[TheReferee]

so starting my first full season as referee thought i would put my thoughts down

driving standards good to excellent

penalties a few

apologies several, gave a driver a stop go, went down the line saying car 6 stop go, got a reaction from a driver told him to stop, car complied told him to go, didn't shout as he was right in front of me, walked back to my position, only problem the driver i was talking to wasn't the one!, the correct driver heard me tell him to stop but didn't hear me say go. so he didn't. apologies to mr evison for that.

danny mcgee and grant williams, having decided to give danny a penalty, i confirmed with grant that he felt he had lost out and that i should apply the penalty, only problem is i asked grant in front of danny, which was obviously the wrong thing to do and put grant in an awkward position so apologies to grant and danny for that.

as danny pointed out at the time i should have told him what was happening and allow him to give the place up, as it was, the time penalty cost him two places rather than one. i accept that danny is correct and will attempt to do so in the future.

issues raised for me which all drivers need to think about. a couple of times drivers crashed and ended up in a better position so they waited and then went, one driver was going to be penalised his reasoning was he did not gain, my reasoning was he didn't lose and he should have done, however the penalties available to me are limited to a warning, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 1 lap and disqualify plus stop go as required, the problem with a stop go penalty in qualifying is once served you have lost that time and it cant be given back, so i prefer to give a time penalty which can be added or removed after i have considered the incident.

fair play awards from me, joint award for paul bradby. grant williams and dave gibson all three had an incident but waited and allowed the other driver back in front, or in grants case he let an extra one through just to be safe!!

thanks to the talywain crew for keeping me watered during the day

john