--On Thursday, February 26, 2004 2:40 PM -0700 Doug Miller
<drmiller100@hotmail.com> wrote:
> By definition, any car that I show up in is legal until someone proves
> otherwise. And there is a good process in place to prove otherwise.
This is not currently the way the rules work. Currently it is the
entrant's burden to prove himself legal using the required documentation.
Only if the required documentation fails to provide the necessary
information does the burden shift to the protestor.
Part of the reason for this is that the entrant should already have the
required documentation; without it it is difficult to know exactly what you
can and cannot do. The factory service manual is, in effect, part of your
rulebook.
Since you already own it, and since you've already read it to determine
what you can and cannot do to your car, it makes sense to require you to
provide it. If you require the protestor to provide it, and that protestor
is in a class where there are hundreds of vehicles, how is he supposed to
be able to manage all that documentation?
If you want to propose that the burden of proof should work differently,
send a letter. But you should first understand the way it works today, and
has worked for years.
> Also, if I am at a local event, can I protest my class fully expecting NO
> ONE will have a service manual, and win?
(1) The burden of proof, required documentation, and protest rules are not
mandatory rules for local events. They might well have their own system
for handling this.
(2) If they do follow the rulebook procedures, the Chief Steward and Chief
of Protest have the right to reject or refuse to hear a protest on a
variety of grounds. This might be one of those cases, unless it appeared
that you actually had a legitimate beef.
Mark
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