On Penalties

The planned novelty "fight" in the Bouncy Boxing ring between Hobby Stock drivers RJ Macku and Rick Bradley has generated a little controversy over whether or not letting a guy who rammed his car into another's in the pit should get out of a suspension in exchange for a novelty act in front of the crowd.

It's a fair question, and while not unprecedented, this kind of act is rarely seen. It reminds me of the "creative-sentencing" judges who make shoplifters wear signs outside the store they stole from and such.

I expressed my feelings on the dirtdrivers.com message board. This collection from my posts sums my opinion up:

What we're ignoring is the two involved have already seemed to let things settle down, and nobody got hurt. Now we have them going out and probably having a laugh about it afterwards.

Otherwise we'd just have someone lighter in the wallet and one or both still p'ed off at each other.

But, we've had fines and suspensions for years and people still hit each other on the track. It never seems to be a deterrent, but this is a unique approach and I'm at least willing to give the idea a chance to succeed or fail. If it works, we at the very least have two guys who settled the issue and go out and race.

Like I said above, in the old way you usually have one guy poorer and mad, and another guy wanting revenge.

I'm willing to let this play out, but I do understand the concerns that perhaps this exhibition serves as an ENCOURAGEMENT rather than a deterrent.

But this staged "fight" isn't a deterrent, it's the penalty and only PART of it - RJ was scored last in the race.

Call making a goof of yourself in front of the crowd "community service." Some may think the future attitude will be to go hit a guy, and end up in front of the crowd. I think it's unfair to argue hypotheticals, what if someone got hurt, what if someone got their car ruined for the season, etc. when that didn't happen.

Like any other crime, let the punishment fit the damage done, not the potential.

Sometimes a second chance is all that's needed. How many of us have been in a situation where we got out by the skin of our teeth and know not to do it again? That said, I do agree that if it happens again it's time to lower the boom because the trust given in good faith was violated.

What happens after this in terms of the driver's behavior is yet to be determined. I'm hoping for the best.