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Protest Concerning the Eurosport class at the Millstream BOC Meeting on 24 February 2013

I have been back to the Rule Book and as it is currently written it is Part 5 Rule 25 that is closest to covering the incident with James Cleave's car at Millstream.

As reported, the bodyshell became too badly damaged to continue, James stopped the car and put another shell on to it, eligible for the class and subsequently post race found to be compliant in other respects when scrutineered.

Rule 25 mentions loss of the bodyshell, I understand the shell was so badly damaged that to continue could have resulted in its loss or in the car being likely to breach Part 5, Rule 18 in that it would cause or was already causing a potential hazard.

Neither of these rules or other rules in the handbook state that the car cannot resume after repairs are made.

Part 5, Rule 6 permits race organisers to issue Supplementary Regulations or variations to the Competition Rules for an event. I understand that for this event there were no such Supplementary Regulations or variations that are material to the incident being protested.

Therefore there was no requirement for the car to be retired from the race, since effective repairs had been made.

Therefore as Competition Secretary my interpretation is that no rule was breached in this case and that the competitor was correctly allowed to continue.

I am only asked to provide an interpretation on this incident and have not been asked to do so about any others at the same meeting.

More generally, colleagues on the CRC have pointed out that at some meetings, often those with segmented races on multi-lane tracks, organisers do introduce supplementary regulations such as not permitting bodyshell replacement or requiring that any spare bodyshell be scrutineered with the car prior to racing or immediately on fitting, before the car resumes racing, i.e. in race time.

There is certainly a good case for proposing a common procedure and including it in the rules in future so as to be consistent and avoid confusion at meetings if organisers have not chosen to be any more specific than the Rule Book currently is, which allows a bodyshell exchange and only implicitly that it has to be a legal one. However I don't think this a matter of such urgency that it needs an out of course rule change. I suggest a brief discussion at ACM tomorrow and then someone can work up a proposal perhaps with options for next time.

In the meantime Council could recommend organisers to make their policy in this matter clear and defined in supplementary regulations if it differs from the rule book.

Regards

Ian Fisher
BSCRA Competitions Secretary
2 March 2013