Harness and Seat rules for 2008
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 10:28 pmOk, here’s the issue:
It became very obvious at the last AX that not enough people really took the time to thoroughly review the new rules for 2008.
Call it compassion, pity or a very late Christmas present, but we allowed a “one time” exemption for the first event of the year, since it was very clear that many drivers at the January 26th AX came unprepared for the new season.
I would like to make sure that no one gets disappointed because they are not permitted to participate on February 10th due to failing our safety inspections. Believe me, I would hate to have turn a single person away, but we are committed to enforcing the Zone 8 rules. We didn’t write them, but we are in the position of having to be the bad guys and making them stick. The safety of all of our members is our highest priority and we are tasked with protecting the club by protecting you.
Also, we don’t get to decide when to not follow those rules. Occasionally a rule will have “gray areas” or perhaps not be written clearly enough to make sure that there is no doubt as to its intent. However, all of the rules that we gave a pass on this last Saturday are very specific as to their intent and requirements.
Please, please read the rules and understand that they were proposed, reviewed and accepted many, many months ago.
The greatest concern was with the seatbelt/seat/harness rules which can be reviewed in section XIII here Zone 8 Rules.
The seatbelt/seat/harness rules were actually originally introduced in the 2007 rules, and have been available for review, consideration and amendment for well over a year and a half. The time to present arguments to change them was in June of 2007.
Having said all that, we do understand that there are financial impacts of having to comply with all of these rules. It is the main reason that they were posted a full year in advance; to allow participants to plan ahead for the coming competition year. That unfortunately didn’t work as well as we would have hoped. Also, in the case of some cars with value as a collector vehicles it becomes a particularly thorny issue to change out the original seatbelts or factory seats in order to come play with the rest of the club. We know it is difficult to decide what to do.
Steve Grosekemper is looking into the options that may be available, but there may not be many other ways to go. Please watch the forum for what he comes up with.
Again, please review the rules so you know what to expect for the rest of this competition year.
My apologies for the long post and I’m sure there will be responses as to how the rules impact us all. It’s too late to change them, but it certainly will be healthy for us to get it off our chests!
Thanks and don’t throw things at us.
Your “Q” Events Tech Chairs
Herb Meeder and George Taylor
It became very obvious at the last AX that not enough people really took the time to thoroughly review the new rules for 2008.
Call it compassion, pity or a very late Christmas present, but we allowed a “one time” exemption for the first event of the year, since it was very clear that many drivers at the January 26th AX came unprepared for the new season.
I would like to make sure that no one gets disappointed because they are not permitted to participate on February 10th due to failing our safety inspections. Believe me, I would hate to have turn a single person away, but we are committed to enforcing the Zone 8 rules. We didn’t write them, but we are in the position of having to be the bad guys and making them stick. The safety of all of our members is our highest priority and we are tasked with protecting the club by protecting you.
Also, we don’t get to decide when to not follow those rules. Occasionally a rule will have “gray areas” or perhaps not be written clearly enough to make sure that there is no doubt as to its intent. However, all of the rules that we gave a pass on this last Saturday are very specific as to their intent and requirements.
Please, please read the rules and understand that they were proposed, reviewed and accepted many, many months ago.
The greatest concern was with the seatbelt/seat/harness rules which can be reviewed in section XIII here Zone 8 Rules.
The seatbelt/seat/harness rules were actually originally introduced in the 2007 rules, and have been available for review, consideration and amendment for well over a year and a half. The time to present arguments to change them was in June of 2007.
Having said all that, we do understand that there are financial impacts of having to comply with all of these rules. It is the main reason that they were posted a full year in advance; to allow participants to plan ahead for the coming competition year. That unfortunately didn’t work as well as we would have hoped. Also, in the case of some cars with value as a collector vehicles it becomes a particularly thorny issue to change out the original seatbelts or factory seats in order to come play with the rest of the club. We know it is difficult to decide what to do.
Steve Grosekemper is looking into the options that may be available, but there may not be many other ways to go. Please watch the forum for what he comes up with.
Again, please review the rules so you know what to expect for the rest of this competition year.
My apologies for the long post and I’m sure there will be responses as to how the rules impact us all. It’s too late to change them, but it certainly will be healthy for us to get it off our chests!
Thanks and don’t throw things at us.
Your “Q” Events Tech Chairs
Herb Meeder and George Taylor
Why would we as individuals accept the blame when we could lay it on you. That's what makes this kind of thing fun.
Or as an old Jamaican friend use to say: "Hey bradda, 
