Well I have done race control for over ten years and have heard it and seen it all. Even once had a transponder chucked at me for not sorting out someone interference problem, despite changing other people crystals so there was no-one in the whole meeting even on the same band and anywhere near the
only crystal he had turned up to race with
. He soon came and put the transponder back in the rack after I reminded him they cost 80 pounds each.
As a race controller you are expected by most people to:
- time laps to perfection
- Put them in the top heat because they don't believe the ability that has been set for them by the computer
- watch every car on the track at the same time
- remind them that they are on
- hold the whole meeting up because they have forgotten to change a battery in the hour they have had between races
- post the results up so that they can read them before go out and marshal
- remind people what number they are at the start of each race
- tell them what colour handout transponder they are using for the fourth time that day
- remind them to put back said transponder after they have used it
- Pick up that they have put the same number transponder that they have been using all day despite being a different number in the final.
- make sure that they are not held up in their qualifying run even for a millisecond
- Make sure a marshal attends to their car before it has ended up on its roof
- Make sure that the track (despite being three meters wide all the way round) is wide enough because they can't get the corner on to the straight right.
- make sure that if a ramp is used on track that is the perfect angle, width, length etc...
I could go on but I have had most of these on a regular basis. As people have said before constructive criticism is good, if there is a definate problem then we can deal with it there and then. Personally I would rather people came up to me and told me problems so we can sort them out and look into if they need doing. The people I can't stand are the people who don't say a word all day, and then come on a public forum the same evening or the day after and list minor problems which could have easily been sorted.
At the end of the day us Race directors put a lot of time and effort into providing a race meeting for people to turn up and race at. We are all volunteers who don't get paid for it and we do it because we want to and not because we have to, and also either don't get to race or effect our own racing because of it.
SI you stepped in at the last minute, to put on a race meeting and you succeeded to run a race meeting which is what you were asked to do. If you hadn't have done that nobody would have got to race that day.
It's a shame that people have moaned at you especially as you had given up a Sunday to run the race meeting, which you had planned to do other things on. Unfortunatley, despite your best efforts things will always happen out of the ordinary that is out of your control. Don't take people moaning to heart, People moan for the sake of moaning.