Quote:
Originally Posted by kipper
The following extract from the FIA International Sporting Code may clarify:
|
As always, rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools!! Any visiting Race Director who does not work in with local Clerks and Officials would, to my mind, be classified a fool. None of the visiting Clerks/Race Directors I know would fall into this category; I suspect the early release incident referred to was a simple error of judgement or communication when there was a lot going on in Race Control.
As someone who has spent much of the last ten years or so as Clerk/Race Director for support races at major events (LMS cars, German DTM, etc) in continental Europe and further afield, I have always been happy to concede circuit control to local officials who know the circuit and how it works. Where I was Clerk/Race Director for the whole meeting, I always arranged in advance to have a local official to work with me.
In Abu Dhabi I had the local Circuit Manager - Gary Dearn, ex-marshal then Circuit Manager at Silverstone - as my "helper", plus several other ex-Silverstone personnel on radios and recovery etc. Rescue units were manned by current operators shipped out from the UK. It was like old home week!
It is all about working together. I have worked with the Race Director for Blancpain and have always found him very helpful and great to work with. I suspect there was no conflict here, just an error of judgement that can happen from time to time. Thankfully, no great harm was caused.