Late Penalties for driver changes at the track (Page 1 of 2)

^this.

8,000+ driver slots across all races annually and a liability need to track and document it all.  It's easy and seamless when you do it online and on-time.  They've operated with the most liberal and forgiving policy of any series - actually, policy has always been to register on-time w/ the car/team/crew that you're going to bring - but, they've been very nice about on-the-fly changes.  Regardless, it's not like they ultimately refuse to let you change drivers at the last minute.

To clarify on who pays what as I understand it... the new or late registering driver pays the $100 driver fee plus an additional $100.   The MIA driver, if there is one, forfeits his/her driver fee ($100).

...and there you go.

Does the system know if the license will expire before the actual race day?  I always wondered if we were not paying attention if our license could expire like a few days before and cause a problem.

Jesus, this is going to kill me. If this had been policy from day one I'd never have been able to keep doing this nonsense.

$%@$ happens to people, things that are beyond my control. And yet I'm the only one on the team this new rule hurts.

From here on out if someone drops (and they NEVER drop at a good time) I've basically got few choices, try to entice any last minute replacements with the idea of paying significantly more than everyone else (to drive a car that really wouldn't be worth that cost), eat the loss out of my wife's & I own pocket, or penalize whoever had the emergency.

Otherwise I shoulder the risk of running without the "cursed 4th driver" and a significant chunk of our race budget, which means eating a huge loss. Just one or two of those and we'll have to put a kibosh on all this ZomBee/Lemons nonsense.

I just can't foresee what's going to happen to other people months in advance. Nor can anyone, really. I guess I could just be a hard-ass and penalize anyone who drops out due to life. I'm sure that will entice new drivers, make me lots of friends and keep my roster full of happy campers. (not)

I can totally see the reasons of issuing a penalty. Hell, they should make it $500 to really teach people a lesson. But I don't think the ones they want to punish are necessarily the ones who are going to actually be spanked, mainly the small-time 1-man shows with weird cars.

I rarely have to make a track change, but it's always close. I'll probably be clucking out of any races that look questionable, and that's pretty much been every race.

A huge downer for the ZomBee.

Works great in theory.

Sorry I agree with the fee, and I'm shocked by how many people are put off by it.

Race cars/teams don't run on hopes and dreams they run on money.  You commit and pay, you get there, or you lose.  My team understands that, and I have a waiting list of guys to run my car (when it actually runs again) who understand the risk as well.

This isn't a day at the go karting track, theres insurance and so on that needs to be taken care of.  And if you haven't seen the Lemons guys are busy/short staffed as is.  This is not gonna slow things down one bit.

I have never allowed drivers to show up and pay at the track..  I am that annoying type who makes lists each week for months in advance for what I need to get ready on the car before the race, pre plan my budget for the races for the full year, and start looking for drivers months in advance and look for 1 more than I actually want and it seems to work out very well. 

I am just not hard core.. we only work on the spitfire for 3-5 hours once a week so the few races a year we do it is all relax, fun, no rushing, no blowing budgets,  and we seem to be doing OK.  Ever sense I saw the Rusty Hub dub us as performing "Less-Than-Stellar" I was like .. yup that is how we roll..

But we love it and it works for us.... and besides our very first race...  we always go home with each driver satisfied with the amount of seat time they got.

With that said.. if every team was like mine.. Lemons would not be nearly is great as it is... so I have to side with Pete and Spank.. please don't limit them from taking in drivers who pull it out of their ass at the last second if at all possible.. Please!

I know it's the right thing to do for the business. I understand allowing changes late in the game is a logistical problem. I don't want special treatment for me or my drivers. I don't think I've ever had to change drivers between the closed database and race day, but I have had to add a driver a couple of times to fill an otherwise empty seat.

Apologies to all if I helped spur the implementation of this rule.

See, my co-captain and I disagree on this as well. He is the guy that is telling driver's to just show up at the track and we will do whatever and Lemons will be cool with it.

Im the guy saying that you have to get off your ass and make a decision and pay up, etc no later than a week before the race, period. We had a guy who lost his dad the week of the race, so was surely not able to be there. He had a friend of his give him some cash for his entry, and Lemons told us what and how to do it to get him an arm band. That was cool, and guess what, its worth $100 if that is what you need to do. I dont think that should be anything that should happen more than once in a while, but since then my co-captain has done it twice with friends, and I hate it.

IF Lemons is ok with it, but charge extra at the door, then that is cool with me. Try to change a plane ticket the day of, and see if it wont cost you money

Like I said I never have trouble filling the Bee's seats. It's just thanks to its very nature the car attracts a higher than normal number of newbies, and we regularly loose folks who split off to build their own awesome TR4/Sonnett/Humber/S10/Twin Engine'd monsters etc etc. I don't complain, because most the folks who have piloted the Bee have gone on to create some of the coolest c-class cars on the $@#& track.

But as a result the Bee also has to deal with higher numbers of rotations, which also means last minute flakes and B.S. as a percentage of the pure numbers.

Again, I rarely have to make changes at the track (haven't done so in a year or two) but it does on occasion happen in spite of all my work putting and keeping good teams together.

And now when that does happen, it WILL hurt me.

The worst are those returning/experienced drivers (those who know better) that sit on the seat *committed* until it's time to pay up.  Suddenly they get hard to reach, delay, and at the last minute offer up some kind of lame excuse. This leaves me with an empty seat and very little time left to fill it. The dreaded 4th seat syndrome. Meanwhile while folks who really WERE committed have since found and committed to other rides. That leaves me scrambling, sometimes right up to the last minute. This is what happened at Buttonwillow, and I almost lost my ass.

They know better, and aren't invited back because it's a dick move.

Luckily Steve McDaniel and Brandon Spears stepped in and saved our asses with minutes to spare. (BRAVO!!)

I'll have to make some changes, we'll have to wait & see how/if it all works out. This is all becoming VERY serious. this Lemons thing.

It's the time between when I have to pay the fees and the database is locked that is now giving me ulcers.

Except it let me, team owner go with no "Not ready" flags to Buttonwillow. Honest. I checked at D-base closing because that is part of being owner/manger. Nick sad that can't happen and waived the fee, but I'm here to say it did...

It looks like to be 100% sure you need to check your own driver page, and you should do so before d-base closes.

PITA.