Race Director Haraldsson explains

The previous Swedish Touring Car Championship race became one of the most confusing races in history. After the race seven different penalties were issued and race director Johnny Haraldsson stood right in the middle of the heat. “It was a very eventful race with many different incidents, in contrast to the last race at Gelleråsen when everything went fine. I want to add that when I look back at the Knutstorp race I still feel that the drivers penalized were done so correctly. We had to take 30 seconds penalties for some drivers as there was not a chance for us to with 100% secure that the right driver was penalized, especially when some teams had two drivers in the pits at the same time,” said Haraldsson.

The race became extra exciting when the Safety Car came out, what is your view on that?
“The Safety Car came out on the least suitable time, if you look at the race layout. We have during two years had pitstops in STCC and not a single Safety Car period during a pitstop window which I think is a contributing factor that not everything was in place for teams, race control and organizers.”

Why was the safety car brought out at Knutstorp?
“The Safety Car is usually deployed when one or more cars are stranded in a dangerous position. At Knutstorp car number 44 (David Björk) was left standing in the gravel trap and when the marshalls realized that they could not remove the car in a safe way with only yellow flag the decision was made to bring out the Safety Car.”

Could the information about when the Safety Car was deployed have been better handled towards the teams?
“It is mainly the drivers that get the information through yellow flags and the SC-sign. That was working as far as we know. But the information sent out via the TV-monitors seems to have failed as there were computer problems in race control during the race. But you have to keep in mind that the Safety Car could be deployed any time during the race, it does not have to go out in front of the leader.”

Janne “Flash” Nilsson got a 30 second penalty after hitting Mattias Andersson who at that point was leading. Could the penalty been issued before he crossed the finish line?
“As that incident took place on the penultimate lap there was no option but to issue the penalty after the finish.”

The team WestCoast Racing mentioned a red light at the pit exit as a reason for not coming in to the pits during the Safety Car period. What do they mean by this?
“The pit exit normally has a red light indicating that the pit exit is closed only during red flag or if the Safety Car is on the main straight. At the point when the Safety Car went out on its first lap the light could have been faulty, but that is changed as soon as possible in such a case. Directly on the first lap when the Safety Car went out six cars went in the pits to perform pit stops and these cars have not exited the pits with a red light.”

Some say that similar situations are penalized differently. What is your opinion on this?
“I do not really agree. For sure it could appear to be this way, but if you look a bit closer on each case I think you understand why the decisions were made. I have understood that Janne “Flash” Nilsson compares the incidents involving Dahlgren at Knutstorp earlier this year and Storckenfeldt at Mantorp. If you look at the Dahlgren and Tegelby incident at Knutstorp, Dahlgren was leading the race and was about to lap Tegelby under blue flag, they were not fighting for positions. After interrogating both drivers and head their explanation to why the incident took place we decided to move him five places down in the coming qualifying. The incident between “Flash” and Storckenfeldt at Mantorp concerned two drivers fighting for position where Storckenfeldt was found guilty for the incident. Of course we could have given him +30 seconds but since he retired after the incident that would have been meaningless. So we decided to give him +10 places in the qualifying for next race.”

Richard Göransson and Frank Stippler went in to the pits when their team mates were in the pits. That is against the rules, how did you decide to penalize this with 30 seconds?
“The correct penalty for this is a drive through. But there were uncertainties on which car was second in to the pit space at the same time as there were many incidents and investigations ongoing. The race control had to focus on that when everything had calmed down and that was sadly not until after the race. That was why the drive through became a 30 second penalty which is the norm for SBF and FIA. In an ideal world of course it would have been handled during the race, but the circumstances made it different.”

What do you as race director learn from this weekend?
“After this weekend it is quite a lot for sure. There are some routines and conducts that needs to be tightened so that we are prepared for two more dramatic races this year.”