Quote:
Originally Posted by IKE
I was LRI at the event. This team weighed in perfectly fine initially (though very close), and likely gained a little weight during competition which is not terribly uncommon, but must be corrected when it is realized. Often LRI may give a little lee-way going into elims, but they are in a sense making their own rules on that. Usually when teams get this much over after qualifying, it is because they have been playing the weight swap game several times during the weekend. This is where they have removed something they want to put back on, and keep swaping out other parts to try to get the weight back. They bring individual parts and sub assemblies and place them on a scale (calibrated around a 100 lbs). If there is 0.1 lbs of error on the two parts, and they go in the opposite direction, they may end up with 0.2 lbs of error per change. While this is a bit on the extreme, it can happen. The other common weight gain I see is a team just a little bit over removing a dust shield for the elctronics or a couple of dust shields (0.2-0.4 lbs). Then a different pit crew member not present at the weigh-in re-installs those shields thinking someone forgot to put them on.
It is very easy to gain some weight during competition while making small changes. Technically if you are that close, you should re-weigh after changes, but teams are essentially on the honor system until they are re-weighed. The only time I have seen a team called out for competing overweight was when a they were considerably overweight (5+ lbs), and removed a major sub-assembly, and then re-attached it later without re-weighing.
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I completely understand the concern that you have over allowing a team to compete with extra weight. Rest assured, they were competing overweight without my knowledge (and most likely without the team's knowledge). As soon as they learned about the infraction, and accepted it, they worked their butts off to ensure that they would be competition legal for elims.
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Well first, it's very nice to meet you.
I agree completely that there are situations where that can happen, and know full well that exceptions are granted occasionally. I have been an inspector in CT for 4 years now, and Champs in 2010 and this year, so I've seen my fair share. I do realize that I don't know all, and since I'm not an LRI, I'm not in a position to need to know all.
I wasn't hoping to start an argument or anything here. I was just surprised to see the weight difference. I'm glad to hear that the situation was handled well.