By the way I do not know what the rules are at Auburndale so I would not even venture to give an opinion on what happened.
Rusty. That is what I am saying. If the flagman says go but the spotter says don’t go. You don’t go. If the spotter says go and the flagman says don’t go. You don’t go. I don’t think that is wrong.
Tunaman. With all due respect I did not imply that Florida tracks are unique to the visibility problem. I was only making reference to Florida tracks as a point of conversation. There are many tracks around the country that have this problem. Unfortunately most tracks do not offer spotter the same view that one may have from the top of the track at Lowes. Thanks.
nobody should be sued or put through the court system .but as a sign of good gesture repair should atleast be offred
I know Rick, it was a sleeper. I would hate to see tracks close down in Florida. As someone said in another post, we have lost too many in the past few years, nationwide.
There is no lawsuit here…never even meant to imply that there should be…and Clay that’s what I was suggesting.
You’re welcome.
Ok mr. 59. I was the spotter in turn. No u can’t see the car when it pulls up to the entrance. An the driver can’t see a thing but the track cop sayn gogogo. I said stop were green an he did then before 2 senonds went by I see the flag man way him out. He is just startn his racn career an has never been in a deal like this of me. He did what he thought was rite listen to the cop. Bad mistake. U live an learn. I know ur rite bout don’t go till u can see. But there was no way that could happen. I m very sad for all involed. Bottom line is we trusted as team the COP in charge. As for the moron hollarn at him perry never was lovelady thanks for the motovation to keep on learning from our mistakes. An smokin ur ass.
Damn Rick, like I said in my first post. I really feel bad for all parties involved. I really do. It was just poor judgement like I said before.
I know what you mean spotting at a-dale and you can’t see your car when it pulls up there. But the spotter can see the whole track you know if your driver is clear or not. You probably would not have cleared your driver but the flagman did. That is why I will never let my driver listen to a flagman when it comes to entering the track. The flagman can tell us we are allowed to go but not when to go. I dont why all of these people think I am wrong. Do you Rick?
Sometimes when the flagman starts saying go go go it might take a few seconds to get the car rolling and by then it is to late. Only the driver and spotter really know when the car is ready to go and if they have enough time to blend in. The flagman could never know this.
Your driver is a good little driver Rick. I was never knocking him. It is to bad that he had to learn this lesson the hard way. But we have all of these Monday morning crew chiefs that think that the track is responsible for the repairs on these guys cars. Are they serious. An apology would be nice but ultimately it was just a poor decision to pull out when he wasn’t cleared by his spotter.
Rick. Thanks for coming on here to help clear this up a little. Good to here from ya again. Miss ya bro. Se ya at the track.
what you still dont seem to comprehend is if they were using the correct track entrance this conversation would not be taking place . spotter vs track official is not the issue in this situation . the issue is the track chose to use the wrong entrance against their own track rules and policys ( who made that call ? ) for whatever reason and caused this stupidity to happen . period . game over .
Lesson learned mr. 59. Good luck. An see you at the track.
easy answer to this.If the track pits outside then you cant return under the green. its not safe to expose the drivers door at full speed. Some one could get killed.I cought a lot of heck for that rule but it was safe.
if they pit in the infiels and there is a out lane on the bottom( like the one at NSS) then it the drivers job to blend ant the officals job to stop him if the cars are to close.AS is the toughest place to put cars out under the green in ths state.
Falt if someone had been hert bad then the E+E (? cant tell) would come into play.
don62
I race at Adale all the time, it was said at the beginning of the year that no one will be allowed to enter the track at turn 3, this has been told in many driver meetings throughout the year. I am not defending the track or flagman but I was told personally by an official with a head set that the race director of the promoters series was yelling on the radio to make him go. When the flagman told 20 to go russell was at the start finish line, dont know if the car stalled or what but when he was told to go the car lunged and stalled then refired and went. I was standing right their when it happened but i think it is all 3 parties fault. 1 the promoter should of never said that on the radio, 2 the flagman should of never flagged him on and 3 he should of went to turn 4 where you are suppose to come on the track, and i have been there many times when the late models where running and it was told in the drivers meeting to use turn 4. So my opinion is that all parties are at fault. live and learn
well to whom ever. I kno at Auburndale u cant use turn 3 to come onto the track & i kno that there has been a few cars get BLACK FLAGGED for comming out on to the track with the flag man telling him to… I like going to Auburndale but it seems like theres always something going on there & there is alot of cars getting all messed up… It was a mistake & theres ton of ppl that arent going to keep comming back if their cars keep getting torn up…
Turn 3 exit onto track
This is so elementary, Don hit the nail on the head, if the you have to enter the track from the outside you can only do it under the yellow. Even if you have a car trying to enter while the flagman throws the green on the front straightaway you have to hold the car up. I have been the official at the pit out entrance for many races for many years at many different tracks and there were only TWO tracks we allowed it when I was with the Sunbelt Series and the FAST Series and those two tracks were Lakeland and New Smyrna and before New Smyrna was repaved it was touch and go. I did two years as the pit out guy during Speedweeks and you learn fast. I had the best teacher through Don Nerone. AT Auburndale it is like committing suicide sending a car onto the track under a green condition from turn 3. If the race director told them to go he is at fault, ultimately though the decision rests with the on-site official as he is ultimately the one who makes the decision. Sounds like A-dale’s official was inexperienced. One thing I will say about the Sunbelt Series we had the right amount of officials covering the track. The race director was always the same person, the flagman was the same, the person in charge of the spotters was the same and the tech official was the same. One of the most important individuals and one who usually gets overlooked is the Spotters Official. This is a thankless job and usually you get yelled at or have to deliver the bad news to the team spotter. An experienced spotter official would have helped in this situation. Does FUPS have the same spotter official at the track for each race?
I have been following this thread since the beginning and I have a few questions.
1- Did the official at turn three have a radio? I’m hearing conflicting stories.
2- Did the Race Director cover how to enter and exit the track during the drivers meeting? Was there a drivers meeting?
3- Was the official at turn three an official of Auburndale Speedway or of FUPS.
4- If he was an official of Auburndale Speedway was he in attendance at the SLM drivers meeting?
5- Did the Race Director send the car out onto the track in front of the leaders, I am getting conflicting stories regarding this.
6- Was the promoter involved regarding sending the car out on the track? I speak from experience.
7- Regarding Wayne Anderson entering the track from turn three you have three mistakes here, one, the race director should have immediately told the official to send the car to turn 4, two- the official if he was the regular official at A-dale should have had enough experience to know to send Anderson to turn 4, Three- IF and i say IF it was covered in the drivers meeting then Anderson should have known to go to turn four, However if it was unclear a racer is going to take the path of least resistance.
#59, 99% of the time if an official tells a driver to go he or she is goling to go figuring that the official has enough experience to know that it is safe to send the car onto the track. They will not wait for a spotter to give them the go ahead. I respect your opinion, however it just does not work that way under race conditions.
Now one thing that is the most important is that for Late Model Racing to survive in Florida a unified set of rules along with fair and reasonable purse structure is a must. You have to look at the rules, purse, entry fee, tire costs (must they be mandatory or you start at the rear?), slab fees and pit entry fees to make it where a competitor can race, enjoy themselves, support the racetrack and series and leave with a good feeling even if the finished in the middle of the field. Race tracks have to support the racer and racers have to support the racetrack, it is a two way street. How a racer is treated is most important. Remember those who always show up to support your track or series and you and they know that they are not going to win however they are there to have fun and do what they love to do and don’t forget who they bring along with them to support them and PAY to get in. In other words it’s not always about who won.
Re: Mark
That was one of the best posts on here I have ever seen!
Yah Mark. Good post.
The part that you replied to me about 99% of the time when the official tells the driver to go they go just figuring the official has enough experience. They just figure??? I dont think so. I have to laugh at that Mark. You have flagged my driver many many times. I can tell you that exactly 0% of the time did we go on you. And that goes for about 80% of your 99% you mentioned. Do you not realize that they have a spotter in there ear telling them what to do. Just because you waved that little flag and they went does not mean they were cleared by you. I sometimes tell me driver you are clear on the flagman. Probably about 20% really go on the flagman and out of that 20% a small percentage have happen to them what happened last weekend. He’ll, the flagman flagged 2 cars out last weekend. Both of them got involved in something. 100% failure rate and that is just two cars. Who many of them would have been involved the spotter had cleared them instead of the flagman. I would bet 0%.
There is no flagman in the world that can know if my car is ready to pull out and if there is enough time to blend in. They don’t know what gear we are taking off in, If my car is having a problem and can’t get up to speed right or even know if my spotter is even in position yet. So how can they know when to say go go go. They can’t and shouldn’t even try. They should only be letting us know if we are allowed to go or not. That’s it.
I know that some of you disagree with the way I clear my car to enter the track and that is ok. You guys just keep doing the way they did it last weekend just figuring that the flagman has enough experience LOL and we will have plenty to talk about on Monday’s.
[size=“4”][/size]o.k. Your All Experts Answer This .
Cars With No Radios Bombers Ledgens Etc …
Leave It Alone . Enough Damage Has Been Done.
Sorry I Meant To Say Let The Tracks Fix This Problem
sounds like the spotter is the most important person in the world