|
Utterly ludicrous from whose viewpoint? The drivers', the marshals', the rescue units', the recovery drivers'?
Stop the race? In an ideal world, yes, but the real world is one where timetables are so tight that red flagging a couple of races would have meant that there was no way the programme could have been completed.
Stop a race & you'll lose something like 15 minutes or more by the time all the cars have returned to the pit lane, been sent out on a green flag lap, gridded up & the race started. Of course you must add to that the time taken to deal with the incident, so in most cases the time lost could be equivalent to the time alloted for the race.
As for your snide comments about yellow flags, don't you think they were used? Yellow flags don't magically remove cars which are stranded in a dangerous position or create relatively safe conditions for an incident on or close to the track to be dealt with. If the incident is less serious then it will be dealt with under waved yellows & the hazard board displayed for the rest of the race.
Code 60 provides a quick, simple way of neutralising a race while, compared with the use of a safety car, reducing the number of racing laps lost. Another advantage is that gaps between cars are (or should be) maintained, much fairer than the way they are closed up under the safety car.
Code 60 is all about safety, both for those working trackside in whatever capacity & for the drivers. I don't think anyone who asked for its use at Cadwell this weekend did so frivolously or unnecessarily.
|