Court
Room
Send protests to Luck
Beck
If you feel your race night has been unfairly spoiled by the actions of another driver or drivers, then you should protest them. You own it to your fellow drivers, who may be the next victim, to engage the process by which some may learn the standards we expect of one another. Everyone should accept protests on a no-hard-feelings basis, and simply as part of the learning experience. Some of the clubs' current best and cleanest drivers have been protested against and have received penalties in the past. The primary function of the protest system is not to punish, but to educate, so we all can take the most enjoyment as possible from our hobby.
Note 1) Adjustments to race results and standings tables etc., due to protest outcomes, will be carried out, at the latest, the next time the standings tables are updated. This should be soon after the next round has been run.
Note 2) Disqualifications, bans, finishing position adjustments, points penalties, in fact any penalty affected score at all, can not be included in the dropped-worst-race-scores rule. I.e. You can not drop a score that has been penalty affected.
Penalty Table
| Driver |
R1 |
R2 |
R3 |
R4 |
R5 |
R6 |
R7 |
R8 |
R9 |
R10 |
R11 |
R12 |
R13 |
R14 |
|
Ken Wind |
DQ | |||||||||||||
|
Colin Sands |
DQ |
|||||||||||||
|
Jack Sands |
DQ |
DQ |
||||||||||||
|
Michael Fulcher |
DQ |
Penalty Table Key
| Disqualification | DQ | |
| Points Penalty | -xx | Where xx is the amount of penalty points subtracted |
| Position Penalty | Py | Where y is the position imposed as a penalty |
| Probation | ||
| Last Chance Probation | Last chance before being banned from the series. | |
| Race Ban |
Round 14 - Adelaide - Final
Greg Longfield v Jack Sands - Div 1
Plaintiff's Accusation
Protest ... for failing to leave room for an overtaking car causing an accident.Defendant's Reply
Yep I stuffed this one up. I can honestly say I had no idea Greg was on my inside, no idea at all and was surprised when I ended up in a ball of flame. If I had known he was there I would have of course given him a wide berth, I feel terrible about this. I accept full responsibility and apologized to Greg in VROC afterwards. It's a bad way to end the season as the NSW state championship was a close competition between him and Reg ( and me until my last DQ at Rouen) .Judgment
DisqualificationNo hard feelings.
Luke Beck
GPLAC 9 Protest Judge
Round 13 - Rouen Les Essarts
Ashley Miskelly v Jack Sands - Div 1
Plaintiff's Accusation
Protest ... for driving without sufficient consideration for room/safety... I basically feathered the throttle momentarily exiting the hairpin as I wanted a better exit. Jack either didn't give enough consideration for this, or simply decided I needed a helping hand off the track. The replay says it all. ( A replay was supplied from Geo's system ).Defendant's Reply
I accept full responsibility for tapping AM in the hairpin. There was no malice or premeditation involved. He was off line and I was on line, I should have realised he was going to have a slow exit. As for SC he was as close to me as I was to Ash. Unfortunate situation which I shall endeavour not to repeat and I apologise again to all involved and am ready for the certain book to be thrown to compliment the many lectures and advice already received.Judgment
Disqualification + one round probation.If you run into someone from behind its an automatic DQ at the very least. There were no mitigating circumstances here that I can see. That two other drivers were affected underlines the importance of not doing this, but doesn't affect the penalty. Being and saying 'sorry' is the right and good thing to do but doesn't lessen the usual penalty.
No hard feelings.
Luke Beck
GPLAC 9 Protest Judge
Uwe Jacobsen v Michael Fulcher - Div 2
Plaintiff's Accusation
That you drove into Uwe from behind. "Due to running into me from behind and then kept on driving ... No hard feelings but ... ( A replay was supplied from Uwe's system ).Defendant's Reply
If you look at the replay from both in-car views , its my view that , from Uwe's car , he slows as soon as he sees the incident happening in front of him, he almost completely stops right on the only clear racing line left, when there was quite a large gap for him to drive through. When you look from my car, you can see that I also brake as soon as I see the incident in front , but can't pull my car up to a complete stop like Uwe did. I had no where to go and there were 3 cars virtually stopped in front of me, the original incident having nothing to do with me.I believe that it was a racing incident caused by a combination of the 2 cars in front of Uwe and myself coming together, Uwe coming close to a complete stop, and me not being able to brake hard enough. Once the incident was over, it was impossible for me to tell which was Uwe's car as there were cars everywhere and it would have been dangerous for me to wait for him to get back in front. I wasn't sure if I was to blame, and would have let him back in front anyway, if I could have done so safely.
Judgment
Disqualification + one round probation.MF, although perhaps was taken by surprise by the incident in front of him, still had ample room to avoid Uwe. MF had plenty of room to run his car off the road to avoid hitting Uwe - but didn't. As a racer, this probably seems as the most unnatural thing to do, but unfortunately, as this is all of our hobbies, it is within everyone's interest not to have a negative effect on another's race night, hence the following rules were written and apply.
RA-1 The onus is on the behind driver to take all necessary care and responsibility not to run into an ahead driver.
RA-2 The ahead driver must not do any malicious or inappropriate braking or slowing.
The ahead driver is entitled to be slower or use longer and earlier braking zones than others. They are also entitled to turn in earlier or later and/or apex earlier or later. They are also entitled to be inconsistent and erratic.
Behind drivers are expected to anticipate the possibility that ahead drivers may have longer braking zones etc. than do they and should drive accordingly, always maintaining separation.
In short, if you are behind someone then you have the responsibility not to run into them. They do not have to try to avoid you. If all else fails, you should run your own car off the track to avoid such a collision.No hard feelings.
Luke Beck
GPLAC 9 Protest Judge
Round 12 - Monza
Luke Beck v Colin Sands - Div 1
Plaintiff's Accusation
That you drove into Luke from behind. "Colin ruined my race ... due
to punting me ... No hard feelings but ..."
A replay was supplied from Luke's system.
Defendant's Reply
I did regrettably run into Luke from behind. I was not intending to
overtake him, merely place myself fully in his mirrors. I missed the braking
point, collided with Luke and then the armco. I'm sorry for the incident and I
said so to Luke after I returned to VROC.
After bouncing off the armco I knew that cars behind me were in danger of colliding, as I was moving back towards the racing line. As I had some forward momentum I decided that braking now would leave me halted on the racing line. I decided to apply power and aim for the grass on the inside of the corner. I only had a short moment to make this decision and unfortunately I collected Steve as he went past.
When it was clear that Luke had exited I rejoined the race, but at the end of the following lap I entered the pits and quit as I didn't feel it right for me to finish the race considering what had happened.
I had been in 6th position before the incident, and rejoined the race in 9th, not sure on final result.
Judgment
I accept that this was a genuine accident, and that Colin's subsequent
reapplication of throttle was to avoid a further incident, al-be-it that it
may have inadvertently caused another. Nether-the-less a ramming contact from
behind that causes the front driver to retire from a race requires an almost
mandatory disqualification and probation as a minimal redress. That Colin
voluntarily retired a short time later is to his credit and certainly
contributes to there being no further redress.
Disqualification + One Round Probation.
No hard feelings.
Phillip McNelley
GPLAC 9 Protest Judge
Round 11 - Goodwood
No protests have been received to date.
Round 10 - Mosport Park
No protests have been received to date.
Round 9 - The Nurburgring
No protests have been received to date.
Round 8 - Snetterton Heath 67
No protests have been received to date.
Round 7 - Mexico
No protests have been received to date.
Round 6 - Spa Francorchamps
No protests have been received to date.
Round 5 - Silverstone
No protests have been received to date.
Round 4 - Monaco
No protests have been received to date.
Round 3 - Zandvoort
David Curry v Ken Wind - Div 3
Plaintiff's Accusation
... He didn't wait or look for oncoming cars after coming off on to a
grassed area, and then he (re)enters a high speed bend at 90 degrees ( to the track
) hoping to turn the ( his ) car ( around ) on the track. I've been in his
cockpit in replay and all I did was press look-right and there I was ( to be
seen ).
As for the ( championship ) points... I disconnected after crash... "lack of front wheel" ... ( but ) ... he did ( also disconnect ) seconds after me, which gives him a ( classification ) place above me. ...
Defendant's Reply
A very bad incident on my behalf. I take full responsibility and I accept
any penalty you wish to impose. At the very least, exclude my position and all
points from the Zandvoort round. I would like to apologize to David and I wish
him the best of luck for the remainder of the season.
Judgment
Ken has made my job much easier by graciously walking the plank, and
courageously accepting fault.
In referring to the rules regarding recovering from an incident, I believe the following excerpt to be closely applicable...
RI-3 - You must do everything you can to minimize the hazard your car may constitute as soon as possible.
This may mean driving fully off the track if you're half on it. It may mean moving as fast as you safely can to the non-racing-line side of the track. It may mean retiring from the race as fast as you can do so. Whatever!
You will have no defense if you cause another incident whilst recovering from an incident, or being unnecessarily slow at removing the hazard your car may constitute after an incident, even if the incident was not your fault. All non-incident-affected drivers have right-of-way over anyone recovering from an incident.
For further information, just click the "RULES" button on the GPLAC website. I strongly suggest that ALL drivers have a look at these, so we are all working from the same page, so to speak.
My final judgement, handed down this Thursday, the 18th day of May, 2006, is to disqualify Ken from the Zandvoort race results and to apply a one (1) race probation period. Effectively, removing Ken's points score for that round and to re-instate David as finishing in 7th position overall.
No hard feelings.
Luke Beck
GPLAC 9 Protest Judge
Round 2 - Watkins Glen
No protests have been received to date.
Round 1 - Kyalami
No protests have been received to date.
Protest Presentation Format Template
Abc v Xyz - Div 1
Plaintiff's Accusation
Defendant's Reply
Judgment
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GPLAC 9 Protest Judge