view from the other side of the table

we showed up at the track last night with every intention of just sitting around, but word was they were one official short. I thought, hell, what's to lose? i volunteered for my first official gig. (you'll note me in ben's photo. i'm the one that's not a guy in a dark top.)

the nice thing about the track is you can practice scoring every lap, trying to get used to reading numbers and judging who's first on the line. the bad thing is it's a lot harder than it looks. i'm really glad there was always at least one other- and usually two other- officials scoring the line too. and seeing experienced in folks action gave me a few tricks i'll need to get on top of-- like using a tape recorder to score instead of trying to write that fast.

there wasn't a camera last night, so it was up to us. getting the first 4-6 is no problem, but the next clump... that's what's hard. and if someone in the top 4-6 had their number pinned in a bad location, my eyes would have to follow them past the line into turn 1 to score them, and by then another handful had crossed the line and i'd missed it. luckily the money wasn't any deeper than the first few, so it was ok. scoring points races is hard, for sure, but the guys showed me some tricks. but hey, if you're a racer:
pin your number right! that's on your SIDE, not your back.
anywho, there were 3 of us scoring, and after the race, the riders bombarded us to get results. one official was deep in conversation with a rider, one left right away, and i was left there alone with my sheets and folks wanting to know who took the 2nd place sprint points in lap 15 of the points race. UGH. what i learned: don't show your scoring sheets, it just gives people a reason to get grumpy and question the system. my chicken scratched numbers were hardly comforting to guys who really, really, REALLY SWEAR they took 4th place in lap 10. the worst was a lady who thought her rider got points in a sprint and in the middle of the race came to argue with us... though we were sitting on the line and she was 30' back and had the worst possible spot to see who actually hit the line in which order.
unless you have proof, don't argue! (this is particularly true if there's no money or upgrade points at stake!)
though one rider did catch a legitimate mistake on our part, which was corrected. he handled it well.

sucks, though, that i didn't get to talk to anyone all night- Amy and Ernie and Ann and Val and teammates and friends, all hanging out in the infield. Hi, everyone I didn't get to chat with!