Thumbs down???? (Read 1,735 times)

[chris]

This is not an attack at anyone, but in the race between the panthers and the british lions, one of the lions drivers hit the back of one of the stationary panthers cars down in turn three, right in front of us. He gave the thumbs down pretty much straight away. Most of turn three was yelling at the official on the infield to get his attention. In his defense the official could be seen talking on his radio,so he had seen it, but the race was allowed to continue, for a good two laps until the chequered flag was given, and the race finished. I was highly disappointed in this, as the drivers give the thumbs down for a reason ( generally when they are hurt). Surely they must be able to call a stop to the race immeadiately to avoid further possible injuries to drivers especially with some of the injuries that can and have happened in teams racing. Safety should be paramount at these meetings, otherwise we may find ourselves with no more teams racing in the future. Otherwise a great weekend, congratulations to the Panthers the best team on the night won, hopefully someone else can enjoy the spoils next year though.

[keyboardracer]

In his defense it's not as easy to see something from the infield as it is looking down on the track from the outside, and even the 'yelling' isn't the easiest to hear with the sound of superstocks roaring around the track.
I do agree though safety is the most important thing at the end of the night.

[Shai-tan]

Feb 10, 2013 21:10:09 GMT 12 keyboardracer said:

In his defense it's not as easy to see something from the infield as it is looking down on the track from the outside, and even the 'yelling' isn't the easiest to hear with the sound of superstocks roaring around the track.
I do agree though safety is the most important thing at the end of the night.

No he DID see. Whoever was making the calls when he radioed in didn't throw on the reds. The officials were on the ball all weekend but that was shocking. You could see the guy was hurting. Drivers really only have that assurance that if they are hurt and thumbs down a red will be called. In. This case they continued to run for at least 2 laps

[tony27]

I think that may have been the hit that got the english driver removed from the meeting, hadn't Bengston been parked half on the grass unable to move for a couple of laps before getting hit?

[chris]

Feb 11, 2013 10:34:31 GMT 12 tony27 said:

I think that may have been the hit that got the english driver removed from the meeting, hadn't Bengston been parked half on the grass unable to move for a couple of laps before getting hit?

Yes that was the hit. But Bengston was still sitting on the racing line. I guess it is hard for a driver to judge whether another car has stopped or is just lying in wait. But the issue was it obviously hurt and he gave the thumbs down, and the official clearly knew because he could be seen talking on his radio, and the race was not stopped. Nobody knows how serious some of these injuries are until the medics get to speak to the drivers. I sure as hell wouldn't want to see a driver paralysed or worse because he got hit after giving the thumbs down for an injury, all for the sake of letting a team finish a race.