Contrary to other opinions...

[Guest ChumpCar]

Regarding Team TBR at the Chumpionship, I stand by my decision and the call.

Racing, like life, isn't always fair. We've all been there before. At least, those of us that have been pushing a race car around a track for more than a few years. And when that unfairness bites us in the donkey, what USUALLY happens is that we get pissed-off, grow cynical, become angry and unforgiving, and we start to let all of that eat away at the sport we love. You can argue about this with me if you want; however, I've been around long enough to have seen it happen more times than I can tell you. I've seen some really great people (some really talented drivers and crew chiefs) walk away from racing, turning their backs on good friends, hating everything and everyone associated with the sport. You can argue my position but you can't argue the facts.

So, when the opportunity comes along to right a wrong, or to correct an injustice, and/or to inject fairness into an unfair moment, I have and will continue to seize that opportunity. Personal character flaw? Perhaps, but I'm sorry if you feel that way.

The incident involving Team TBR at Iowa was both unfortunate and unfair. It happened within the first few minutes of 25.5 long hours of racing. My decision to re-instate the majority (not all) of Team TBR's lost laps -- incurred while making repairs -- was, in my opinion and the shared opinion of my Regional Directors with whom I discussed the matter (after reviewing the video footage of the collision), the FAIR thing to do.

Some teams came to me and asked, “What was the precedent for making such a call.â€

How many precedents would you like me to start naming?

First, if you will please recall, the founding of ChumpCar -- the very basis of the ChumpCar World Series -- is sports car racing as it was back in the 1960's and 1970's... when racing was just for fun and all about the good times; when fairness was not only practiced openly, it was required as the mark of a racing driver.

Perhaps that's where I draw my "character flaw" from, because I personally saw, was a part of, received from, and gave to such fairness at every race event I went to. Serious stuff, too... like a driver I used to know who pulled off the course to allow another car to win after the two tangled earlier in the weekend; or, a team pulling the engine and gearbox from their car to give to another team who blew their engine, so the other team could finish the race… just because they were higher in the National Championship points standing.

Even within ChumpCar’s events this year, I can name 20+ cars that we’ve given lost laps back to because their transponder broke, or fell of the car, or was improperly mounted and not sending a proper signal. Most of these issues were not the responsibility of ChumpCar. Was it “fair†for ChumpCar to respond that way? Did each of these teams benefit from being treated fairly?

Or, was it “fair†for ChumpCar to give a team a dozen lost laps when they arrived late and missed the start of a race because they were still going through tech? Oh, and why were they late, you ask? Their pick-up truck blew a transmission 8 hours from home, and they worked all night in a highway rest stop, rebuilding the transmission, so they could drive an additional 9 hours to make the race.

Was it “fair†for ChumpCar to reinstate lost laps to a team that was black flagged in error, within the last 30 minutes of a race… when they were running in 4th place?

As I said, life and racing are both unfair. That doesn’t mean that ChumpCar has to be.

That the recipient of this corrective action just happened to be one of the fastest, best performing teams in Chumpdom, doesn’t mean squat to me. I’d of reacted and responded the same, no matter who the team was or what the situation was, given the circumstances of the incident.

And, if you really want to know, I also approved the issuance of a few unfairly lost laps to another car running in the top 10 today. Yep, right here in Iowa. It doesn’t matter who the team was that got them, or what the reason was… I did it because it was fair and it was the right thing to do.

And, I’ll do it again.

The bottom-line is this:

• We’re racing for a trophy and some beer money

• Life’s too damn short to participate in ANYTHING that's unfair

• We’re supposed to be here for fun, friends and enjoyment

• We’re all “… just another Chump!â€

John Condren

Series Administrator

[Guest David Hawkins]

The problem with trying to be 'fair' to everyone is you invariably end up being unfair to a number not involved. Your series, your call. Personally, I think it's a bad one.

[Jason]

John,

I'll be printing this post off and keep it in my 3 ring binder for future reference.

[cpmskinny]

I would like a little more back story on the wreck that occurred out on the track. In my opinion, SITFU, that's just racing. Bad luck just happens more often than good luck. Giving any team back laps for an on-track incident is a very, very, very bad call. What if they end up winning? You will have personally placed them on the podium. I know they will be forever greatful. this is the friggin Chumpionship man, you just don't hand those kinds of things out.

[mostmint]

Were there penalties incurred for the offending team? What they did must have appeared deliberate to force this action.

[lordmulgath]

Tubby just hopped out of the TBR car. This oval racing looks insane. Can't wait until I get a crack at it.

Short video of some oval action:

/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM2R6hBAGFI

And, our unfortunate off track incident..

/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ConlSl3yFNQ

FYI.

John, glad to see the world isn't entirely jaded.

But even I think that was just bad luck.

Disclamer "I wasn't there, I didn't see it, I don't know these guys and I don't know the whole story."

[mostmint]

Thanks for the link.

edit: At first I was disappointed with this ruling. This looks like a racing incident - does not look like the 23 was trying to wreck TBR. TBR could have backed off and given that guy some room - seeing as how there is a lot of adrenaline flowing early in the race.

Then I started thinking about it. In reality I have no problem with this ruling as long as it is applied consistently. That's my main complaint when I watch NASCAR - no one seems to know how to apply rules consistently.

Maybe Chump Car will consider doing something for 4th place if TBR ends up on the podium.

re-edit: Per John's comments below, this is what I see from the video and I have NO other information to go on. Just saying what it looks like from the outside.

[dsycks]

The video of this contact is not at all what I expected to see when I clicked the link.

I figured there would be video of someone making contact and pushing the car into a wall or something well... blatant.

The move on the car that past TB was brash, aggressive and super questionable but I have been subject to actions at least as aggressive by other drivers that I do not think was meant to do me or my car harm.

I am honestly happy that there is consideration given to being fair as we all want to live in a world that does right by one another and has a level playing field. Sadly I am not sure there is any such thing. I fear that this sets, or at least reinforces a precedence that I did not know existed. I fear it may in fact open the door to far more problems that this or any similar action could possibly solve.

I hope I am wrong.

[Guest David Hawkins]

mostmint, how do you apply it consistently? Everyone subject to contact that loses them time should get a free pass? I'm appalled at the 'their tow rig broke down so we gave them free laps' example. How is that fair to those of us who take an extra day off of work to get to an event early or have a buffer in case such a thing happens? Being fair to 1 person ends up being unfair to 83 others.

[sporqster]

As the owner of the car typically sitting in the garage or back of the pack, I somehow doubt we would have been awarded laps had the exact same incident happened to us. Just sayin'.

[Ron_e]

John, it is your series and you can run it however you want. If people want to complain and they don't like it then they can go to another race series. I wasn't there but I love the series so keep on doing what you are doing!

[Guest David Hawkins]

If you've got a story with history going back multiple races that involves malfeasance on the part of a team - ban that team from the series or take draconian measures against it. You're the one who tells all the rookies that 'anything forward of the front wheels or behind the rear wheels is fair game' and 'rubbing is racing' and now you're awarding laps for repair time caused by just that.

It would make far more sense (both logically and from an insurance perspective) if you were harder on teams for having contact and you might just avoid situations like this.

Your series, your rules...but I don't feel the need to put a disclaimer on my comments when you're awarding laps to the leading car for an on-track incident. Poor precedent.

[clovold]

Armchair quarterbacks abound. It's easy to criticize from the sidelines when you don't have all the facts.

Keep doing what you think is right, John.

[Guest Taylorcraftbc65]

John,

I have YET to make a race, even as a spectator, AND I did not see the incident, but in the few private conversations that I have had with you, I am impressed with your sense of "fair play" and desire to bring back the spirit of 50's and early 60's club racing.

While I don't know the particulars of the incident, not knowing anything about it, I am inclined to believe that John made the best call that he could. under the circumstances.

BRAVO, John.

[sloan royal]

We spent a similar amount of time in the pits fixing more severe damage than TBR suffered. The other team even came and apologized for what happened. Is that fair? No. But it's racing. In fact, if we'd had our laps restored, we'd be in the hunt for a podium instead of 14th.

But asking for that kind of thing? Never. (I understand that TBR did not ask for anything, and were simply unhappy about the situation, as is their right to be)

I have personally seen driving equally as aggressive this weekend (the kind where the overtaking car makes you decide if you want to have an accident) and simple mistakes that could have caused major incidents. I am responsible for some myself that were avoided due to the drivers around me being alert and understanding that this is an endurance race.

Sometimes you have to back off even when you're in the right. I have.

I'm still not sure what to do about this. I am not happy; even moreso after I saw the video and talked to some people here.

I am here. I know the people. I saw the video. Maybe I still don't know the whole story. What I do know is this is John's sandbox, and he has the right to do as he pleases.

[Craig]

The problem that I keep coming back to is this: I don't think anybody can argue that getting knocked out for a while wasn't unfair to TBR. I'm not convinced, based on the video, that there was any intent to have contact by Brake Dusters, but it was also clearly a bad pass where the contact was primarily their fault. All of that said, giving the laps back to TBR assumes that they would have run all of those laps cleanly. How can that be determined with any degree of certainty? I'm sure they're all good drivers, but even good drivers make mistakes, or even just get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe if TBR's driver had avoided Brake Dusters, five laps later he would have made a mistake that put the car in the wall. Or made a sketchy pass attempt of his own that led to contact. Or had someone spin in front of him with no room to go around because another car was right beside him. Or maybe it wouldn't have happened five laps later, maybe it would have happened ten laps later. Or twenty. The problem, for me, is that you don't know. You don't know if something like that would have happened five laps later, or ten, or twenty, or not at all. But when you give TBR the laps back, you're assuming the answer is not at all. I don't think that's fair to the other competitors.

It's not fair to TBR that bad driving by someone else knocked them out. But is it any more fair for a team that went over their car three times to have their transmission decide that now is the time to give up? Is it fair to us that we split a brand new oil filter at TWS and spent the next two hours figuring out where the oil was leaking and fixing it? Bad stuff happens, and while I think that the sentiment of trying to be fair to everyone is admirable, ultimately it's a fool's errand.

It goes without saying that it's still John's series and John's rules. While I disagree with this particular decision, it doesn't change my decision to race with ChumpCar. That may not be true for other teams, though. There may be teams that were racing ChumpCar but will now decide that they don't care for it, or teams that were considering trying the series that will now give it a pass. Their loss, to be sure, but also ours.

[ChumpStang]

Were there penalties incurred for the offending team? What they did must have appeared deliberate to force this action.

Yes, the Break Dusters driver that caused the incident was taken out of the car and not allowed to race the rest of the weekend.

Now, what I truly think since on here I'm not hindered by being under the ChumpCar name like I am on Facebook since I'm an admin:

I did not like the call. As everyone else is saying, this is John's show and he runs it how he wants it to run. The Break Dusters and TBR are as close to rivals as you can get in Chump. They've had a history of hard racing at other races earlier this season, and after trading the position numerous times on the same lap, Break Dusters had to be aware that TBR would still most likely be inside of them. Break Dusters broke one of the best known rules in racing: HOLD YOUR LINE. They aggresively dove down on Butterman, who had nowhere else to go (sans the grass, where they ended up anyhow) and made the contact. Penalizing Break Dusters was the way to go. It's unfortunate Butterman lost the laps they did, but it's part of racing. Now Butterman has lost their lead and sits in 3rd place after a mis-timed pit stop as pit lane closed. This will keep the rewarded laps from being a major factor, but it's still easily arguable that they wouldn't be doing as well without them. At the end of the day, it was a bold decision made, what I believe to be, too early. IMO John should have waited to make the decision later in the day or today after seeing how competitive Butterman was going to be, not immediately giving them the competitive advantage back.

[CarRacer]

I'm here in Iowa and I do not like the call either. This is the first time I've had a reason to disagree with any decision made by Chump Car so far. I'm confident the response thiswhole ordeal has received will result in the idea of giving laps back being closely examined (and hopefully never done again).

[pstrbrc]

After reading both what has been posted here and on facebook, I just have one thing to add. I wouldn't want to be Tubby Butterman. If they win, (unless they win by all the laps given to them) it will always be questioned.

[Guest Hemiram]

So if the rulings are gonna be even across the board, my little pony should be getting a bunch of laps back after being stuffed into the wall by the 51. You even admitted that the pony got turned into the wall on facebook. Where is this just ruling?

[autobahnracing28]

Not there, didn't see it, unconscionably bad call. Sounds like a heat of the moment, we have all been there, bad choice.

Just watched the mens 4X100 world championships relay. The USA had 2nd wrapped up and were competing for first when we got knocked down by another team on the last baton exchange, we got a dnf, not fair, C'est la vie. Should they award the USA 2nd, not a chance, they could have had a perfect exchange and then tripped and fell two steps later.

Same with TBR. If I accept at face value that something unfair happened to TBR, it still makes no difference, bad call. As pointed out above anything could have happened even if the "unfair" situation had not happened to put TBR in the pits and put them out or many laps down. TBR proved it by the pit issue at track change.

[Ogren-Engineering]

Never seen that before > we have had many bad racing luck situations, and just put the trashed car on the trailer and called it racing luck. Which it is.

Fair? no.

Racing reality? yes.

Which it is.

Karma takes care of most of it.

Bad precedent ,IMHO.

But!! no one should be aiming at other cars , with the intent to take them out. That is total BS, and needs an donkey kicking.

This happens alot more often, when teams from all over the country, race each other. No recourse or ever seeing the other teams again.

MM

[ChumpStang]

So if the rulings are gonna be even across the board, my little pony should be getting a bunch of laps back after being stuffed into the wall by the 51. You even admitted that the pony got turned into the wall on facebook. Where is this just ruling?

My Little Pony seems to be the only people NOT whining about their incident...

And everybody else, guess what? The ruling has been made. It's in the past. Adios. See ya. See it? Look over you shoulder you passed it. And you know what? All this whining and complaining isn't going to change a thing. John made the call and you can hate it all you want but you're not going to do a damn thing to change it. I understand being angry or confused on the call...but to whine about it like a bunch of immature 13 year olds is completely useless.

[autobahnracing28]

My Little Pony seems to be the only people NOT whining about their incident...

And everybody else, guess what? The ruling has been made. It's in the past. Adios. See ya. See it? Look over you shoulder you passed it. And you know what? All this whining and complaining isn't going to change a thing. John made the call and you can hate it all you want but you're not going to do a damn thing to change it. I understand being angry or confused on the call...but to whine about it like a bunch of immature 13 year olds is completely useless.

No one but you seems to be angry or confused and you certainly show your immaturity by calling people with more racing championships that you are old immature 13 year olds. No one is whining or complaining and as John has pointed out many times he does listen to us and voicing our opinions will make a difference.

If you have an opinion, right or wrong, go ahead and state it, but if the best you can do is slobber all over Johns donkey and attempt to castigate those who know much better than you then you had better get ready to be slapped back into the hole you crawled out of.

[ChumpStang]

...you had better get ready to be slapped back into the hole you crawled out of.

It's actually quite nice in there. A/C, satellite tv, 2 bedrooms 2 baths. I also have a summer hole in Aspen...