I wish I had better news to report to all the blog readers, but I have some negative news to report. Recently a rash of suspensions have been handed down to drivers, who unfortunately did not follow the rules. So I want to take a little time to explain why some penalties are more harsh than others.
First off, as the top ranking official here at ASRS, it is my duty to ultimately decide if the penalty is appropriate and then report it to the league. This can be a challenging task at times, as different circumstances lead to different penalties. For example, a driver was suspended for an incident a few weeks back where he spun the leader after making contact with the leader no less than three times on the straightway leading up to the incident. The driver was on probation at the time (for a similar incident), and was suspended for two weeks. More recently a driver slammed another driver after the checkered flag, to pay the driver back for an earlier accident, which coincidently was not that driver’s fault. Not only did this driver hit the car he targeted, he collected the race winner and other drivers in the mess. When the smoke settled, the winner did not get to celebrate his victory with a burn out, and the other driver sat on the backstretch in smoking heap of twisted debris, but it is a simulated race so nobody got hurt. Had this occurred in a real race, the driver that retaliated probbaly would have been charged with some sort of criminal negligence. The driver was suspended indefinetely from the league for his actions and will not be eligible to return until the Series President (that’s me!) and Series Vice President determine he is no longer a threat to the orderly conduct of the ASRS.
So, two somewhat similar incidents (a driver crashes another), but different circumstances in both (one occurred during an event, the other after the event). Both drivers lost all points earned in the event the incident occurred, received probation to follow their suspension and were placed at the rear of the field, but the suspensions vary in length.
Someone is going to ask why I went through these two scenarios in detail, and the reason is this; more often than not, I hear about unfair penalties, a lack of consistency in making decisions, and bias toward particular individuals. I continue to remind our valued members that every incident involves different circumstances and therefore different levels of action that must be taken. There are some drivers who a one week suspension doesn’t matter, so a two week suspension may be issued, others are not racing for points, so a points penalty would do nothing to deter further incidents, but probation and a suspension just might. There are yet other drivers who have been suspended in the past, so a second, third or even fouth incidend should have an increased penalty.
Moreover, as much as we have tried to standardize penalties, we have realized that no two incidents are the same. What if a driver who is 27th in points decides to crash the points leader, because his teammate is 2nd in points and needs it to happen? Don’t think it could happen? It has.
Just two years ago, as I battled for my first Truck Series Championship the driver in 2nd place had his teammate crash me into the wall to allow him to gain points on me. Ultimately, it led to one driver being asked not to partipate in the truck series because sadly, I was not his only victim. And even more fitting, I went on to win that championship, without using my teammates to crash the driver who pursued me. (He did not end up 2nd in the final points, he fell out of the top battled before the season’s end).
Finally, I would like to say that while we do look at the driver’s history, the nature of the incident, who was involved, any motives we can think of, the driver’s experience with ASRS, and even the quality of the race the incident occurred in (higher series will have stiffer penalties), no two incidents are alike. Each has it’s own elements that led up to the incident and each offers its own unique circumstances.
And unlike many other leagues, we offer protests of official decisions. We set up the Championship Committee for that reason and also allow the ASRS Officials to review decisions usually the day after they are announced (before a penalty is issued, the ASRS Officials, usually two or three of them, determine the appropriate action to take and the penalty to issue).
Sometimes we let little things go, sometimes we feel as if we are being too nice and feel we must make an example out of someone, and we do. But in the end, everyone gets a fair shot. That’s what this league is about, a fair chance for us all to have fun racing online. When we lose sight of that, we lose our entire mission and purpose.
