Full Throttle

Everyone from popcorn venders, to drivers & crewman, to various media scribes, to visa holders to NASCAR Nation are aware of NASCAR’s Mythical Rulebook.

To say it contains parts that, shall we say, are ambiguous is being kind. To be more to the point certain sections are unintelligible, tenebrous, uncertain, unclear, questionable and finally, vague. If you get my drift.

So it was with great amusement to learn A1GP seems to have a similar problem with borderline interpretations of ambiguously written rules.

Stewards ruled after the Feature Race at Taupo New Zealand to penalize A1 Team USA for a pit stop outside of the alloted pit stop window which incurred a 70 second penalty dropping them out of the points.

A1GP stewards ruled that although A1 Team USA pitted before the completion of its 16th lap, the lap was completed from the pit lane and in violation of the regulation.

“We have had many people look at the rule that took away our points and all say the rule is unclear, at best,” A1 Team USA owner Rick Weidinger said. “It’s a shame A1GP has not taken the time to clarify it.”

This is the regulation from the A1GP rulebook:

#219. At any time after the completion, on the Track, of lap 8 and before the completion, on the Track, of lap 16 during the Feature Race, each Car must make a first mandatory Pit Stop and change all four wheels and tyres to the satisfaction of the Stewards.

In other words, each Competitor’s Pit Stop window will start only once lap 8 has been fully completed by the Competitor’s Car (i.e. it has crossed the finish line) and will end only after the Competitor’s Car has fully completed lap 16, which means that the last opportunity for a Competitor to make its mandatory Pit Stop within the prescribed window will be before the Competitor’s Car crosses the finish line on the track at the end of lap 16.

Any pit stop taking place before starting lap 9 or after completing lap 16 shall be ruled as falling outside the mandatory window. For the avoidance of doubt, the pit lane does not form part of the Track.

Weidinger has suggested the following rewrite of the rule:

“Pit stops must be completed during a window starting with lap nine and concluding with lap 15 inclusive.