Ramblings from an aged Kart Clerk by Steve Chapman

After 28 years of working with a number of kart clubs, at club, national, and international events, I thought I may be able to help other Clerk of Course by presenting my experiences. I was never the best Clerk of Course in the world, but my scientific training makes me look at everything to see if it could be done better. I know I did things wrong, and since retiring as a Clerk, I see more things that I did wrong, and a number of things I see Clerk of Course doing that I think are totally wrong! My major complaint is that Clerk of Course seem to sit back and just let things happen, they do not command a meeting, and they never seem to have a plan B until it is far too late. I was a stickler for the rules but I never let the threat of MSA intervention dominate my actions; occasionally I cheated a little, or as I would put it "used common sense", see more later

General Stuff Who or what is a Clerk of Course? Do those who run race meetings in the 21st century really understand their role? The Clerk of Course is the person who, along with the Competition Secretary, totally runs a kart race meeting, from the announcement of the race date, until all the post race paperwork is absolutely complete. Anything that goes wrong is down to these two officials, the buck stops there! What does this mean, it means a Senior Clerk has to liaise with the Competition Secretary to ensure that the regulations for the meeting, and the programme of events, are set out such that the meeting will go ahead without any problems, and it will not run late! [I use an Excel file (available at no charge) to calculate how long a meeting could take, laps or time, and to manipulate the races to ensure the maximum race time is fitted in to the available time.] The Clerk and Competition Secretary should agree with what should be set out in the SR, if the meeting is different to what the drivers may expect, and how long the races should be, in order to complete the meeting between 17:00 and 18:00 hours. Is the equipment that will be required available, and up to standard, and are there the required number of officials available? Talking again about how long a meeting should be, you should have in mind how far people may travel to attend. Closing the meeting so that trophies have been presented by 6:30pm, lets most people get home by 8:30pm; not bad for a work or school day on Monday. To go on later is very poor race management; that is why your should build time for incidents into your time table. After years Clerking at Shenington, and making note of what happens, and how long a class are likely to take for a race, I calculate as follows. Race time for example is 5 minutes plus 1 lap, I add five minutes to the race time, thus allow 10 minutes per race for 1

5+1, or 11 minutes for 6+1 etc etc. Most problem free races save about a minute, building a safety (incident) factor into the program timing. Another point which is very difficult to overcome with the Competition Secretary, is don't flood the meeting with drivers! If the grid is only allowed to hold 30 drivers, persuade your Competition Secretary that they should not except anymore! Add just one more driver to a class, and you are adding an extra heat and an extra (B) final. Time is used up that could be put to better use, by giving all of the other drivers longer races. The income from the unwanted extra drivers will be more than compensated by all of the other drivers enjoying the extra laps, or by being able to go home early. On another point, if you have a lot of space in a quiet meeting, why not add a race rather than making the finals too long? Very long finals are great in National Championships, but tedious in a club meeting; 12 laps are more than enough on most circuits of 1,000m plus. You may feel adding an extra race does not fit into your Club Championship regulations, particularly if you give points for the heats. However, to add a Pre Final for no points, still retains points for the heats and final untouched?

Race Day A Senior Clerk of Course must arrive at the circuit in time for the commencement of signing on, knowing exactly the programme for the day. It gives time to check with the Competition Secretary, to see if there are any changes in the programme, or in the names and roles of senior officials. If there are changes, race day bulletins may be required? Introduce yourself to the MSA steward. Walk the circuit with the MSA Steward, but if you have problems to solve, have a deputy take the walk. However you should do your very best to interface with the MSA steward. The steward should be you friend and the sooner you develop a relationship with the steward, the sooner you can relax and decide what kind of steward you have. Some stewards try to overpower the clerk, so as gently as possible try to make it clear that you are running the meeting and that you will be sure to consult with the steward should circumstances require. Keep passing on the information if you change anything, race length, skipping a lunch break, or any part of the programme. Most stewards are approachable if you have a difficult problem, and need advice, so use them. In my experience even those who do not know karting, have such a good knowledge of motor sport that they often can add their experience to your situation. Talk with all of the staff, fellow Clerk of Course, scruitineers, marshals, starter, grid marshals, time keepers and lap scorers. When the ambulance(s) arrives talk with the senior medical officer and their colleagues. Everyone should know who is in charge, and who to contact if they have a problem, meeting them all should confirm this in their minds. Always talk with all of the staff, even if you saw them at a meeting the week before. Remember you are their manager, but unlike being a manager in a business, when all of your staff are being paid a sensible rate, these people are doing the job for you whilst being paid relatively nothing! 2

If everything is as you would like it to be, and you have double checked with the Competition Secretary regarding any problems, take note of any points they would like mentioned in your driver’s briefing. So on to the BRIEFing, yes it should be as brief as possible, after 5 minutes half the group may have gone to sleep, or be chatting quietly together! Only talk about areas that may be different to other circuits. The flags are used everywhere so why talk about them unless you have been having a problem in earlier events? Always talk about the stopping place(s) for red flags. I believe that novices, and people who have not been to the circuit before should stay behind for further information, including revision on flags at this time. As many of the novices are cadet or junior drivers I always crouch down, to be at their level rather than towering over them. I want them to see that we could work together to give them a good race meeting. Worthy of mention here is the blue flag. I explain that this flag is used to tell a driver that the leaders are about to overtake them. I stress "Do not do anything different, stay on line, if they are quick enough to catch you they will be skilled enough to pass you, provided you stay on line!" Make sure they (and their parents) know that if they have any problems you are the person for them to come and see. Number one rule in a briefing DO NOT MAKE THREATS. Nothing makes a Clerk of Course look a fool more than threatening all the deadly actions that they are going to take, and then doing nothing! What I often failed to do was to make sure ALL of the officials AND marshals knew exactly what was being said in the driver's briefing; a bad error! Everyone should know what is being said, either by a private briefing, or by insisting they attend the actual briefing. Forget this, and you may end up with two or more officials giving different interpretations to a situation, rather than the one you would like. A final point, on the pre race activities, relates to the three laps practice. Drivers who consider they are "the cream" may visit your circuit and set up on your dummy grid in a herringbone fashion; if the norm is two by two you should insist that they conform. Then there is the situation when everyone wants to go out last, delaying the grid so that they may go out "when they chose". Many are the times that I have interrupted their activities by demanding that they go out "now" or the grid will be closed! Let's face it, all they have to do is to go out on circuit and run off line, and slow down a straight, to enable them to fall to the back in safety? Allowing drivers to disrupt such a simple act as having three laps practice will set you up as being weak, they then believe they can do what they want at your race meeting; stamp on it!

Plan "B" I have often put myself in trouble, by discussing with the appropriate people what we would do if something went wrong during the day. Most Competition Secretary do not like you to talk about a Plan B, as it may confuse people; is this what we are doing now, or an alternative if things go wrong? However, if the people do not know what to do when we need a Plan B, it is no use having one? 3

Typical Plan B Situations 1. If there is a sudden heavy downpour of rain, too dangerous for drivers to go out on slicks, then time is required to allow tyres to be changed in a controlled fashion. If you feel there is likely to be questionable weather, it requires a mention of this procedure in the drivers briefing. "A 5 minute drill may be called by a Clerk of Course from the head of the dummy grid, allowing for wet tyres to be fitted on every kart. This will only happen if there is a sudden change in conditions require a tyre change, on grounds of safety. Do not consider it will always happen. It is your responsibility to be on the grid with the correct tyres fitted. Should there be any karts on the grid fitted with wet tyres this action will not be performed." The procedure is that drivers have 5 minutes to change from dry to wet, but wheels only. You stay at the front of the grid and provide a minute by minute countdown. Those not ready do not go out! EXCEPT if you see a novice struggling and they need help see comments later [look at your regulation, look at the circumstance, and provide a little humanity]. 2. It's a big meeting and the weather looks to be bad, if we complete the heats how likely are we to need to shorten the finals, or do we present the trophies on the results of the heats? This may be a decision that needs to be finalised so that an announcement may be made as soon as the heats have been completed. I am ashamed at circuits and Clerks who change the race time during the heats. Doing this will advantage some and disadvantage others! People with a front grid at the start of the meeting, with shortened races, will not have the same time as others to fight their way from the back. If you are short of time I see only three choice (i) Cut out the lunch break, but spell the marshals, so they may have a short break, using anyone competent who could help. (ii) Shorten the finals or (iii) Call the final places on the results of the heats. 4.

Start lights fail - is there a national flag on the start line?

5.

Lap count lights fail - are there a set of flip over numbers that could be used?

6. One of the marshals is not very well or may have to leave early- who will take over if required? 5.

Who will take over from the starter if required?

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If could be a very busy meeting, so which "on circuit Clerk of Course" will be called in to help with judicial if require?

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In a big meeting, if one ambulance is removed from the circuit with a patient, do we have a large vehicle suitable to act as an emergency substitute?

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Observing Being an observer is an art, to do the job properly you need either to have been a driver, or have a great deal of experience. Marshals are used as observers, but unfortunately they are very often situated in a position that does not easily pick up incidents; that is they are beyond the braking/overtaking zone. Where to Stand? A Clerk of Course on circuit will have an opportunity to pick the spot where they stand. The ideal position is where you are able to observe two possible incident areas without moving around. Taking a look at the Whilton Mill circuit for example, let's see which positions would be the best for observing? Firstly where are the likely overtaking/incident spots? The bends at C, E, F, G and the group at HJK. [This list is far greater than you will find on any other circuit in the UK, I design a circuit to promote overtaking not to limit it!] Next, do you need to stand close to the bend NO! Standing too close to an incident area closes down your view, and things happen just too fast. So where to stand, half way between H and E would cover E and HJ, and possible the JK area? Standing more infield but between G and F would be another good spot for those two bends. Many incidents occur at C, so to stand slightly to the right of F watching the braking area for C whilst being able to turn and watch F when appropriate, all good coverage. What are we looking for? When could an incident occur? We should only watch groups of karts, there is no point watching single karts as they will not cause the problems that we have interest in; don't waste your time, keep looking round for the problem groups. Take a look at the three situations in the diagrams. On the left is set out what we would like to happen. In the centre, and on the right, what often happens. It would be very nice if drivers took a line that gives the other driver a chance; not very likely, unfortunately! So, then you need your skills to sort out the two possible incidents shown on the right. If a driver is at least half way alongside another, on the inside, in my mind they have won the bend and the outside driver, if they have a brain, should give ground; if they do not, you 5

have an incident. This is reasonably easy to sort out, if the blue driver has run for some time close, or alongside, the red driver; giving sufficient time for the red driver to know he is vulnerable. However if the blue driver is doing a last split second dive, then you may feel this driver is in the wrong; how could the red driver know he was vulnerable? Drivers do not yield, so in both of the two right hand pictures, one of them yielding could prevent contact, who should yield is a problem? In the split second you have to judge the incident who was to blame? NEVER NEVER NEVER sweep it under the carpet with the idea that "if they have a problem they will complain". In my experience the crooks (see next section) complain, but the nice people do not. If in doubt HAVE AN INTERVIEW, then you will be protecting the nice people, any other way you protect the crooks!

Sample Report Information 1) Where on track? 2) Who is reporting? 3) Karts involved? 4) Approximately when in the race, early, middle or late? If you have cameras at what time? 5) Very very briefly what happened [64 ran into 31 when diving through trying to overtake, 64 at fault]

Judicial Interviews Probably the most stressful act a Clerk of Course needs to perform is conducting judicial interviews. Firstly, you most approach the interview as a neutral, no matter what you think about the drivers in question. I have always rated drivers as innocents, clumsy, or crooks. Crooks are the drivers that time after time seem to be involved in incidents, but are often able to manipulate an interview to provide a reasonable defence for themselves. Some Chapman Rules (1) Every interview is designed to work with three pieces of information, from the observer, and from the two drivers. NEVER interview just one person, that means you have made your decision and that is wrong! By all means have a single driver in to give them a warning, to make them understand that they are racing on the limit of your justification of their incidents being racing incidents.

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(2) Ask the driver who appears to be the innocent party to speak first, without any interruption! Always ask "could you tell me what you think happened", do not suggest guilt or innocence. Then move on to the second driver and ask the same question. (3) You are looking for 2 out of three for your verdict. The drivers could argue that nothing happened, and their attitude to one another may also give you a clue as to what really happened. (4) Unfortunately you need to take into account your knowledge of the reliability of the particular observer to understand the situation. A very positive 54 took out 18 from an observer that you would rate 4/10 needs to be handled with extreme care! For years I took note of a marshal telling me that one driver hit another hard in the rear end, and applied the appropriate penalty. Then, when I was watching a race, I saw a driver apparently accidentally, just clipping another driver in a racing incident, that was reported by this marshal as a very hard hit on the rear bumper! I was not happy about my history of penalties when using this marshal's reports (4) Once you have your decision in your mind, you must look at the penalty you feel is appropriate. The MSA system is a little pathetic, so let me set out the system I would like, and you can work from that point. First of all think of the regulation that is appropriate, then look at this particular situation, then if appropriate, add some compassion. For example, I reported an incident to the Clerk of Course looking after judicial interviews at a race meeting. The incident was a novice cadet overtaking another novice under a black and yellow flag. I reported what happened, but added that I did not think that any of the drivers on circuit at the time had any idea of what they should be doing. Later in the week, reviewing the weekend reports, I was amazed to see that the young cadet had received an exclusion! What was even more amazing, was that this was only time this, the highest penalty available, was applied during that race meeting; complete overkill! How would I have handled this? I would meet with dad and son, and explain what the flag indicated, and how he had gone against the rules; that would be all. The rule may have said exclusion, then the situation was that not one of the drivers seemed to know what was happening, then add some compassion. All that was needed was a friendly chat about what things meant, and to send them happily on their way. Set out are my penalty options (a)

No action as this seems to be a "racing incident" or incorrect information*.

(b)

A written reprimand to the problem driver.

(c)

A 5 place/seconds penalty, or 10 place/seconds penalty, or exclusion.

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* If you seem to have incorrect numbers, the report is invalid, you should not trawl the programme trying to find a similar number. If 67 was called, and there was no 67, you have no right to call in number 61 or 57 as "they could be the driver"! On another matter, if a driver comes in complaining about another, and a marshal has already called the incident as a "racing incident", you are on a asking for trouble if you hear the two drivers other than in a Protest situation, when more, probably biased, witness may be called. If you hear the evidence outside a Protest situation, and a driver Appeals your decision, it will go against you when the marshal reports that he had said it was a "racing incident". When thinking more about the level of penalty, do you have enough evidence to have the decision stand up in front of the stewards if the driver was to appeal; don't duck out, stay strong? When announcing the penalty, look the driver in the eye and be positive, then and only then, start to fill in the judicial report sheet. Keep the innocent driver with you until you have completed the report, so that both drivers leave together. You need the second driver as a witness to anything that may happen before the penalty detail is absolutely complete. Do not let the guilty driver take you back into the interview room; the decision is made there is no point discussing it further! When presenting the driver/guardian with the penalty form state - "This is the first part of a paper trail, but if you are unhappy with my decision you may, if you wish, appeal to the Stewards of the meeting". Make sure they understand that they have only 30 minutes from the time the sheet is signed and dated. Should they refuse to sign, make sure that they understand they break the paper trail and will be unable to take "the problem" any further. Should the driver about to be penalise suggest he will talk to his lawyer, or Protest the decision, stop, and ask if he is threatening you? I point out that if I consider I am being threatened, I will increase the penalty. Point out that until paperwork is complete there is no action they may take, words do not count, the paperwork is the penalty. Without paper work being completed he does not yet have anything to complain about. Never be swayed by a driver saying he will not Appeal your decision, do so and he will Appeal and he will hang you! When you have made and set out your decision, do not take part in further investigations or discussions. Be aware that consistent "crooks" will know the rules, and pull every trick in the book to have you change your decision. I have to say that, on a number of occasions I have thrown argumentative dads and sons out of the office, enough was enough! Should you see you are about to be involved in an argument, start at a low level and then there is always room to raise the tempo if required; take care! On the other hand you may have a person who is not a crook, a person who does not know what happens within a judicial procedure? Look hard at the evidence, because a person 8

who does not know the procedure is clearly new to the situation, and that may suggest that the evidence is not as solid as you may have first thought. I do not agree with placing a fine on a driver! A fine is a penalty that is not providing a level playing field for all drivers. For example, a £100 fine to some people is a disaster, a massive part of their weekend investment, to others it is just pocket money!

Protests If you have no data, after investigating a situation that a driver brings to you with the on circuit staff, instruct the driver that they must put in a Protest for you to consider any action. Mention to the Competition Secretary and Time Keeping that a Protest is to put in. Provided the Protest is submitted according to the regulations, you must speak to both drivers, and give them a time, and a place, for the Protest to be held. You must also tell them how many witness they may bring; I always allow no more than two. Interview the drivers and their witness as per the regulations, and take notes of the statements from all the people involved. Once a witness has given their report, you may allow questions to be asked by the two drivers in question. Do not allow any interruptions of a witness giving their statement. Take all of the data into account, and either apply a penalty and return the fee to the Protester, or consider there is no action that should be taken, and retain the Protest fee. Produce a report on your decision for the Competition Secretary, Time Keeping and the notice board Remember, the quicker you are able to hold a Protest hearing, the more likely you are to hear the truth. The longer you leave the drivers to make up a good story, the more difficult your task will be. Appeals I believe that a good Clerk of Course, one who truly punishes wrong doing, will have an Appeal on one of their decisions in the ratio of 1 for every 4 race meetings. Clerk of Course who do not have Appeals, in my mind, do not apply strong enough penalties, they always chose the easy way out. If possible, make sure that the Stewards hear the data from the official(s) from whom you had your data. Changing this action may make your decision appear much weaker. Similarly I believe that you should attend the Appeal, with the thought that you can challenge any information that is different from the information that you worked upon in your judicial hearing. Unfortunately, the nearer the time of the incident a driver's report is given, the truer it is: the longer you wait the better the excuses become! Some MSA Stewards like you to attend some do not! Interesting, of those I have been unable to attend, almost all 9

have overturned my decision; interesting? Outright lies would be picked up if the Clerk attended! Never be upset if your decision is overturned, it does you no good, and you will not change anything. Let it go, and live to fight another day.

Technical Judicial Day to Day Actions Technical judicial is usually a simple procedure. The scruitineer brings you a non compliance form filled in with all of the detail required. All that you do is to complete a judicial form, with no suggestion as to if you feel the judicial outcome is valid. I get upset that the normal underweight penalty is an exclusion, which seems totally out of place when you compare it with an on track problem. The highest on track judicial of an exclusion is, in my mind, reserved for a driver doing a diabolical act on another driver. How can 0.5kg underweight relate? If I ruled the karting world I would have a penalty for underweight which related to the problem. For 0.5kg I would order a 0.5secs penalty for every lap that the race had run, and similar time penalties related to the degree underweight e.g. 1 kg = 1 second per lap, 2kg = 2 seconds per lap, and so on. Complex Actions Should a technical offence require further investigation, engine, carb, fuel or tyres, then things become much more complicated. On the day, the driver may be excluded subject to the investigation. Once you receive the results of the investigation you are required to write to the driver/guardian, explaining the results, and asking them to comment on those results. Once they reply, and you see no reason that a penalty should be applied, you write again, and present them with the official exclusion. All of the paperwork should go to the club and the MSA Steward who should send it on to the MSA. Along with a copy of all of the paperwork being shared with the chief scruitineer, it is worth documenting both your, and the scruitineers original findings, adding the complete programme of events as you saw it. This information may be very important if the results of this enquiry result in an Appeal by or to the MSA.

Handling bad weather Snow, fog, and rain may totally dominate a meeting, it is your job to minimise this situation. You will often be in a little fight with the MSA steward, who does not know the track or the local weather conditions. You must stand your ground, for only you will know just how quickly the track clears once karts are going round. Be sensible and re adjust the race order if necessary, to put bigger karts out on the track first, do not send out the Bambinos or Cadets! 10

Snow & Frost Snow and frost come in many forms and need handling in different ways. Snow is simply wet stuff, and if you drive a car slowly around the circuit you may be able to judge the possibilities (1) When driving round does the car break through the snow or ride over the top? If the car breaks through the snow it will probably reach a wet surface. To run cars slowly round the circuit in this case, will take the snow back to its base structure, water, and karts with wet tyres can handle water; send senior drivers out first. If you are just compressing the snow into a hard layer, then you have problems. The only three routes available are, either scraping the circuit, wait to see if the day warms up, or abandoning the meeting. (2) Frost or ice are just the same, its base is water, so using the slow cars on circuit will take it back to its base, aided if there is any sun! Fog, mist, or sand storms Fog and mist are also moisture, but in this case in the air. Sand is sand, but it too may present a visibility problem. Firstly, the regulations would suggest that it is safe to run, provided it is possible to see the next marshal post from the previous marshal post. This is not rocket science, and should not be taken too far. Have yellow flags displayed and walk the circuit. Can you see the flag from the previous marshal post? You do not need to see the whites of the marshal's eyes, just can you see the flag? Do NOT delegate this responsibility, but have the MSA steward walk with you. Do not wimp out if they disagree, bring the club stewards and obtain a majority decision, after all your local stewards will know more about your local weather. Thunder Storms Thunder and lightning offer considerable danger to those on circuit, do not second guess the situation, take the drivers and officials off the circuit.

Working with your Staff Time Keepers Most Clerk of Course have no idea what time keeping means, not those words but what the time keepers responsibilities entail. The time keepers have to work in a very precise fashion, the only way a computer understands! It takes time to make sure that the data is being processed correctly, so any delays are not the time keepers problem, it is the way they have to present the data to the computer that causes delays.

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It is extremely important that the time keeper is fed the judicial reports as quickly as possible, to keep the results up to date, and to speed the formulation of the grids for the final. Delaying an interview may seem a good idea to you, but it is a disaster for a time keeper. The same is to be said of Protest and Appeal results. If it was down to me I would insist that every Clerk of Course spends a complete day with the time keepers, to generate respect for the problems they have thrust at them, through the time keeping ignorance of the Clerk of Course. The Start Line Starters and their assistants are usually very nice people, who get on with a difficult task without complaint. However your experiences may help them with their tasks? One trick I learned from an experienced starter was the action of the change over from black and yellow flag to a green flag. He held the black and yellow in front of the green flag until the last moment, and dropped the black and yellow at the critical point revealing the green flag. Another trick relates to the black and yellow flag. If you are still showing this flag, and the last lap is due, simply put out the chequered flag. Why run a last lap under the black and yellow when nothing is going to change? What triggered this is at one club the starter put out the last lap board, putting down his black and yellow, when it should have been retained; mayhem, many drivers thought they could start racing again! Whilst on the black and yellow flag, think of this flag as a "tidy up" flag. If an incident is reported where a driver could be hurt, do not call the red flag immediately, call for the yellow and black flag as a first step. If after a lap, or even half a lap, you find that you need a red flag, and then stop the race! Too many meetings are disrupted by an instant red flag being called only for the driver to get up within seconds unhurt. Always think black and yellow as a first step. 90% of the time a poor start is YOUR problem, not the starter! YOU are at fault if the starts are too fast, or all over the place; do your job and fix it! Paramedics & Incidents It is rare that you have problems with paramedics, you do your job and they do theirs. I have had an incident when the paramedic insisted he must attend the patient all of the way to hospital, even though it would mean we had to stop racing, as we only had one paramedic, but two ambulances. He claimed his responsibility was to the patient, not to me and my race meeting. Negotiation took a long time, but eventually the MSA Steward and I convinced him that his colleagues had the skills to take the patient to hospital, taking over his responsibility. I will add that a discussion with his boss in the following week changed the paramedic's attitude for the future. 12

Let paramedics deal with an incident, your marshals can help with any lifting etc, but you and a colleague have other things to do. One of you must go to time keeping, to see how long the race had to go, and to collect details of the drivers at the last completed lap. If more than 25% (I ALWAYS round up, we are working on one bad incident, so the minimum the number of laps that remain mean less chance for another incident.), a complete restart can be organised, or greater than 75% you can call the result according to the details that you have to hand. Less than 75% but more than 25% the drivers need lining up for a single file start with a briefing on how this should take place. Should the incident be a first bend incident, probably after some false starts, then I would talk with the MSA Steward so that we could agree on a single file start on grounds of safety. The other task is to obtain as much information about the incident, find witness and take statements, collating all of the data in an official incident report. The incident should be followed up by the person who takes this task, keeping in touch with the family on the day if hospitalisation is required. In this case I too would have the data, and make contact with the family the same evening, and if the patient is retained in hospital, in the week after the incident. It is important to check how things are going with the patient; a most important task to show that we care! I have received severe criticism from parents who have overheard me on the radio waking up my staff, by saying "let's get moving we have a race meeting to run". Waking them up, because an incident stopping racing is considered to be a break period, and a rest. But our job is to get the meeting underway; we should prepare everything so that as soon as the track is clear we can get on our way!

Summary Well, a kart Clerk of Course doing things properly has a very tough job. He may spend all his time on circuit watching the racing and doing very little else; is he a Clerk or just a marshal? The attribute a Clerk should most try to develop is respect. Penalising drivers generates more respect than sweeping incidents under the carpet. How you behave will set a standard for the circuits on which you work. Do nothing about incidents, and the circuit will eventually suffer, as drivers will go elsewhere. You will be surprised that even those you are constantly penalising will give you respect! At a recent race meeting, when I was simply a mechanic to my granddaughter, I was approached by a Cadet dad. This gentleman was familiar to me due to meeting him in a number of judicial situations. Why are you not Clerking here he asked? I told him I had retired. He responded, "Well can you come back, for although we hated you, you were always consistent, and you did penalise bad driving." After the racing had finished there was a tribunal going on, and I was approached by another dad who I did not recognised; he commented with almost the same words. Please 13

remember it is most important to be helpful, to listen, to be tough, but fair, it is the only way to gain the respect that you need. Enjoy!

v8 17/06/16

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