All,

I have been asked to let this year's Sebring SRF racers know that the Executive Steward of the Southeast Division is conducing a review of what went on behind the scenes and developing lessons learned. This may take some more time as several protests are still pending. A report will be available and presumably posted on this site.

Chris

That weekend was over 2 months ago. How about some sign of progress besides excuses?

DonKahn wrote:That weekend was over 2 months ago. How about some sign of progress besides excuses?

A couple of thoughts.

First, the SEDiv Executive Steward, Morriss Pendleton, is doing a thorough review of what happened at the event. These things take a little while to accomplish. (I have led one such review, and there is a lot of work involved.) Any outcomes that involve "personnel actions" will not necessarily get publicized. If there is a Super Tour at Sebring again, I would expect it to proceed rather differently from this year's.

Second, there was a protest that made its way to the Court of Appeals (COA) and was returned for a new hearing. Again, these things take a little while. If it returns to the COA, you will read about it in Fastrack.

Did anything ever get published about the two incidents last year at Road America for the major events?
If not both drivers and workers are being short changed. How much time is reasonable?

Pat

In general, if you have questions or concerns about an event, and you did not get them resolved to your satisfaction by the event Chief Steward and/or Stewards of the Meeting and Court of Appeals, your best next step is to contact the relevant Division Executive Steward (Kevin Coulter in this case).

CenDiv contacts here: http://cendiv-scca.org/contacts.html

The investigation of the Sebring SRF race has been completed. As soon as the protests and appeals have been completed, a report will be posted here.

Chris

Still waiting, almost 4 months now. Yes, I know, the wheels of BS turn slowly.

Report by Morriss Pendleton, Executive Steward, SEDiv on January 2017 SCCA Winter Nationals at Sebring

This race was held on the Sebring Long Course 1/15/2017 with 66 cars starting the race. The subject of this report centers on what took place with the corner workers and operating Stewards in the control tower. The actions of some cars are discussed to convey what took place on the track.

At 35:32 into the race T10 transmitted EMERGENCY at 10, EMERGENCY AT 10
At 35:40 EMERGENCY AT 10. WE'LL NEED RESCUE PLEASE
At 35:53 EMERGENCY AT 10. WE NEED RESCUE NOW, PLEASE
At 36:06 LEADER IS GOING LEADER IS GOING INTO 17
AT 36:13 LEADER THROUGH 17, I BELIEVE IT IS CAR 61
At 36:17 RACE CONTROL CALL DOUBLE YELLOWS ALL AROUND, DOUBLE YELLOW ALL AROUND! SAFETY, STAND UP.
At 36:29 CONTROL, TURN 10. THINGS ARE STABILIZE HERE, DRIVERS ARE OK, AMAZINGLY

At this point we have a wreck at turn 10 and it is believed that track Safety in the tower has walked on the SCCA net by bleed over in talking with his workers at turn 10.

It is unclear if the 36:29 transmission was misunderstood or if that also was walked on in the tower in part.

The tower now calls to find the leader and we will go green flag. Safety stand down. At the same point tower new calls for T10 to report quickly as we are coming to the green.

There is now a one lap shoot out gone green (uncalled by start or tower) on top of damaged cars still on the track at T10.

At this point logs and transcripts show more than 20 cases of unintelligible radio transmissions since the wreck at T10 occurred.

Another wreck occurs between 17A and Pit in. At least one car is airborne, strikes the wall and is hit several times. This wreck happened because several of the leaders had contact and off driver left at 17 Bridge. As these cars reentered the track, there was contact by high speed cars unable to see problems ahead. One car is hit by a car that becomes airborne striking the wall and hit by others.

There is a degree of time lag of this being reported because of location on the track and (crosstalk) on the net. When reported, Control asks for location and upon being reported as 17A, control calls for "black flag all" followed by "red flag all".

KEY ISSUES IDENTIFIED AND CORRECTIONS FOLLOWED

1. T10 may have misled control by reporting THINGS ARE STABILIZED HERE, DRIVERS ARE OK, AMAZINGLY.

There are many cases of radio traffic (crosstalk) that lead to information not being received and/or delayed.
THE CF REGION HAS ALREADY PURCHASED A NEW DIGITAL RADIO NETWORK. THAT EQUIPMENT HAS BEEN PLACED IN SERVICE TO STOP THE TRACK SYSTEM FROM WALKING ON THE SCCA NET.
ADDITIONAL REVIEW AND TRAINING OF RADIO AND COMMS PROTOCOLS FOR ALL USERS SHOULD BE ADDED.

2. For many reason, including the lack of proper and clear radio comm, the Control Team lost situational awareness of where they were within the race and the degree of ongoing problems with track blockage at T10 leading to a one lap shoot out at the finish.

SEDiv TRAINING FOR STEWARDS WAS DIRECTED TOWARD TOWER OPERATIONS FOR ALL DIVISION TRAINING DAYS IN 2017

A FULL IN PERSON REVIEW OF ALL FACTS LEADING TO THIS OUTCOME WAS HELD WITH THE EVENT STEWARDS AND EXECUTIVE STEWARD.

PLANS FOR THIS TRAINING TO CARRY INTO 2018 SEASON WILL FOLLOW.

3. The bridge coming out of 17 has long been a problem and a number of wrecks have occurred because of high speed entry into this area with limited sight ahead.

CFR IS WORKING WITH SEBRING TRACK TO PROVIDE A WARNING LIGHT SYSTEM THAT CAN BE SEEN AS COMING TO THAT BRIDGE AREA. PLANS CALL FOR IT TO BE CONTROLLED BY THE FLAG STATION AT 17A.

Thanks for the follow up. Particularly glad to see efforts to add a warning light system at 17 and the plan is for local control of those lights.

What about the guy in race control who "has to write stuff down, before he will make a call"?

How much of the radio stepping on was because of understaffed flagging, resulting in untrained flaggers on station?

I didn't see cars blocking the track at 10. What I did see was a rescue truck parked in the impact zone of anyone who might go off the track there.

I'm pretty sure that the upsidedown SRF in 17 was visible from control. Or are they not allowed to look out the window?