FIA rain light debacle (again)
#34847 from Matt Clark · No action required · Minutes (2023-11 Fastrack)
Thank you for your letter. After considering various options, the Club Racing Board recommended that FIA 2019-spec rain lights
be mandated for all formula and sports racing cars effective 1/1/2024. The CRB recommended the FIA 2019-spec rain light
because agreeing on a minimum lumens spec, agreeing on view angle, agreeing on a reliable measurement device, providing
such a device to the Regions (or mandating that they acquire one), and specifying and then consistently carrying out
measurements are all problematic. By comparison, the use of an FIA 2019-spec rain light is enforceable. And, unlike other driver
personal safety items such as helmets, harnesses, fires bottles, and HANS devices, the rain light impacts the safety of others on
track just as much as it does the person who is in the car to which it is attached. The one-time expense of the FIA 2019-spec rain
light is very cost-effective compared to the expense of a single accident avoided.
Show 8 more lines
The recommendation that FIA 2019-spec rain lights be mandated for all formula and sports racing cars was published for
comment in the May 2023 Fastrack and ratified by the SCCA Board of Directors as part of a Club Racing Board rules package. The
new rule for GCR section 9.3.32.B.2 was published in the Updated June 2023 GCR. Following the BoD's ratification of the
recommendation that FIA 2019-spec rain lights be mandated for all formula and sports racing cars effective 1/1/2024, the CRB
approved a one-year allowance of an LED truck/trailer light for SRF as a temporary solution to provide additional time for SCCA
Enterprises to source a rain light that met the FIA 2019 specifications and fit the SRF mounting enclosure. Please see the
Updated September 2023 GCR. The BoD overrode the CRB's decision and made the temporary SRF exception permanent. Please
see the response to letter #34958 in the October 2023 Fastrack.