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Kayne Scott Wins Appeal & NZV8 Championship |
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Jody Seabright In a NZV8 Championship season that was punctuated by Protests, Penalties, and Appeals, it ultimately wasn’t going to be over until the Motorsport Court of Appeal sang. The motorsport jungle drums had been beating loudly when John McIntyre and Paul Pedersen were found to have illegal heads and their championship chase was over when points were deducted. Then the twist in the tail of the season came when Kayne Scott was penalised for illegal testing, with the subsequent loss of points promoting Angus Fogg to the championship title. But the drama didn’t end there. There was to be a final 4.5 hour performance. The short version is that Hamilton based Kayne Scott was effectively reinstated as the winner of the NZV8 Championship after his appeal to the MotorSport New Zealand National Court of Appeal was upheld on Friday 5 May 2006. The long version is that Scott had been penalised 150 competition points and fined $1000 for carrying out illegal testing at Pukekohe Raceway on 15 April 2006. This was the result of a hearing by the Stewards during the final round of the NZV8 Championships at Pukekohe Raceway on Friday 21 April. The issue surrounds what Scott and his team, Mark Petch Motorsport, have called “Driver Coaching” as opposed to “Non-event Testing”. The NZV8 ‘05-’06 championship introduced a new rule that places limitations on Non-event Testing, where amongst other things they also appear to restrict competitors so that a driver can only drive their own car in Non-event Testing. On 15th April Scott drove team mate Brent Collin’s usual race car for about 7 hot laps so as to provide a data trace to then compare to Collins’ performance data. Scott then used this data comparison and the team radio to coach Collins on how to achieve faster lap times. It was this event that was queried by another team as an apparent breach of the new rules. However, the rules are silent on Driver Coaching. The Series Event Director had looked into a similar situation earlier in the season and decided that there is a difference between Testing and Coaching, and because the rules are silent on the issue, then Driver Coaching is permitted. The Stewards at the Pukekohe Race Meeting had taken the opposing view, that because the rules are silent about coaching, then any driving of a competition car on a circuit is testing, meaning that Scott was in breach of the rules. In his evidence to the Motorsport Court of Appeal Scott made a number of arguments, however the key points were. That there is a distinction between Testing and Driver Coaching, and that the team had sought clarification on the Testing rules from Dave Slater the Championship Co-ordinator and ultimately Graeme Robertson the Series Event Director, and had got their approval to conduct Driver Coaching on that day. In upholding Scott’s appeal, the members of the Motorsport Court of Appeal decided that there is a difference between Testing and Driver Coaching, and that the rules as they stand can be interpreted in different ways. They also reinforced an earlier decision by the court that competitors are entitled to rely of the advice or determinations of Senior Officials who apparently have the authority to make those decisions. Therefore, because Scott and his team had sought permission / clarification from the Series Event Director, and they could demonstrate that only Driver Coaching had taken place, the original Stewards decision and imposition of penalties was quashed. The end result is that, Kayne Scott (with all of his points back unharmed) is now the NZV8 Champion for the ‘05-‘06 season, and that there will undoubtedly be a serious rewriting of the NZV8 rule book before the next season starts again in November. It also raises the issue of the need for a concise definition of Driver Coaching as distinct from anything else, including Testing. It is obviously recognised as a legitimate activity, therefore a common definition that can be applied across all motorsport needs to be developed. Clarity is needed especially where limits on activities outside of race events, especially Non-Event Testing, are being imposed. It may also serve to encourage participation in an activity that the motorsport fraternity hasn’t been particularly good at in the past. |
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