[old worker]

I just received a question from a PCA region chair. Why the alarm, what's changed?

Some history is in order to help frame some changes that have taken place over the last few years. Corner stations were staffed by SCCA members for many years. The staff were SCCA club members and everyone signed a waiver before entering the track. More tracks, more events as well as fewer SCCA F&C staff lead to informal contract service relationships between corner workers and race tracks for fees. Some of those non SCCA relationships still exist, some regions contract with SCCA to provide these services. It is unclear if these relationships are employment or SCCA club activities. Today most tracks hire and train people to perform many of the task that were done by SCCA F&C workers of the past, but they are not volunteers and do not operate with the same training or authority as SCCA club F&C workers. Two things to consider : tracks might not meet OHSA safety standards and services provided by these employees are not managed from our clubs perspective, it is now the track business. HPDE just experienced this a couple of years ago when many of the tracks locked the corners and EVs until all traffic was stopped (under red or returned to the pits under black). I understand at many of those tracks the corners are still locked...but EVs are now being dispatched under cover of white flag, while cars are moving on the track. There were nightmare stories of 3 to 6 minute waits for EV because of this adjustment to protocol, it was not acceptable and many of us let them know!

Could club event organizers and in car instructors find themselves in the middle of a determination for liability? A concern that rose from the E30 that hit a station tub during a BMW DE a few years ago at VIR. The employee working assigned to that station dove to safety...the driver and student were airlifted. How would the employee worker family had done had the worker not seen the car coming? did the instructions cause the incident?