Last Sunday at Monarto showed there are a lot of drivers that could use a bit of help. It has been said that it is up to the Stewards to give them that education. All very well saying the officials are not watching, or are not doing anything about the driving standards, but when the Chief Steward and Chief Scrutineer have to man the scales like they did at Monarto, they are not exactly in a good position to view the racing are they??
My suggestion to go part way to solving the issue of not enough officials available to do all the jobs ... remove the scale marshal altogether. If the person who is allocated that job can be used somewhere else then that is one less official position that needs to be filled on a day.
So how will the weighing work ... well like in golf, players watch other players, so for us the drivers can do the simple task of looking at the scale readings for each other. First place weighs and second place checks his weight, then second place weighs and the third placed driver checks his weight, and so on down the field. On the day the officials may post a rule of the day that only the first 5 or 8 or whatever drivers are to get weighed , but then everyone knows. And yes the last place-getter will not likely ever get weighed ... but is that a problem ??
Let's try to solve some of our issues by thinking outside the box , and one such problem is a severe lack of officials which if I had said that at the top would you have ever read this ??
Well said Ian, the problem i think now is that u have to be an official to do the weigh shed. I stand to be corrected but i recon this is now the case.
that's correct Ian 2 - all judge of fact positions are required to have done the officials training .. that is where the sport has gone nuts. No wonder race meeting after race meeting is lacking volunteer's
So all I get in response is there is no solution ... the rules seem to get in the way of finding one.
A not so crazy way was for CAMS to give every competitor a basic officials licence so that when numbers are low any competitor can be used to 'fill in'. They have an initial introduction not unlike our OLT, so drivers get to do the same basic training as officials.
So why can't we look at that scenario , or find another way, or change the rules ??
The same could apply to this new 'participants licence' we now have to hold in order to enter a junior driver and be in the pits or on circuit if we don't hold a competitors licence.
We are all supposed to know the rules so it isn't that much of a stretch for some limited accreditation endorsed on the respective licence for the basic official duties.