At the Fort Myers Tour event my co-driver, Roger O. Johnson, stopped on
course because a worker was standing near the racing line. Roger said he
thought the worker was going to throw a red flag; the worker didn't, but
Roger had already slowed in anticipation. Apparently the worker called in
and said that there was no reason to stop, a bit of a heated conversation
ensued, with Roger finally being granted a rerun. I know that when I worked
that same area of the course we could barely the cones set back in time
before the next vehicle came through.
At the Fort Myers Pro, Grady Wood spun and came sliding within several feet
of Mark Chiles and myself (okay, no wise cracks about the "honest, it wasn't
intentional" smirk on Grady's face :-). It's not my intention to insinuate
anything negative about safety at either event. Rather, I am trying to ram
the point home that when we're working on course we must keep our eyes up and
our brains on task to avoid a bad situation before it happens.
If all that muckity-muck lecture doesn't ring your bell, then this video
will. It ain't pretty, I don't recommend watching this if you're squeemish.
This is every Safety Steward & Event Chairs worst nightmare, workers and
drivers too. We don't who, what, when, where, or the end result to those
involved was but it's just about bad enough to make you swear off the sport:
http://www.elife.com/images/cool/autocross.mpg
Mark Sipe
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