My 2c worth! The dummy grid marshals have no idea who is going out for practice and basically, have no idea what cars belong in what group and may not know if permission has been granted for an additional car to do a couple of laps 'to bed in brakes'.
Once a grid sheet is printed, I agree, it can throw up problems and like John, I have been in the same situation where I have been strapped in and there are interlopers. Whilst this may well be an issue in scratch races, we do our own grid sheets for handicaps and usually have our own person checking and assisting on the dummy grid. If not on the sheet, no race (unless there has been an error, which has been known to happen, usually when a car has failed to turn up or broken on Saturday then appeared Sunday.) I don't think anyone has managed to get out in a handicap race when they shouldn't.
For our money, the young dummy grid marshals do a fantastic job, week after week, large and small meetings, in all weathers, without complaint. Yes, the system may need tightening, BUT, the regs normally state that entry to specific series races is restricted to series members and HRC and TACCOC keep convenors regularly informed as entries come in, so that they can confirm they are OK. If they are not, they generally get in touch with the drivers to tell them.
The Lotus Elan and the Ford GT40 replica were both allowed into the ERC races, even though they are not registered members, on the strict understanding that if there was no room on the grid, they would have to stand down. They accepted that, but the white Porsche had not been in touch prior to the event.
As mentioned before, if organisers are going to include series races, then they have an obligation to communicate with convenors, before accepting cars into their grids.
No doubt HD learned a lot, but whether or not they actually have respect for these groups remains to be seen. If the worst comes to the worst, and HMC/HSC, HSS and ERC elect to not support the 2018 event, (and there have been rumblings) it will be a sad day for local Classic motorsport and a lot of really good work getting ever growing grids to support these Festivals, won't be wasted, but may be redirected.
The onus is on drivers to actually READ the ASR's and even though they may tick a box to say they have, we all know only too well that they rarely do. We also know that many do not even know the safety car rules or even the warm up lap procedure!
I once seriously thought that if I added an extra line into the regs to say that every driver must bring the race secretary a small item (wrapped lolly for example) to documentation and failure to do so, would incur a $50 fine, but decided that maybe the area Steward who has to approve the regs, might not pass it!)
In the case of the above, even though John had given permission for a driver change, yes, without a wristband, the dummy grid marshals can only check the car numbers, not the drivers.
Consider also that most meetings are short of volunteers and with a turnaround time target of say 15 minutes at most meetings, getting up to 46 cars checked and in position, especially when some elect to run from pit garages, is a tough call. That is made even tougher when drivers elect to pull out of a grid without even telling the dummy grid marshals - and believe me, that happens a lot more than most drivers realise.
Track design doesn't help as rarely is the dummy grid area set up to cope with a three across grid for example (which we use for handicaps) and being a dummy grid marshal demands a lot of concentrated effort over a long day.
We are so lucky that Deb's young crew are so enthusiastic and I hope that all drivers treat them with the respect they deserve. As a series, we invite them to our annual awards dinner for free.
Back now to looking at today's Leadfoot photographs, to see what is worth keeping, publishing - or saving for the ERC dinner - which sadly, I'll miss for the first time ever.
Sorry, that was at least 4c worth...
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Originally Posted by ERC
