SPECIAL REPORT
UPDATED!
Gary Newsome, Editor
UPDATED September 30, 2009
SCORE GOES BERSERK
UPDATED HERE CLICK HERE
UPDATED 7-18-2009
The best chance desert racers have had to carve out their destiny is now in the hands of SCORE racers talking with Sal Fish about CRB, the review board and other matters including the Baja 500 2009 results is happening now.
Baja Racing News.com is confident the racers will take hold of this time, before the Baja 1000 in November and create change. We hope the racers will make things happen, to level the racing field in terms of rules and how they are administered.
Gary Newsome
Editor
UPDATE 6-30-2009
From Andy Kirker an UPDATE: "A small group of racers and I met with Sal Fish of SCORE this afternoon to discuss the future of racing in Baja. We presented our general concerns and proposed several ideas which included many comments and solutions provided by all of you in the racing community. He was very receptive to our proposals. It was determined that the creation of a Competition Review Board (CRB) would indeed benefit everyone. The CRB will be assembled and immediately tasked to work out solutions in the following areas:
1. Provide clear and concise course definition and boundaries.
2. Devise appropriate formulas for assessing penalties for rules violations.
3. Address issues concerning tracking devices.
4. Source out a means to generate immediate results after the race.
We have a follow up meeting scheduled with SCORE the first week of August to further discuss the role of the CRB. Thank you all for your support and input."
The Original Baja Racing News.com Story
In a move that has the potential to rock off-road racing, a new racers association is in the process of being formed. The PENALIZED RACERS ALLIANCE, is "a coalition urging action by SCORE International to have a competition review of how the scoring of the 500 went down".
Formed recently by Andy Kirker, he said, "It's just a name, but is does cover about 90% of us. The main thing is that I doubt anyone is happy about the way things happened and now there will be a larger group to talk to SCORE International instead of a couple of random individual phone calls". Citing the recent SCORE International scandal at the Baja 500 Kirker said, "I feel we all got penalized."
Could this be the start of the long awaited racers association that many in off-road have been waiting for? Many badly needed associations were formed around a single issue that damaged specific peoples interests. Calling everybody racing with SCORE International, "cheaters", is certainly game. The recent SCORE scandal did just that.
The recently formed short course racers association has been successful at addressing issues dealing with both professional and amateur shortcourse racers. Many believe a racers association is long overdue and it was simply a matter of time before some calamatous event happened to bring the racers together.
Associations, effectively join the common interests of many different people together for a common, mutual benefit. A single voice, speaking for the racers would also benefit SCORE International, simplifying its communications for racing events.
They have produced a petition to begin their organizing:
"We the undersigned have participated in the 2009 SCORE Baja 500 as a racer, chase crew or card carrying member of SCORE-International and object to the procedure in which penalties were handed out to 90% of the entrants. We believe the manner by which these actions were taken by SCORE have been detrimental to the sport of off-road racing. We support the idea of having an immediate competition review board meeting to review the scoring of the 2009 Baja 500. We approve of a board comprised of active competitors and SCORE officials to collectively work together to solve these issues and further define the procedures with clarity for scoring future races."
Petition produced: http://www.gopetition.com/online/29055.html
CLICK HERE TO DISCOVER WHAT THE F-HAPPENED!
Baja Racing News.com will closely follow these developments and report here.