Quote:
Originally Posted by tux
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I wasn't at Britten's today so can't comment on the specifics - but it is always a difficult judgment call when deciding whether or not to stop a race or session. If you wave the red flag for everything, you'll get stick for cutting track time. If you occasionally run the risk, you'll occasionally find that "relatively safe" position you thought the car was in wasn't safe enough - as happened today. The probability of someone else going off in the same spot with such precision to hit a stationary car is statistically low. If the car isn't on or very close to the track, it's a judgment call, and it's only a bad call if that low probability happens.
The Devil's Advocate in me says that if Lee Mowles hadn't made a mistake (which, by his own admission, he did) then we wouldn't have had a problem. The consequences of the mistake were made worse by the presence of a car already being there - a similar mistake at some corners (with lots of run-off) would have gone unpunished; at some corners (with no run-off) they could have been the same.
Ultimately, in my view, it's racing. As I said, I don't know what information Bernie Cottrell had when making his decision - but I do know that he has sufficient experience in his role to balance the information he has and make a justifiable decision. At the time, he'd have thought it was the right call and would have been able to justify it. Unless you want to see sessions neutralised every 2 minutes, that's the risk you have to run in racing.