Inappropriate Pass Turn 8 by an Instructor NHMS 1

[cmm3]

I feel it is appropriate to bring an incident that occurred at NHMS 1 to the attention of the COM community, specifically the senior members and instructors. It was an incident that unfortunately my student and myself were exposed to representing poor judgement and perhaps more importantly setting forth a poor example by an instructor. My intent in bringing this forward is not to chastise the individual at fault but to rather remind everyone that it's possible to have a momentary lapse that can have negative implications which are easily avoidable.

As instructors I'm sure that most hold safety for our students as the #1 priority when instructing, secondly hopefully strive to provide a good example for them to follow for their own safety as well as that of others. As a student progresses and is signed off to solo and receives their competition license it's an instructors behavior that they will ultimately mimic.

What happened at NHMS 1 clearly sent the wrong message to my student and to the ride along that was in the car at fault driven by another COM instructor. The message conveyed by his action was "do as I do and don't pay attention to the rules". It did so by demonstrating in practice a complete disregard for perhaps the most important rules governing safe operation of cars on a track in a non-racing venue, passing only in a passing zone, passing only with a point, and not passing in a non-passing zone even when given a point by.

The incident violated two of the most obvious of these rules. When running in run group 3 with my student driving we were passed unexpectedly by another car driven by an instructor on the inside of Turn 8. This is and has never been a passing zone, and my student did not accidentally give a point by.

Although there was no contact, the incident took place as my student was starting to bring the car back to the right. Had my student not caught the passing car in his peripheral vision and taken appropriate action contact and a crash could have occurred.

There is no excuse or place for this kind of behavior on the track at a COM event especially by an instructor.
It is our job as instructors, advanced drivers and members of the COM community to set a Golden Standard for everyone's safety and best interest.

Let's not forget that our actions on the track can directly affect the safety of others and even a momentary lapse can result in costly damage to someone else's property or even worse personal injury.

[SEISAN]

Hopefully before this was posted you contacted our Chief Instructor, President and Chief of Operations. They take any track issues and any safety violations very seriously and evaluate the situation with any offenders regardless of their experience. Safety is always the top concern in our club.

BB

[962porsche]

I don't feel this is the right thing to broad cast .
no mater what happened your fault his fault it should only be talked over with the parties involved and the chief instructor .
right or wrong is not the point ! the point is it should only be talked over with the parties involved .

[jeffw]

cmm3,

please reach out to Will Martins directly. As an instructor, I'm sure you've got his email address.

-jeff

[C5toSM]

As the President of the club I can assure you we would take this matter very seriously. Puzzling that we hear of it in this forum. Please contact our chief instructor as advised.

John

PS-Rules exist for a reason . . . and occasionally they are broken. With many thousands of track miles on my resume I can tell you that i have passed students on two occasions without point-bye, in both cases judging that it was the safer choice.