Fellow racers and spectators.
I received a nice email about the impression a 10 year old has at the races. It does concern me somewhat that we as adults are letting them get the wrong ideas at the track or on the ride home. Please keep in mind that our grown up ideas often are taken as fact when we spew our feelings while they are in listening distance. Some of you will be able to identify who wrote it but it could have been written by any of our members.
Mr Chesterman
My mom told me I should tell u how I feel about things. I do love to race but u have not been fair to me. You make up news rules all the time, I am only 10 how can I remember all of them when they r different all the time. I read the rules but it doesn't say in their all the things you black flag me for. My mom says to keep reading the rules but I never see the rules u make up there. Every race you make bad calls to me and I have to go back when it is not my fault last week racer A drove onto my car and I burned my elbow on his motor but I had to go back not him. before you made me feel bad for doing well by checking my tag again like I am cheating all the time people look at me and talk about me like I am cheating and I feel bad cuz I did good. After last tuesday people told me that u always put me to the back cuz if you didn't it would be a boring race and you want spectatours to come and watch. That’s not fair to me I try so hard to race well and not to ever bump anyone but u always make bad calls to me. Racer A's dad said Racer B was jumping ahead every race on restarts, I heard other people say that too and they can't understand why u don't black flag him only me. Last week I had a black flag cuz I passed number Racer C but last year new racers tryng new classes always were put very last in restarts too so I thought I was supposed to go past him the same as last year. If I say that to flag man he yells at me like I am stupid, he scares me. I thought u couldn't advance a new position before the white line I didn't do that I didn't know we had to go single file restarts now no one said that to me and I get black flagged. I think you don't care about the racers or their feeling, you care about making a show for the people there to watch I am only 10 and I just want to race but you r not fair.
Hello Racer D
Thanks for your nice email and I will try to explain what you have asked about.
We have drivers meetings every week to explain what we are expecting of drivers and we try to address new things that we want the drivers to do/learn. For several weeks now we have been talking about having more fair starts and where you are allowed to start passing. These are not new procedures and yes they are not written anywhere. Just racing format that we have been using for the last couple years and we are expecting the Racers to clean up their starts as their skills advance. As one of the fastest teams out there I expect a higher level of compliance from yourself as fast drivers do not need any unfair advantage at the start of a race.
As for accusing us of making bad calls, We make many calls in the course of a night and I would like to think most of them are correct but since we have to watch all the karts it is not always possible to see every incident. We have talked about this many times at the drivers meeting that sometimes you may get away with a missed call and other times you could get blamed for something you did not do. That is the nature of racing, or hockey, or horse shows or life in general.
As for checking your motor or tags to make sure they are the correct ones, It is my job to make sure no teams have an unfair advantage with engines and so if you are going to be one of the fast drivers you will be one of the teams getting checked. You would expect me to make sure other teams were not doing things not allowed to beat you and so I must check yours when you beat the others. There are some tracks that take the top three drivers every week and take the motors all apart to inspect them and then give you back the motor in pieces in a box. Every week. I do not think that checking the tags on your engine is being too hard on anyone.
As for restarts. If we allowed everyone behind the leader to pull up beside the leader before the restart you would have 5 karts wide going into the first corner and then a big crash. You must stay behind the leader and should be in single file.
You need to be careful what other people are telling you because they may not always be correct. Racer B has been sent to the back lots. Sending a kart to the back has nothing to do with what the spectators want to see. It has to do with providing the group of racers with fair racing. During a race drivers must go to the spot they are sent, whether or not the driver thinks it is correct. The flag man needs to yell to be heard as he has ear muffs on and your kart is running and you have a helmet on that makes it hard to hear. If he is yelling too load at least you can hear him but really there is not any reason that you should be talking to them much during a race. Ask at the drivers meeting if you would like to know how do something and we can explain it to the whole group.
I do not think it is fair to say we do not care what the racers think. I care very much about all the racers. the slow ones, the fast ones and the ones in between.
Being sent to the back is a very minor penalty for a driver doing something very minor. If you were listening at the drivers meetings we have told the drivers that at some time I was sure all drivers would get sent to the back during the season. It has nothing to do with picking on a driver. All the drivers are doing a very good job and as they keep improving it is possible for us to start working on fine details like not crossing the start line too many karts wide.
Like you say, you are only 10 so I really don't think you should worry over getting sent to the back too much. Drive and race and have fun. I will do the dirty work of making sure the parents are playing fair and behaving while at the track. Drivers really don't have a way of cheating on the track that is not visible to everyone watching. On the other hand the pit crew that works on the engines and karts between races in the hidden corners of their garage are staying up at night trying to think of ways to outsmart the other teams. We have the task to make sure they are not unfairly spoiling the fun of the other teams because if that happens unchecked, the friends that you like to race with each week will get frustrated and stop racing and then your fun stops also because it is hard to have a race with one kart, even if it is fast.
Keep up the good work and try to have fun regardless of what the grown ups "think"
The staff at Chesterman's
My tip to parents.
Convincing your child that everyone else is cheating and that they are the only ones getting penilized is likely a very quick way to have your driver wanting to end their racing fun.
If your kids are having fun and you are not--- button it, if neither of you are having fun, time for a new sport.
Dave Chesterman
Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=11982.msg85481#msg85481
