Safety Cars Timed at Britcar 24hr races - why?

[yesnomaybe]

was wondering what the reasoning / story behind the safety cars are the silverstone 24 hours being featured in the timing e.g. amount of laps covered, lap times etc

obviously its a little interesting to see who hasnt done more laps than the safety car, but whats the reason behind it? presumably the safety cars need to carry a transponder so they can be kept track of by tsl, so i would think its pre-planned, but why?

cheers

[SteveR]

Don't know if this is the reason or not, but if you time the safety car laps, you can remove the age old complaint of "he wasn't going fast enough and my tyres got cold" when the first 3 cars end in the gravel on the first post S/C lap.

Most timekeepers can produce a lap by lap report for each car (if you ask them nicely!), so you can prove that the safety car was averaging 50mph, 60mph or whatever.

As I say, I don't know if this the reason, but it could be one possibility.

[Tim the Grey]

The safety cars at Le Mans also carry transponders. I would assume that is to ensure they remain at equidistant points?
For Britcar, I assume it's also something the Live Timing can carry online, to keep people infomed of just what's happening, and also as above, to confirm they maintained the 'correct' speed around the lap.

[m1fcf]

Unless they expect the Safety Cars to be out for so long, that it can compete for a podium position?

[Speed-King]

I think you guys might be overanalyzing this... with the long safety car periods the Britcar 24hr race usually gets due to fog in the morning, they probably added the safety car to the public T&S for the sheer heck of it to see how many cars would really end up behind it...

[pauln]

One of the fun bits for me on my day off recovering from marshalling it is to have a look at how well the safety cars did.

[Adam43]

A few reasons, based on the above and new ones.
You might as well.
To see when and where the SC was/is.
For interest.
To see if anyone overtook the SC, or know who is first behind the SC if you can't see the track.
To measure the speed, to tell the driver to speed up/slow down.

[mattt]

to see which of the safety cars win? theres usually 2 or 3 timed safety cars iirc

[terence bower]

Been occasions when the SC is on circuit where the following cars have dropped 2 seconds a lap after the SC goes in.