Investigations pending

No, I missed that one Bob, better throw the yellow.

Here's an important post from the 2019 12 hour Bathurst race that somehow I missed posting before my extended holiday. Crashes are a major safety issue (oh really??) and it's the communications between the race director and the flag marshal's that can prevent much of these spills. The 2020 12hr has been won and run with no really bad incidents but there are still arguments whether or not in car yellow lights will be the answer particularly at a long track like the mountain. Read on..

From last years Bathurst 12 hr.

And on and on it goes. Yes, it was a big crash a few weeks back at the Bathurst 12 hour GT race, in fact it was rather sickening to watch. When you can see a crash about to happen it usually sets the queasy gland firing. No doubt there are dozens of YouTube re-runs if you haven't seen the crash but be warned.

The crash and the aftermath have been a huge talking point among the racing fraternity with much of the discussion centred around how it happened and naturally, how to avoid a repeat in future races to be held at the Mt Panorama circuit.

There was a lot of talk and opinions to the reason for the crash, most around the volunteer flag marshal's. If you look at any of the videos (sorry), blind Freddy can see a massive delay between the car parked sideways across the track from the first part of the accident and the car that eventually side swiped the stranded car at a million miles an hour. Luckily both driver walked away but it could have easily been fatal.

So where were the double yellow waved flags The marshal point was a couple of hundred meters before the stricken car and if the speeding car had of seen a yellow he may have been able to avoid the mess like the two cars had before him. Many excuses have been made on behalf of the flag marshal's, first being they were volunteer's and had been on point most of the day. Secondly, there was talk that a flag marshal (any) has to ring in to race control for their permission before they can deploy a flag. Well perhaps an oil flag but not for a waved yellow. To me that just seems ridiculous.

How I saw it, I think the first part of the accident, two hundred meters past their point, took their attention away from the cars that were coming up the hill, the ones they should have been warning. Heaven forbid, they wouldn't have been on their phones would they? Of course there were many more excuses like the marshalling point was incorrectly placed. Surely not. How many years has there been races at Mt Panorama? Too many not to have the marshal point's clearly mapped.

So what's the fix to prevent such an accident happening again. I think it's simple.. pay the marshal's. I have read dozens of wacky suggestions like bring in the dozers and reshape the corner so drivers can see around it. Heck, let's make it a drag strip? To erecting a gantry with lane closure lights. The most popular solution seems to be a flashing yellow light on each car's dashboard, NASCAR style. Well it did work at the historic Thunderdome but would it work throwing a flasher when half the cars are coming down Conrod two minutes away from the scene of the accident at the top of the mountain. Besides, in most cases a yellow means catch up to the guy in front. It would be a bit of a policing nightmare to expect every car to slow and hold their gaps. The point is, this is traditional circuit racing so anything, even in the name of safety, is hard to step out of tradition, waved yellows. There was talk of having the big coloured tele screens as in F1 around the track but there still has to be someone push the button. There was an even crazier suggestion to fit sensors in the cars that trigger a yellow if the car gets a bit close to the wall. Perhaps they could set off a vibrating phone in the drivers race suit pocket.

Cut the crap, the sport is in a bad enough state now. Pay the marshal's.. simple.