Re: Sunday's FF1600 race

[Biggun]

I was standing in the pit lane on Sunday with a clear view of the start gantry, and can confirm that at no time did the red flags go out, before or after the chequered flag. However, there certainly did seem to be a worrying amount of confusion among the marshals here and at Camp as to what they should do, and at one point during the race the black and yellow quartered flag was held out on the gantry. This was brought in seconds later as the chap holding it was shouted at by his colleagues. It certainly did seem unusual to me from my vantage point that the race was not stopped due to the accident at camp, if not for the position of the stricken cars, for the debris all over the track: as the race continued, I saw a number of large pieces of fibreglass flung towards the pitwall by passing cars - one appeared to be most of the nosecone from the 88 Van Diemen that crashed. I fail to see how this could be seen as safe conditions to continue racing with only yellow flags at Camp, and would contend that this action endangered crew members in the pit lane, spectators and the marshals themselves.

Also, I can't understand why the race was shortened by one lap, and why they just put the chequers out instead of the red flag. Also strange was the startline marshals choosing to put the chequered flag out momentarily AFTER Alex Ames crossed the line in the lead, when they had been standing with the flags ready in their hands for more than a lap.