Editorial - C'mon Feel the Noize

The editor has passed the pen to the assistant ed, who after Snetterton has been thinking about rules.

"C'mon Feel the Noise" said the strategically placed (and wrongly spelt) posters around Snetterton, optimistically advertising the forthcoming A1GP round at sister circuit Brands. This was quite appropriate because noise was very much an issue for Mono competitors.

CSCC do their best to make the whole racing experience positive. And in my view they succeed. From the Clerks of the Course through the ranks of officials, they are friendly, not officious and treat the racers like adults. For example, how pleasant it was to see one of the CoC's around the paddock having a sociable chat with competitors. In return, they rightly have earned the respect of the paddock. This, indeed, was the theme of CoC Robert Williams's Snetterton lunchtime meeting, quoting from a new section of the Blue Book urging mutual respect between all at the circuit.

Sadly, there was one element outside the control of the highly professional team, and that was noise. It was made clear to me when I queried the position with a CSCC senior official that they do not appoint the noise, or more accurately, environmental, scrutineers. However, they are a fundamental part of the meeting and as such competitiors and their fellow officials have a right to expect them to behave, at the very least, in accordance with the Blue Book.

So what went wrong?

Those efficient racers who were ready early presented themselves for noise checks and read 106, 107, no problem. Or so they thought. The environmental scrutineer failed them because "it was a 105dB day". Had our scrutineer turned to page 154 of the Blue Book he would have had 108dB confirmed, and this was pointed out to him, yet he refused to accept the facts and demanded a halving in noise energy compared with what the cars are designed to achieve. Certainly, noise requirements can change if Supplementary Regulations are issued, but they were not. The environmental scrutineer acted outside the rules of the MSA, and I understand that when informed in writing in a note from the CoC, refused to accept the decision as he did not recognise the signature, which one would have thought was his problem and not that of competitors or other officials. It was also reported that during the discussions he became abusive, swearing at some of those pointing out his errors. It also must be said that the general standard of noise testing was poor. The senior noise tester who caused the problems seemed to find it necessary to shout instructions to his assistant at the time I was tested. As I guess about 120 cars had preceded me I wondered just what his initial briefing or prior training to his assistant could have been, or whether she was particularly slow in picking up a somewhat straightforward task. I have been noise tested on and off for well over 20 years in both speed events and at circuits, and this was one of the least well done tests.

Robert Williams was absolutely right. Fellow competitors and officials deserve our respect, but equally competitors deserve a level of professionalism from the officials, and, dare one say it, a level of respect too. One can only hope that as a minimum this particular official has a thorough retraining, both in how to fulfil his role, in basic customer service and in MSA rules, because if the officials aren't obeying the rules then we, as a sport, are lost.

Which brings me to the second point, more rules. If an intelligent person knowing nothing of motor racing was asked where to site marshalls' posts to display flags, he or she would undoubtedly say "where they can be easily seen". The marshalls' point which would be chosen first might well be that at the Russell chicane - after all we look straight at it and we're slowing down at the time. Unfortunately it has, this year, reverted to being an observers' post, and not a marshalls' post, and so flags cannot be displayed. I was informed that this was a decision of the MSA circuit inspector. I spoke to 2 fellow competitors, both of whom are well known for being calm and level headed. Neither realised the facts I have outlined. The lesson of looking out for flags on the out lap of practice is again learnt, but surely the decision to not show flags at Russell is, to be polite, counter intuitive and needs to be reviewed.

Rules are vital to our sport. We must obey and respect them, but sometimes they can be very puzzling.

Tony Cotton

C'mon Feel the Noize was by Slade, whose lead singer, Noddy Holder, worked at the same company as the asst ed. Not at the same time.Flags stay safely furled at Russell's observers' post

"If we had no rules where would we be? France! And if we had too many rules where would we be? Germany!" Comedian Al Murray, who is the son of a Lieutenant Colonel.