Moderator's Report
Since taking on the moderator's role for Div 1 and the instigation of the "Srou court system", life has been fairly quiet for me with only a handful of incidents to comment on.
However, this race has more than made up for that !!
I will apologise in advance for not only the length of this report but also the delay in publishing it, but I think that there are some issues and decisions involved that needed to be carefully considered and explained.
The issues raised from some of the incidents in this race have been debated at some length by the moderator's in private where many views have been expressed. Not only in terms of what was observed at Albi, but also looking forward to see how we might avoid similar situations in the future.
The incidents in the race provoked some lively exchanges on the public forum with members posting comments from both sides of the pit wall. This is naturally quite healthy, provided that things are not allowed to get too personal or entrenched.
The whole purpose of moderation is to diffuse such volatile situations by judging the actions of drivers impartially and resolving contentious incidents as fairly as possible.
The first two reported incidents are what one might call a "normal" subjects for moderation and have been dealt with as such.
The other incidents submitted to the court have been assessed, not only as individual incidents but also as part of a connected series of events involving the same drivers.
The moderators can see no way to edit or publish a rule to specifically cover the situation in this race, that would not surely cause more problems and arguments than it solves in the future. Therefore I have had to apply the rules and penalties as they stood at the start of this race to the incidents as they appeared.
Hindsight ( a powerful tool) suggests that Hristo might have been better advised to allow Jethro to unlap himself, as his lead was so substantial that he was in very little danger of being caught by the second place car.
Jethro appears to have become increasingly frustrated to the point that he made a gross error of judgement in rear ending Hristo and loses further places as a penalty after fighting his way back into the points.
A little red mist seems to have obscured clear thinking as the race progressed.
Over the course of a few laps, both drivers appear to have become severly irritated by the actions of the other, each believing that they were entitled to drive and take up track positions as they did.
Hristo appears to have interpreted the rule referring to drivers being lapped, as meaning that he should not have his race compromised by a lapped car and one can see how that interpretation could be arrived at.
Unfortunately, the rule in question was never formulated to cover an instance such as this, where a potentially faster car that has caught the leader believes it can and should "unlap" itself, as it was generally assumed that the lapped car would by definition be significantly slower.
We cannot have a rule that forbids a car unlapping itself, but similarly, we cannot force the car 1 lap in the lead to yield track position if they do not wish to.
We could have a position where the 2nd place car was only a second or so behind, maybe not close enough to generate blue flags, but close enough that the leading car would not wish to yield his position to a lapped car no matter how fast that was.
From Jethro's viewpoint he felt he had a car that was potentially faster and that he was being deliberately baulked and blocked by Hristo. That in no way mitigates the rear end shunt that ended Hristo's race.
If Jethro had achieved the pass, it is likely that Hristo would have been able to stay in his slipstream long enough to cause Jethro to be shown blue flags, forcing Jethro to yield position and start the whole scene over again.
As a result, both were at times guilty, to varying degrees at different times, of "Ungentlemanly Conduct" and/or "Aggressive driving".
There is within the rules, the option of disqualifying both drivers from the results on these grounds alone.
However, (in the belief that this will not be repeated or carried forward)
on top of the penalties accrued for their transgressions of the rules that were in force at the start of this race, I propose an official warning to both drivers for the next 3 Division 1 races that their conduct on the track will be monitored and if the moderators believe that there are instances where driving standards are not maintained an appropriate penalty will be applied irrespective of any report to the court system.
Server replay time: 0h42m40s
1)42:40
Turn 1
Jethro is attempting to pass evilclive and moves to the inside line.
Clive thinks that he has left enough room for the Lotus to pass and keeps just about to the left hand side of the circuit as he turns in. Jethro appears to have gone in too deep and drifts wide at the apex, collecting the Honda and taking them both into the haybales on the outside of the circuit
side by side contact
1 place penalty
Server replay time: 0h42m45s
Clive's Honda rebounds from the haybales and runs backwards across the circuit and off of the racing line ( Clive allows this to continue until he is against the grass on the inside and out of the way) before attempting to restart and assess any damage.
Meanwhile Jethro who was against the haybales on the outside of the circuit attempts to rejoin the tarmac. Unfortunately Bernie is taking the racing line through T1 and is confronted with the rear of a very slow moving Lotus. Both cars are bounced against the haybales.
Jethro did try to stay as far off the circuit as possible whilst attempting a re-join, but unfortunately his car is only visible to Bernie at the last moment.
Whilst Jethro and Bernie re-compose themselves Clive makes good his escape and Hristo laps both of the stranded cars.
Although Jethro's rejoin cannot be described as "reckless", the rules state that he should remain stationary until he is sure tha the track behind is clear.
Bad rejoin - 1 place penalty
Server replay time: 0h49m53s
S/F straight
By this point in the race Hristo had lapped Jethro when he was involved in the "off" with Clive. Jethro has managed to close the gap over several laps and has attempted 3 or 4 passing moves to "unlap" himself, so far without success.
Jethro gets a better drive out of the last corner and is clearly gaining on Hristo as the approach the s/f line. He would in my opinion got alongside H before T1 ( whether or not he could have outbraked H, having failed at several other corners is open to conjecture).
However, H pulls across in front of J to take the inside line, a single move which he was entitled to make. Jethro swings to the outside of the circuit to press his attack, but H weaves back in front of him, which is now moving into the realms of weaving and blocking and Hristo prevents Jethro from getting alongside.
The published rules in force at the start of this race expressly forbid weaving and blocking under ANY circumstances.
The problem that we have here is somewhat unique in the history of UKGPL, and has caused the moderators to burn much midnight oil in trying to come devise a new ruling(s) that would cover this situation.
Clearly, a driver must be permitted to "unlap" himself if he is able to do so, otherwise we might as well decree that once lapped a driver MUST hold station regardless of the speed of the leaders car.
By the same token, one cannot rule that the leading car MUST "give way" and allow the pass to take place.
Server replay time: 0h50m23s
50:23
Jethro again gets a better drive onto the main straight with the Lotus and picks up the slipstream from the Honda.
As he moves to the left of the track to line up the pass H also moves left, but only to half way across the track in a single move
(quite legal).
There is still more than enough room for the Lotus to continue and contest the braking zone for DD.
Jethro appears to lift slightly when H moves left and (he may have thought that H was going to blatantly block him, but he did not) J loses momentum and the possible attempted pass and H clearly outbrakes J into DD.
The demon braking from the inside line sends H a little wide between the two apexes and J takes his car very wide on the first apex allowing him to straighten the second and get a quicker exit.
As they approach the right hand kink after DD, H still has a clear lead and is entitled to take the racing line through the apex of the corner. J meanwhile is clearly travelling faster after his better exit from DD and is closing quickly on the rear of the Honda.
Until the point of contact I cannot discern any attempt to reduce or check the speed of the Lotus nor can I detect anything but full acceleration from H. J runs into the rear wheel of the Honda at the apex of the corner.
The initial contact pushes H sideways and he somehow manages to prevent a spin but is in a slide. The impact causes J to also run wide and follow the sliding Honda hitting the same rear wheel again and removing it. Although J lifts off the throttle he does not seem to brake. H is forced to retire and J continues.
This was a blatant rear end shunt under acceleration.
Whether born out of sheer frustration or a totally misjudged attempt to set up a passing opportunity is questionable.
What is not in doubt is that as a result the clear leader was taken out of the race with only a very short distance to go.
