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Former champion Andy Booth has slammed race officials for their handling of race one of the fourth round of the New Zealand V8 Championship in Timaru.
The opening race was controversially started in wet conditions when the field was all on slick tyres and resulted in a multiple car crash involving championship leader John McIntyre.
Booth says the officials then made another error.
After a red flag was brought out for a crash on the opening lap, officials then allowed the race to start in the order the cars arrived at the pit exit rather than restarting the race in the original grid positions.
Booth says he can't understand the official's decision-making process as it resulted in an absolute shambles.
He says for his own benefit he re-read the motorsport manual to make sure he had the red flags and restart rules correct - and he did.
As a result of the race one crash McIntyre lost his championship lead to Craig Baird and has slipped to third overall, 115 points behind Baird.
The chief clerk of the course in Timaru, Graeme Robertson, has
defended the handling of the event, saying he would only delay a
race if conditions are dangerous.
Robertson says at the point of time he didn't continue the
conditions to be dangerous as there wasn't any pooling on the
track.
He also says he is not sure that Booth has been reading from
the correct race manual after all.
MotoeSport NZ issued this official explanation of the race:
"The race was red flagged and drivers were required to change their tyres from slicks to treaded wet tyres. Prior to the start of the race the choice of tyres was up to the drivers. Some drivers elected to start on wet tyres and were not required to enter the pits.
The race was then restarted under red flag conditions which meant that cars in the pits started behind those that had originally fitted wet tyres and stayed on the grid".
