Safety car at Combe

[Wet marshal]

Was any Formula Ford driver confused with the safety car laps at Castle combe Mon 28th?

What a c**k up. It ruined a race.

[Tim Falce]

What was confusing about it, what happened?

[Ian Sowman]

The safety car was inadvertently sent out in between the leader and second place driver. Consequently, it took several laps to get everyone in a train and ready to go for the green flag.

As it happens, I don't think it made much of a difference to the eventual outcome, towards the sharp end of the field at any rate.

Although implemented with good intention, I haven't yet seen a safety car deployment work as it should this year in the meetings that I have attended. A lot of it is, I think, down to drivers not doing what they are supposed to...

[Doc Hollywood]

If you think thats bad try Mondello Parks SC on Sunday.

Organisers forgot to assign an SC crew on the morning. When the SC crew was assigned in the evening they didnt have a radio and were thus unreachable. When the call went in for SC the DCoC had to go find them (wandering around pit-lane no where near each other or the car) give them his radio and then deploy them.... into the middle of a pack of cars.



Only the rescue crew on pit-lane (myself included) managed to slow the guy down and wave him in he would have caused a monumental accident.

I dub thee "Danger Car"!

[b1ackcr0w]

The poor chap who deployed the safety car has owned up to the mistake and apologised. I don't know the individual who made the call well, but I do know them a bit and their reputation, and can confidently say that they're gutted to have got it wrong. In such case I think it's only appropriate that it's put down to a human error that any one of us could have (and probably would have) made.

I think all credit should be given to Matt Rivett for having the presence of mind to realise what had happened and take his rightful place on the previous lap instead of taking advantage of the situation to guarantee the race win, which strictly speaking he could have done. With former seris champion Bob Higgins breathing down his neck, he could have been forgiven, but his honesty ensured that justice was done in the end.

At the marshals Raffle & Debreif after the event, the problem was immediately acknowledged and I've no doubt that CCRC will be moving heaven and earth as we speak to improve the proceedure and prevent it happening again.

[Cornerworker]

It's worth pointing out that the Safety Car can be deployed at any time. Ideally it would come out in front of the leader but it does not have to.

The Safety Car was correctly deployed for the incident which warranted it which is the main reason for sending it out. Picking up the leader is an added bonus to neutralising the race.