[buzzinhalfdozen]

We were at this race standing in the staging lanes, we saw the officials wave the racer in to make his run and his opponent was missing. After he recieved the green light and made his run we turned around to see his opponent jump out of his car and start ranting and yelling at the officials, when that fell on deaf ears he made a bee line for the tower. Later we saw him running in the finals. This really suprised me as I thought he was out, as I understand things they (the officials) call the racers to the lanes,We (the racers) have the responsability to present our entries IN THE STAGING LANES AT THAT TIME for pairings and to make any lane choice decisions dial in changes Ect. Now that being said I've been on both sides of this deal, I've been thrashing at my pit trying to get ready due to unforseen issues and I've been up there waiting for my opponent who leisurely rolls up as their running our class. This is just another example of the lack of sportsmanship in sportsman racing. In all the years I've been racing I've never failed to try and introduce myself and exchange a few words with my opponent I guess trying to civil and polite is something that has went by the wayside. I have several friends that race 2 cars and I think that is fine as long as they take the responibilty to have them IN THE LANES and ready when they are called, if that is not possible than they need to make the neccesary adjustments. I for one don't really understand the reasoning for these last minute APPERANCES in the lanes however it seems to be the same racers most of the time, be it first round or any one after.Sorry about going on so long but this particular thing just rubs me the wrong way. Joe