Chairman’s Corner: Tri-Cities
Dear friends:
As you might be aware, I’m familiar with Gold Cups and controversy….It is in fact because of that experience that you saw the video of the DMZ (known as a de-militarized zone, essentially stay out of zone where patrol boats can find safe harbor) on our sites within minutes of the decision. But lets go further into the timeline of Sunday:
#1. Prior to the start of the race, one of the helicopter referees believed there was a DMZ violation by the 96. However, there were 7 boats on the course and he told us he believed there was but we should review the video to be certain. I’ve instructed our officiating team that the calls must be certain or they won’t be made)
#2. A decision was made by the chief referee to run the heat without penalizing the 96 until the video review. Had we penalized the 96 and the video did not support the call we would have been unjust and possibly caused the 96 to slow down thinking he was DSQ’d..
#3. If there was a DMZ violation it is a DSQ, not a 1 lap penalty.
#4. The DMZ rule is enforced at this magnitude because of the serious injuries to the rescue personnel in Madison a few years back when an Unlimited entered the DMZ. Although completely accidental it resulted in serious injury.
As you have read, I support a no harm no foul policy. However, a DMZ violation can result in significant harm if not death to the patrol boats on the race course.
I’ve also promised we’d make decisions as fast as possible. In this case, the final decision was made within 18 minutes of the final heat. That time was a result of getting the chief referee back from the tower to the pits to review the on board video. A distance of about 1 mile thru 60,000 people in a golf cart (I was with him).
We also reviewed the video that you saw on our website with Erik Ellstrom, owner of the 96. While upset at not winning, he was as always, a gentleman and will come back to win another day.
The net of it is that we had exceptionally fast boats, a record crowd and ticket sales, web and Facebook traffic that were multiples of last years event. And we left Tri-Cities with no one hurt, and only minor damage to the fleet.
There will be those who will disagree with our decision, and that’s to be expected. Nonetheless, we will continue to do our best to provide the safest, most fair racing environment we are capable of within the economic constraints that exist. For those who posted vile language or similar posts to our H1 controlled sites: You might want to re-read the first amendment to the US Constitution. It speaks to government censorship of speech. We’re private industry, and we’re not going to condone vile, insulting posts when both H1 officials and our race teams are giving their very best to move our sport forward. If you’ve been deleted or banned, I did it.
Steve David
Chairman’s Corner: Tri-Cities
Dear friends:
As you might be aware, I’m familiar with Gold Cups and controversy….It is in fact because of that experience that you saw the video of the DMZ (known as a de-militarized zone, essentially stay out of zone where patrol boats can find safe harbor) on our sites within minutes of the decision. But lets go further into the timeline of Sunday:
#1. Prior to the start of the race, one of the helicopter referees believed there was a DMZ violation by the 96. However, there were 7 boats on the course and he told us he believed there was but we should review the video to be certain. I’ve instructed our officiating team that the calls must be certain or they won’t be made)
#2. A decision was made by the chief referee to run the heat without penalizing the 96 until the video review. Had we penalized the 96 and the video did not support the call we would have been unjust and possibly caused the 96 to slow down thinking he was DSQ’d..
#3. If there was a DMZ violation it is a DSQ, not a 1 lap penalty.
#4. The DMZ rule is enforced at this magnitude because of the serious injuries to the rescue personnel in Madison a few years back when an Unlimited entered the DMZ. Although completely accidental it resulted in serious injury.
As you have read, I support a no harm no foul policy. However, a DMZ violation can result in significant harm if not death to the patrol boats on the race course.
I’ve also promised we’d make decisions as fast as possible. In this case, the final decision was made within 18 minutes of the final heat. That time was a result of getting the chief referee back from the tower to the pits to review the on board video. A distance of about 1 mile thru 60,000 people in a golf cart (I was with him).
We also reviewed the video that you saw on our website with Erik Ellstrom, owner of the 96. While upset at not winning, he was as always, a gentleman and will come back to win another day.
The net of it is that we had exceptionally fast boats, a record crowd and ticket sales, web and Facebook traffic that were multiples of last years event. And we left Tri-Cities with no one hurt, and only minor damage to the fleet.
There will be those who will disagree with our decision, and that’s to be expected. Nonetheless, we will continue to do our best to provide the safest, most fair racing environment we are capable of within the economic constraints that exist. For those who posted vile language or similar posts to our H1 controlled sites: You might want to re-read the first amendment to the US Constitution. It speaks to government censorship of speech. We’re private industry, and we’re not going to condone vile, insulting posts when both H1 officials and our race teams are giving their very best to move our sport forward. If you’ve been deleted or banned, I did it.
Steve David