This is a serious message.
Carl Merrit wrote:
>At the beginning of group 6, when I was working the finish S, I started out
>with more than 10 spare cones (I went and collected a big pile from the
>timing slip guy). By the end of the run group, I had just one left!
Carl, I notced you "stocking-up" on cones as I came off course after working
the 5th group. It was obvious, from my working vantage point, that you were
going to need the spares.
>
>Charlie's point is well taken, with the need to slow the cars down before
>the finish because there just isn't proper shutdown room at Oakland. But
>something about that finishing S was just brutally difficult for many
>people, and I would say it was probably more difficult than necessary to
>slow people down (In my humble back-seat-driver
>never-designed-a-course-before opinion).
I think there's some merit to the several observations about the cone
congestion at Saturday's finish corners. Although there was an unusual
number of cones hit, with the attendant delays resulting from the various
reactions, I think a more important issue is the safety of the finish area.
NOW HERE"S THE "HARD-ASS" PART OF THIS MESSAGE.
Its clear to me that you can't completely safety-proof every finish design
and Saturday's WAS designed to slow folks down. However we all have an
obligation to get out of the throttle at the finish line, not some time
AFTER the finish. There were too many folks on Saturday who pulled maneuvers
at the finish that did nothing to enhance their times but resulted in spins
or off-course excursions that are/were potentially dangerous to workers and
spectators, in addition to the resultant event delays.
The above comment is for those who had trouble getting stopped, or who spun
after the lights. If you are one of those folks figure out how you're not
going to let that happen again. Its part of the learning process to develop
techniques that don't impose on others ( like hitting bunches of cones)
I think its an obligation, for all of us in the finish area, to ONLY use as
much power as you KNOW you can control when you abruptly lift at the finish
line.
We've all had spins, its part of the learning process but, practice the
limits out on the course where the consequences are more benign rather than
at the finish where the stakes are higher.
Don
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