the anger that arises when a slower car will not give you the right of way. Unfortunately there is no way for the track officials to know when a driver is having problems with another driver with out any form of communication. Also the ability for most corner martials to spot bad driving is limited at best. It is easy to spot the really bad driver, but its the ones that sorta keep up with the pack that are hard to spot yet cause the most trouble.
Personally I think it would be nice to educate corner martials a little more befor races and maybe set up some form of hand communication for drivers to let us know when something is wrong.
Something like a raised hand indicates the driver being blocked.
Just a few thoughts for yall. -Rich
-- Edited by Cent-ECAR-man on Sunday 9th of May 2010 07:48:17 PM
Kevin said
May 10, 2010
I view this as unsportsmanlike conduct. I know in other events held by high schools a player can be pulled from the event and even fined(by the school or event I'm not sure). I also agree with Rich about that making us look bad to the general public. I don't know though, this view could be the years in scouting talking for me.
mhodgertt said
May 11, 2010
I agree that the 44 second stop was not nearly sever enough. I think the driver should have been stopped at that point and not allowed to race for that day. They might then understand there are consequences for unsportsmanlike conduct and outright rudeness.
Aaron, if it was one of my drivers please let me know.
I just heard today that one of my drivers was intentionally blocking a car on Saturday and I will have a long talk with that driver. He will not be driving in the next race and his attitude during our discussion will determine if he drives at the PIR race. I want to be sure the car involved with Zaine (#59) was my car #115 wasn't it?
Mike
electrathon said
May 11, 2010
mhodgertt wrote:
I agree that the 44 second stop was not nearly sever enough. I think the driver should have been stopped at that point and not allowed to race for that day. They might then understand there are consequences for unsportsmanlike conduct and outright rudeness.
Aaron, if it was one of my drivers please let me know.
I just heard today that one of my drivers was intentionally blocking a car on Saturday and I will have a long talk with that driver. He will not be driving in the next race and his attitude during our discussion will determine if he drives at the PIR race. I want to be sure the car involved with Zaine (#59) was my car #115 wasn't it?
Mike
Mike, it was not one of your drivers. I would have said something to you earlier if it was.
I did not hear about the intentional blocking till late in the race. Zaine was talking ot his dad and he relayed it to me. There were a couple cars that were blocking on the back strip, but most of them were just very bad cars and even worse drivers. I think the mistake 115 made in blocking was that he did it to a car with a camera recording it all. When I was talking to Tom he said he had watched the video and it was very obvious what was going on (Tom likely can burn you a copy of the video). It took Zain a few laps to get past him once it started, you could even see it on the lap count sheets when we were reviewing the race.
I was not running this race, but did bring it to the attention of the race steward. The driver was stopped and talked to, for a total of 44 seconds. A couple of other witnesses to the incident commented about it to me and that nothing was really done to the driver.
So my question is to others:
Do you feel that this action is acceptable in a high school sporting event?
Was he treated too severely of not sever enough?
What is an appropriate action for an official in a school sporting event in a situation such as this?
If I was running the race, I would have pulled the driver from the race. If it was one of our drivers he would never have been in a race again until he apologized to the other driver. I personally think a 44 second penalty showed the driver what he did was not that unacceptable. Am I asking to much to expect sportsmanlike conduct from this team?
Aaron
I have to agree as well. It is completely rediculous for a driver to "flip off" another driver for any reason especially infront of the main through way. This puts a bad name on us when it comes to spectators.
The other problem i see here is bad drivers. Being a former racer myself i can contest to the anger that arises when a slower car will not give you the right of way.
Unfortunately there is no way for the track officials to know when a driver is having problems with another driver with out any form of communication. Also the ability for most corner martials to spot bad driving is limited at best. It is easy to spot the really bad driver, but its the ones that sorta keep up with the pack that are hard to spot yet cause the most trouble.
Personally I think it would be nice to educate corner martials a little more befor races and maybe set up some form of hand communication for drivers to let us know when something is wrong.
Something like a raised hand indicates the driver being blocked.
Just a few thoughts for yall.
-Rich
-- Edited by Cent-ECAR-man on Sunday 9th of May 2010 07:48:17 PM
I did not hear about the intentional blocking till late in the race. Zaine was talking ot his dad and he relayed it to me. There were a couple cars that were blocking on the back strip, but most of them were just very bad cars and even worse drivers. I think the mistake 115 made in blocking was that he did it to a car with a camera recording it all. When I was talking to Tom he said he had watched the video and it was very obvious what was going on (Tom likely can burn you a copy of the video). It took Zain a few laps to get past him once it started, you could even see it on the lap count sheets when we were reviewing the race.
Aaron