Mark de Regt's comments are well written, and I agree completely. And while I won't be at the Seattle race, I do care about those who will be there when it rains. I too have many years and miles at PR. The front straight kink in the wet, especially for us formula car drivers, is a choke point, a blind, optionless, dangerous section of track. My last rain race there ended with me just pulling off at half-distance, having come to the conclusion that this is a "hobby" and not worth dying while participating. I pulled off to discover that my buddy and mulit-year CF champion Ken Canon was smarter - he'd stopped two laps earlier. Puddles and rain are part of wet racing, but high speed, a single line, no runoff area, and the funnel-like effect of both sides being concrete barriers are, for me, an unmanageble risk. The hanging mist from the combination of open wheels and that section of water-retaining pavement creates a possibility of losing my life blindly plowing into a competitor who's already crashed there, with neither of us knowing why the movie suddenly ended. My PIR accident 5 years ago was close enough to that outcome, and I did nothing wrong - choosing to expose myself to a similar outcome at this kink is, for me, an avoidable risk - by not driving there in the rain. I think the standing yellow is a barely acceptable solution for closed wheel cars, and speaking only for me, a solution that falls unacceptably short for open wheel cars. I see no real solution except a track reconfiguration, which is of course why we have this kink in the first place - to resolve the dangerous situation of entering the front straight on the drag strip launch area. It appears we've traded one barely managable risk for different nearly unmanagable one. This view is not meant to criticize the hard work done by the volunteers and track management to come up with a solution to the drag strip issue - I would think it is impossible to anticipate the all the consequences of what was to improve safety and they are not to be faulted for their efforts to do so.
I've heard Scott Adair speak to the risk of ICSCC still being insurable. Not addressing avoidable risks could be viewed by insurers as irresponsible. And while that pales to the risk of serious injury or death, they are related issues. Scott may be one to better judge if a standing yellow means we are responsible in the eyes of our insurers, but for my personal safety it si just not enough.
Ask me how I really feel...
Bob