Thunder - 2014 Contact Issues

[GlennCMC70]

A few comments and then I will see where this thread goes.

1) I didn't lock the other thread and I don't know who did.
2) Keep it civil and respectful at all times. It's the internet and we all seem to read into what is typed and get on the defensive easily.
3) We all have the same goal, fun and safe racing. Assume we all are trying to help. Keep an open mind.

I have avoided this topic to ensure I have had time to cool off from my own personal meltdown at ECR. I left, cause I was no longer in control. I can blame it on personal life stress, but the short of it is..... I wasn't in control as a result of being involved in contact 2 weekends in a row that were not my fault (possibly a skewed POV....). I tuned in contact forms after the event. I have not been involved in any of the process there after.

Been doing a lot of thinking since ECR about contact since it was pointed out to me that Thunder has once again gotten a reputation for be a high contact class. I have missed a few events (more than normal) and was just plain out of the loop. Going to try much harder in 2015 to be there no matter what. One of the things that changed for the negative in 2014 was seemingly random Race Directors. Most of us knows that the Series Directors used to handle all class issues. That changed when Dave B took over. Now the RD does that to remove any appearance of bias since the SD's are racing w/ you guys. Good change and I like it. This past year it seems the RD's were different each weekend. Not good. With a new RD comes a blank mind w/ regards to who has done what in the previous events. That results in not thinking about a need to look-up past contact and how many driver points are accumulated and determining if further action is needed beyond the current contact. This is getting looked at and will likely be set-up on a web-based tool that the RD will look-up as part of each contact investigation. This will also help if a driver racing under 2 different RD's has had similar issues in the same weekend in different run groups or just switches classes from weekend to weekend resulting in being under multiple RD's throughout the year. Mike is working with Will on this new process. I hope they can get it to work.
Speaking of Mike, I know he is working on pulling stats to see if we have an issue w/......
A) Drivers who should have been close to or at 10 driver points for contact in case we really messed that one up.
B) Changing the points system from calendar year to a rolling 12 months.
C) Whether inverts cause more issue than qual based starts. Rolling vs standing. I even asked to look at each track individually to see if (for instance) TWS has more contact in T1 going CCW vs T15 going CW. Is there an issue w/ the track layout that inherently is more risky that others for the starts. We know MSR-C takes the green in two different places for standing vs rolling. Do we need to do this at other tracks?
D) Do we need to get rid of inverts? Not saying we will, but is it worth it? Should we limit it to 1 per weekend? If there was an honest way to set the grid, I would do inverts every race. Remember...... fun and safe....... At this point anything is on the table.

One area that was brought to my attention is race craft. Are we lacking it w/in our group? Do we need to have classes specific to each track addressing the line, when/where to defend, where "secret" passing zones are (so the pass is expected)? Where to expect that "surprise" pass? Not sure, but I bet we can drink a lot of beers doing it and learn at the same time. Once again, ideas, open mind, brainstorming here. (Michael Mosty gave me this idea).

And one last area to point out...... as was mentioned in the other area we were mentioning this..... 3/4 car rule.
I hate this rule w/ all my heart. I've used it to win and it has been used against me. But from an RD/SD POV, I hate it. If your not 100% clear on passing rules and the 3/4 car rule, stop here and read up before posting an opinion.
As we all know class rules supersede the CCR's. It was pointed out to me that another class did away w/ the 3/4 car width rule by replacing it w/ their own 1 car width rule. I like this and as a class, we can agree to do this. I already have a call into Al F about adding it into the CMC rules (proposal at this time). There is no reason I have to put my car 1/4 car width in the dirt to avoid contact and there be no penalty assessed to the driver who put me there if I had rights to position. My personal feeling is I want the curb to be excluded from the racing surface as well. I would love to hear thoughts on this from everyone. Am I off base here?