Safety car shambles

[thunderbolt]

http://www.v8supercars.com.au/conten..._car_shambles/

A communication hitch went within millimetres of causing an accident which could have involved the bulk of the V8 Supercar grid at Phillip Island today.
Only a good dose of luck prevented what would have been a colossal pit straight accident halfway through Race 22 of the Championship Series.
The problem arose when the safety car moved near the merge lane at the pitlane exit and remained stationary as the field blasted around the 4.45km track.
Safety car driver Amber Anderson was preparing to be deployed to pick up the race leader Jamie Whincup who was in for his second pit service at the time with second placed Rick Kelly.
The problem arose when race director Tim Schenken apparently failed to order the safety car to scramble once Whincup emerged from his pit stop.
In the ensuing delay the field was bearing down the straight at 250km/h an hour and had little or no warning before everyone started jamming on their brakes.
Whincup admitted the rules state that he should have stopped behind the safety car as the leader is not allowed to pass unless it is directed.
However the eventual race winner instinctively drove on and helped alleviate a highly volatile situation.
Third-placed Tander said there needed to be a review of the situation to ensure it is not repeated elsewhere.
“We need to understand exactly what happened, whether it was a communication issue or a procedural issue and review all that,” Tander said.
“Certainly (you don’t want) to head hunt anyone and find out someone and lynch them for it.”
“You know we don’t need cars parked on the circuit at the fastest pit exit in Australia.”
“The drama is that the safety car’s merge line to pit exit is exactly where the safety car had stopped.”
“I was actually racing Stevie J (Johnson) who was coming out of the pits and he was racing in the queue to get behind Jamie and Rick and I was on the track doing 250km/h.”
“Common sense should have prevailed there, the race director was standing right on top of all that.”
Rick Kelly was more vocal and said he tried to trigger the safety car into action.
“It was an absolutely dangerous situation and we were quite lucky that someone’s fuel tank didn’t end up under the bonnet with what happened,” Kelly said.
“I mean I parked alongside and gave it a few revs and they just sat there and nothing happened.”
“I wouldn’t like to be parked on the road when cars are coming up the straight doing 250.”
When asked what measures could be taken to prevent a similar occurance in future Kelly responded: “You’d probably give the safety car and drive through wouldn’t you?
“Look I don’t know there’s a lot of rough edges that could get tidied up.
Whoever is responsible for that would surely recognise what needs to be done

[RotorFan]

I wonder if they'll penalise Whincup for passing the safety car. Wouldn't surprise me given the way they try to run the show. Amateurs.

[Rachel Richards]

Quite a simple fix:

Give the control of the Safety Car back to the Clerk of Course,(who still actually has control of it according to the rules, but Timmy in his infinite wisdom has taken control of it to craft the Motortainment package)

Put it back on the Race Control radio channel (not the VESA radio) and let TC's puppet Tim, feebly attempt to stage manage all other aspects of the entertainment package...sorry race, but not the Safety Car.

Today proved that it needs to be deployed in situations that require the field to be controlled Safely.

The Clerk of the Course MUST to have the ability to be able to deploy it when issues concerning on-track Safety arise.

Currently the Entertainment Car is being used as a TV package management tool, directed by a Tool, and if these changes can't be implemented, well maybe it's time for the Tool to be placed back on the wall in the shed....


Don't for one minute blame the Safety Car driver for today''s incident, he/she, (Amber in this case) is controlled by the actions or inaction's of the aforementioned Tool, who I might add, could have killed people out there today.

[mtpanorama]

Can someone recall if the SC boards and yellows were out before Whincup pitted? I think they were and if so what the hell were the drivers doing coming down the straight at full speed ??????? If they were not out then I take the question back.

[Bevan-L]

I've kept quiet on the matter long enough, i cant go on anymore tho....

It did come down to a communication problem.... Sadly race control does not make use of Telstra's 3G Network, and because of this they had poor coverage all weekend on the island.as a result of this all, the message did not get out to the safety car in time as well as all the track marshalls and we all saw the results.


so there you go....

[Uncle Cranker]

Well, well, well, the Monty Burns of Australian Motorsport is at it again !

As if his disgraceful efforts of BS Safety Car deployments over the past two seasons havn't been bad enough, today he just proved that it is time for him to either retire, or be replaced.

Just to prove how bad this was, CLICK HERE, someone could have died out there today, and all because as a post above this said, Tim-time-to -go Schenken was too busy dithering and forgot where he had put the Safety Car



Can anyone pick the difference ?

[Gaz170]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81CArkrSc6s

[Bevan-L]

Originally Posted by Uncle Cranker

Well, well, well, the Monty Burns of Australian Motorsport is at it again !

As if his disgraceful efforts of BS Safety Car deployments over the past two seasons havn't been bad enough, today he just proved that it is time for him to either retire, or be replaced.

Just to prove how bad this was, CLICK HERE, someone could have died out there today, and all because as a post above this said, Tim-time-to -go Schenken was too busy dithering and forgot where he had put the Safety Car



Can anyone pick the difference ?

Top picture, the ears are smaller.

[STEALTHY]

What was that safety car even for? I was outside just as it happened.

[B!tchie Renault]

Originally Posted by mtpanorama

Can someone recall if the SC boards and yellows were out before Whincup pitted? I think they were and if so what the hell were the drivers doing coming down the straight at full speed ??????? If they were not out then I take the question back.

Mt Panorama,

Under the current Safety Car format, there is nothing in the rules for the drivers to slow down to a certain speed, so long as they do not pass anyone else and obviously slow when they catch up to the queue behind the Safety Car. When they pit and return to the track ALL drivers go hell for leather to catch up to the Safety Car so they are not disadvantaged in track position. I feel for the poor volunteer marshals that are trying to clean up an incident on the track only for these professional drivers to whiz passed them at 200km/hr.

[thunderbolt]

was jamie that far ahead of the other cars to be in the lead after his pitstop ?

you have to wonder if someone else was robbed of a win

[peckstar]

jamie passed the pit entrance (as did rick kelly) before the safety car was on the track, the others pitted at this time.

The safety car came out after Jamie went passed pit exitand then he pitted, so the safety car had to wait until Jamie came out of the pits (around 50 seconds).

It picked up the correct leader, no doubt at all, but it explains why it had to wait

[V8 Fireworks]

They are under safety car aren't they supposed to be prepared to stop at any time!? Too much storming around at warp speed under full course yellow perhaps?

How did Jamie manage to retain the lead despite not pitting immediately? Lucky the safety car didn't zip right out in front of him on the first time past the pits.

[peckstar]

you just explained how v8 fireworks

if the safety car had have come out before he went past he would have lost the lead.

but because it didnt, it was really like a pit stop at race pace except one lap latter than the rest

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally Posted by B!tchie Renault

Mt Panorama,

Under the current Safety Car format, there is nothing in the rules for the drivers to slow down to a certain speed, so long as they do not pass anyone else and obviously slow when they catch up to the queue behind the Safety Car. When they pit and return to the track ALL drivers go hell for leather to catch up to the Safety Car so they are not disadvantaged in track position. I feel for the poor volunteer marshals that are trying to clean up an incident on the track only for these professional drivers to whiz passed them at 200km/hr.

Surely there needs to be a rule for that like in F1. Take the qualifying sector times and add 20 seconds to each sector or what not, and all drivers must not go under that time while under SC?

[bortall]

Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks

Surely there needs to be a rule for that like in F1. Take the qualifying sector times and add 20 seconds to each sector or what not, and all drivers must not go under that time while under SC?

VESA wont do that, it is logical and might ruin the ENTERTAINMENT!!!

[peckstar]

why is it logical? I see no adavantage

[smokin'joe]

Originally Posted by peckstar

jamie passed the pit entrance (as did rick kelly) before the safety car was on the track, the others pitted at this time.

The safety car came out after Jamie went passed pit exitand then he pitted, so the safety car had to wait until Jamie came out of the pits (around 50 seconds).

It picked up the correct leader, no doubt at all, but it explains why it had to wait

i missed the incident that caused the safety car, but failed to see how JW managed to stay ahead of the 2-3 cars that had pitted under green conditions, unless of course Tim Sphincter used the safety car deployment to control the win??

[NewsStalker]

Tim - help fix a race? Never - wouldn't happen in a pink fit....Oh sorry - wrong Tim (someone talk to HRT or Grech sometime and see if they feel the statute of limitations has gone by yet...)

[deeks6]

Been saying this for ages ... it is NOT a safety car. It is a Close-Up-The Field c
Car and sooner or later there will be an accident due to this ridiculous blight on motor sport. Every time they deploy it there is another incident.
High farce!
The compulsory pit stops and "Safety?" Car add more danger to races than there EVER was before. Not only that, they turn the races into a lottery.
GET RID OF IT NOW and put in Yellow Light areas with transponder monitoring of set speeds through that area.

[PVDA]

Was the Safety Car stalled by an chance??

If you watch the replay of the incident on YouTube you see the lights turn off all of a sudden.

My 10c worth, there are two things that should never be done by a Safety Car;
1. It should never drive straight out into the middle of the race track (Pau, WTCC).
2. It should never ever come to a complete stop, slow it down to a crawl by all means, but never stop the thing on the track.

I also believe the SC should be under the direct control of the tracks Race Control radio network and not on the VE$A channel as it is at present.

[Woolley]

Don't understand why everyone doesn't follow the american example: Throw the yellow, get everyone slowed down and then put out the safety car. Sticking it on track waiting for cars to arrive at full chat is just asking for trouble.

This one is a pretty awful example, and very fortunate that a serious incident was avoided.

[peckstar]

Originally Posted by smokin'joe

i missed the incident that caused the safety car, but failed to see how JW managed to stay ahead of the 2-3 cars that had pitted under green conditions, unless of course Tim Sphincter used the safety car deployment to control the win??

so you get to cast dispersions on tim over something you havent seen, interesting, no suprises for who really should be considered a Sphincter.

Jamie had past pit entrance when the incident happened (as had Rick and Steve), but the other teams seeing Foire in the wall called their drivers in, thinking this would bring out a safety car. which it eventally did.

But Jamie had already passed the pit exit by the time the safety car was out. He pitted that lap, but because everyone pittedeither at that time or before he was still the leader and the SC had to wait for him (in this case stop in a stupid position) The field resumed in pretty much the same order as they were prior to the incident.

It sounds like some peoiple here are slamming the safety car for producing entertainment , but expecting the safety car to mix up the field. Hypocrites .

[Mr_Cool]

Originally Posted by PVDA

Was the Safety Car stalled by an chance??

If you watch the replay of the incident on YouTube you see the lights turn off all of a sudden.

You make a valid point and i was in belief of what you said but if you look when the SC pulls away the lights are still off. What on earth are they thinking turning the lights off with cars doing 250km/h?

Originally Posted by PVDA

I also believe the SC should be under the direct control of the tracks Race Control radio network and not on the VE$A channel as it is at present.

I do agree, you always hear them ask the communicator to change channels, just so Tim can speak to the SC and the TV can hear it.

May i also say if the 2 knobs in the car weren't aware who the leader is. Why are they driving the SC? One thing you need to know is your leader..

[Axeman444]

maybe the taxi's need a horn, like their street brethren use so often?Jamie could have given them a few sharp beeps and everything would have been rosy (well at least thats what the street drivers think will eventuate in similar circumstances)