On Wed, 4 Aug 2004, Glenn Ellingson wrote:
> Consider too that one driver stopping and pointing and resuming at 80%
> probably delays the event by 25 seconds (his/her rerun); a red flag
> stops (or at least, should stop) the course, causing several reruns and
> slowing things down more.
Glenn, it's possible and encouraged to red-flag individual cars as
necessary when they are closing on a stopped car or other obstacle.
Sometimes it is possible to let that car continue at part-speed
without the next car getting too close. At other times, it is
necessary or at least prudent to red flag the whole course. That
determination is left to the judgement of the course workers and the
timing crew, but it's always good to be conservative when making spot
decisions.
In this specific case, a red flag to stop a car for a course rebuild
should delay the event no longer than if the car voluntarily stopped
for the downed cone.
Suppose that it were true that red flags could only be thrown for
safety reasons. In that case, a course worker could try to replace
the missing cone, and then the car could be legally red-flagged for a
real safety reason. But I think that it's safer and less complicated
to use the red flag preemptively in this case without putting a course
worker at unnecessary risk.
--
john@idsfa.net John Stimson
http://www.idsfa.net/~john/ HMC Physics '94
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