This is the second race weekend in a row that I have heard an enforcement policy that contradicts the supplementary regulations, on the conference weekend a driver was incorrectly penalised during a race because officials are reading things into the supplementary regulations that simply are not there. I discussed the regulation for the Conference weekend in my blog (
http://olddatsunracer.blogspot.com/2010/06/race-rules-and-misinterpretations.htm...) a couple of weeks ago after the conference race so I won’t repeat it here.
For the record this was what was in the supplementary regs for the BCHMR this past weekend: "
Tire Scrubbing: Tire scrubbing is not permitted at any time during Practice or Qualifying Sessions. Scrubbing is only
permitted during the pace lap(s) preceding the initial green flag race start."
I keep hearing from officials enforcing the rules that you are only allowed to scrub tires behind the pace car; however the pace car is not even mentioned in the supplementary regulation. Several officials were surprised when I asked them the exact wording of the regulation, in that I had a fairly good idea what it said I knew they had not read it. I have found no mention of tire scrubbing in the CACC rule book either, so am really confused as to where this misinterpretation is coming from. To me the rule is plain Queen’s English and you can scrub tires right up to the time the first green flag is dropped even if there are 20 pace laps and no pace car.
Please note that the tire scrubbing regulation for the BCHMR weekend was a shorter version of the one used for conference race weekends, on Conference weekends you are allowed to scrub tires any time you are following the pace car during a race and prior to the initial green flag.
If SCCBC does not want tire scrubbing the supplementary regulations need to be rewritten and worded in a clear fashion. Until then the rules need to be enforced as written not as some officials would like them to be.