OK, so I'll start everyone up on this....

Saturday and Sunday were a shambles at the RMC. The changable weather conditions meant that the stewards needed to make decisions and the result of their inability to do that was just chaos.

The main gripes I saw and/or heard:

1) No communication to the drivers - everyone just stood around waiting for some kind of decision. If everyone asked, the answer always seemed to be "10 minutes" - but not communicated to the rest of the drivers.
2) The total stupidity of not declaring a wet race and giving everyone the option of using wets when it was so obviously raining. When I asked the stewards to declare a wet race they so no - it's a dry race. They were all hiding under an umbrella at the time!
3) Not stopping the junior pre-final in heavy rain with them all on slicks - the race should have been stopped at least a lap, if not two, before they eventually did.

If drivers cause problems, we can have out licences endorsed or be banned. Can we do the same with stewards?

wyjki1, you're spot on and I was just about to post the same on karting malaysia when I saw this.

The standard displayed by the organising committee, stewards and officials left much to be desired. I failed to comprehend some of the decisions made (or the lack of it) and when I do they seems to me as so daft. javascript:emoticon(':shock:')

According to the National Competition Rules of the AAM:

"The Stewards of the Meeting shall not be in any way responsible for its Organisation and shall not have any executive duty in connection therewith..."

...except when it comes to "preventing unnecessary danger". In these conditions they can instruct the Clerk of the Course to postpone. abandon or stop an event.

The stewards act mainly as a judicial body, thus I think the issues brought up by John King should actually be addressed to the Clerk of the Course.

I don't think John mentioned "AAM stewards", but the comments were probably more directed towards the club stewards, COC, race director etc..


This was absolutely infuriating, I was swearing out of frustration and I rarely swear! The duty of informing other drivers fell onto the drivers that went and asked the club stewards/race director/coc. Nothing was communicated to the drivers if we didn't go and ask - for example a few heats weren't declared postponed or wet until someone mentioned that it would be cool if you told the drivers something. The postponement of the heats on Saturday to Sunday had to be communicated by drivers to other drivers - no official actually came to the drives to inform them. Drivers never knew what was going on!

Drivers had to decide:
When it started raining the officials of the meeting made no indication as to when a restart was to be held. If the drivers would have been told immediately that "15 minutes to restart" everyone would've been on the grid in 15 minutes. Instead nothing was communicated and 30 minutes later all the drivers were wondering why we haven't started because if we would have the race would have been over already. If you give 15mins then wets will be put on + maybe a quick toe change + maybe a quick sprocket change. If you give no timeframe but weight for hours then we can start dropping/chaning axles, change front ride height, castor pills, change our set, drill the seat to put it higher etc. etc.... The race only started once a lot of drivers went to tell the officials that they want to race!

ISSUES LIKE THESE MAKE PEOPLE NOT ENJOY KARTING
One guy that is probably one of the most loyal karters on the grid (they're a group of 3) said "This is the kind of shit that makes me feel like I should just stop racing karts in this country."


I've got more issues to highlight but I'll save that for later.

[quote="wyjki1"
2) The total stupidity of not declaring a wet race and giving everyone the option of using wets when it was so obviously raining. When I asked the stewards to declare a wet race they so no - it's a dry race. They were all hiding under an umbrella at the time!
3) Not stopping the junior pre-final in heavy rain with them all on slicks - the race should have been stopped at least a lap, if not two, before they eventually did.

[/quote]

The rules for "dry" or "wet" race should be spelled out in the Supplementary Regulations but they are not. I am not sure about CIK rules but the FIA rules as practiced by the car racing guys in Malaysia are:

(i) if it is a "dry" race you can use wet or dry tyres - it is the competitors choice. [But if you use wet tyres on a dry track and end up all over the map the Clerk of the Course will call you into the pitlane for a long chat.]

If it starts to rain during the race it will be RED flagged. If 75% of the race has been run then the race is declared over, with the race order of the previous lap being declared as final result.

If less than 75% has been run then all the competitors change tyres and the race is restarted for the remaining laps.

(ii) If it is declared a "wet" race then you can use dry or wet tyres, but the race will not be stopped if it rains further or heavier. [Likewise if you are driving dangerously the CoC will call you in.]

So the choice of tyres always lies with the competitor. "Wet" or "dry" just means whether or not the CoC will stop the race.

..........

BTW I totally agree with your comment on the Junior race. It was shameful that a Junior driver had to slam very hard into the tyre wall at Turn One before the race was stopped.

And they used the checquered flag instead of the red one, which confused us greatly, especially when we were asked to get ready for a restart.

During my time racing at Malaysia, I always find stewards standards very high from top to bottom ranks. Race in rains a few times and their were on top of it also. So what happen to that standards yesterday?

My apologies - Mikko. myself and others were talking to both the Clerk of the course, the stewards (plus anybody else that was in a position to try to make some kind of decision). But, to be correct, the clerk of the course is responsible and we certainly had many unfruitful conversations with him.

I asked for clarification on the wet/dry tyre situation during qualifying. The response (from Paul David) was we have a choice in a wet race but NOT in a dry race. Mohan also prevented one competitor from taking the grid on wets in a "dry" race so that is certainly the way the rules are implemented.

I always thought if its declared a WET race, only rain tyres allow. Whats the point to call it a wet race and still have options..

Hey all,

First i'll like to say that despite everything that happened that day, it was great fun and i'm sure everyone had their fair share of karting fun. Nice to have met mikko for the first time too.

I was surprised at how the race was not cut short when the drivers where suddenly faced with a downpour. Running on slicks for that kind of conditions will only result in very dangerous racing conditions. And by the end of the race, most of the people were practically crawling across the finish point. So whats the point? I'm sure there are tons of people out there that are not happen with what happened. But what is done is done. And all we can hope for is that greater communication can be demostrated by the Race Stewards on further races.

Great race!

Sorry about that - the Junior race weekend was more straightforward in tyre choice so I did not come across the situation you faced.

As I wrote earlier, it should be covered in the Supplementary Regulations for the series but it isn't.

And perhaps it does not even matter if it is in the SRs because there is now the mysterious "ASR 68" that allows the Club to change the regulations and issue new ones verbally....

Remember that the supplementary regulations state that they follow the CIK-FIA regulations - which outline the "Wet Race" situations for example.

Here's what should've happened in the Senior category when it started raining when we were on the grid and ready to go taken from the CIK-FIA regulations:

The officials told us nothing and we had to keep asking what was going on and we had to keep telling the officials that everyone has changed tyres and that we're ready to go. On Sunday the decision to race took so long twice that we ended up racing on a track not very suitable for the Mojo wets. It is safer to race when it was actually raining because the tyres work better rather than when the track is drying up when it's easy to accidentaly take another driver out because you understeer into them. The problem always seemed to be one small puddle - that's what the steering wheel is for - we can drive around it!

I have been following the forum on this subject and taking note of what have been said.

I do not refute the claims that the running of the races could have been better. I believe during the last two rounds being run in fine weather have had no such problems of what had been said. While I am not siding anyone, I have been both a driver, official as well as a promoter now. It is always easy to criticise when you are not doing the job. Please bear in mind that all the officials at the race are paid an allowance only - a small miserly sum for 2 days in the sun or rain. They are there because they enjoy the job and they have a passion for it. Nothing else! So sometime bear a thought for them also. I would confirm that the officiating was not the best but could improve. Your feedbacks are noted and we will make sure things are done more systematically in future.

James Leong

I know James and I, and the other drivers, do appreciate the work that everyone does. The main problem is about communications about what's happening - it was just so frustrating not knowing what was happening. In almost all cases, the drivers wers standing together waiting to take their karts onto the grid. It would have been very easy to walk up to them and ask them their opinion and / or tell them what is happening.

John - Thanks for your comments. I will take note of it and make sure that this is done in all future races. I have already had discussions with the club on these issues.

I hope you guys will help us out by submitting your entries for Round 4 now as it would make life very easy for us to know the numbers. I had extra trophies which I could not use again since they are all computer done. It cost me money to have them put aside. It would be easy to use the normal trophies which can be re-cycled but we are giving you quality trophies. So guys please let us know if you are competing as early as possible.

James Leong

Yeah everyone at the track is pretty passionate about motorsports - otherwise they wouldn't be there. I agree with John that the no.1 problem was lack of communication to the drivers. For example 10-15 minutes after it had been decided that the racing was postponed to Sunday half the grid was still waiting for the race to start because they didn't know of the decision.


One thing not specific to last weekend that I do not understand is why we always wait for ages to get a race or practice sessions started when we could tighten up the schedule a lot by starting a race as soon as all drivers are ready. For example when the 3 minute board is shown and absolutely all the drivers are sitting in their karts ready to go I don't understand why we have to wait in the hot sun until the 3 minutes runs out. Or going into a free practice session with no karts to recover from the track we still wait for 10 minutes in the pits before the session starts.

The reason for the long breaks between heats is to allow for recovery of karts from the track - but what is wrong with going ahead of schedule if there are no karts on the track? As long as drivers are informed at the drivers briefing that we will start sessions early when possible there should be no issue with running through the schedule earlier and ending the day up to 2 hours early. A few drivers come from Johor or Singapore so getting to leave 2 hours early helps them a lot on the way home.

Advantages to running a tighter schedule:

• It won't get boring for spectators(and drivers).. I remember watching a kart race in Australia and it was awesome because as one category was coming into the pitlane after their race the next category was already leaving the track to start their race. Everyone inluding the drivers get bored waiting 10 or more minutes in front of an empty track.
• If it does start raining down buckets we'll have time to spare and a few 20min delays won't push the racing into the night, whereas if all day we run a relaxed schedule we'll definitely be going home ages later than planned.
• There is nothing wrong with running ahead of schedule as I see it, but running behind can create problems.

Disadvantages are if a driver has a major problem with his kart he will have less time to fix it before the next heat.

If all drivers are made aware that the racing will be back-to-back they will be ready to start the race quickly. If one driver has a bit of a problem there is no problem waiting for a minute for them to get it fixed.

I remember a few years ago we did have a couple events that were run through a lot faster and everything seemed to work without a problem.