Post by sportf on Aug 21, 2023 16:05:40 GMT
A mistake was made by me during the St. Louis race. This was in determining the re-run between Derek Strait and Brian Haberberger.
Dereck's dial in was an 11.50 against Brian's 11.00. Derek thought he'd seen an 11.50 dial as he pulled ahead, but what was on the little dial board was a 1.50 (this can be seen on a video). It was thought there was an 11.50 on the score board, but a photo has now shown it was also a 1.50. The score board is always the last word here too, I might add. I wish I could have seen that picture then, but I didn't.
As such, Derek and I went to the tower. In going to the tower, they admit that they had "hit a wrong key" and it was their mistake. "It was unfair to the car in the right lane" was stated. From that, I decided a re-run was in order. But, that was wrong. That round was actually done as soon as Derek staged. Other directors and members tried to change my mind, but I just didn't listen when I should have. Maybe they saw the score board, I didn't.
In our racing, we choose an index, and that can't be changed once qualified. If you stage on a wrong index, this is not a loss (because you could stage on a wrong index and win) this is actually a disqualification. So, once Derek's second bulb came on, he was out at that point. Even though the tower was at fault, the first fault was already done. There should have been no re-run. The re-run was won by Brian, again, but there should not have been a re-run.
I'm sorry for causing the ruckus, I'm sorry for the words. But that doesn't fix a mistake I made. I certainly owe a personal apology to Brian, and a personal explaination to Derek. I hope I can learn from this, I'll certainly try.
Tom Hoffman