Hi there!
I was waiting for this to come up, heheh.
Yup I was hosting pool one, and did allow Piiriste to rejoin. The reason being I suspected it was a moments lag on my computers part which may have trigged his lagout, a big churn on my harddrive did happen at that point (which may be viewable on the stream if someone recorded it), and so as host, I made an instant decision to allow him back.
There are a number of other factors to take into account.
1) The official stance is to change the server password just after the race starts, to stop latecomers joining the race. Not all hosts do this; I usually do, but forgot on this occasion.
2) As host it is my responsibility to keep the race flowing, if, as I suspected, the lag was at my fault at that moment, it is not the fault of any racers on track, so for someone to be penalised is unfair. If the lag is caused by racers, the effect is shared by everyone, in my belief.
3) I kept a VERY close eye on Piiriste throughout the race, and did advise him on regaining positions, it was shown he was under blue flags, but was considerably faster than all he was driving around, if I felt he was hindering people, I would have acted. Trying to regain positions safely is allowed under our rules.
4) This also happened very early on in lap one, there would never be any chance for restarts of any kind, after lap one.
5) Basically, I made the decision on the spur of the moment, we do have rules, and yes, by the book, Piiriste should not have rejoined, but as hosts we do have room to manoeuvre for 'the good of the sport', if everything was done without any leeway, I think a lot of you would be complaining about that. As I recall, the majority of OLFSL members voted to keep assistance from the pool manager, if you were unable to race in a set pool, being able to race in a later pool would be possible. Many people have been spared DNSH's if they have a fair excuse, again, a lot might argue, until it happens to them that this is against the rules, but as soon as you ever have a problem, you would wish for flexibility and compassion every now and then.
We can either be 100% militarian, or have leeway, you can't have both.
No one is more equal than others, I don't recall ever speaking or racing with Piiriste (I’m one of the slow guys remember!) so I have no personal kinship with him/her. It could have been any pool or any racer, someone in 1st place or last place.
I can't say any more than that, I made the decision, it is not a fault with anyone else at OLFSL HQ - if you are not happy with my on the spur decision, then please feel free to write to Solar Hydro, he as appeals arbiter has power to overturn my decision and take any points Piiriste earned away, if he too thinks I was wrong at this point.
I emailed all fellow staff about this, straight after the event, so it has not been a secret. I'm sure, if another host believed they caused a lagout, or say, accidentally kicked the wrong driver, they would try to reconcile they error, or maybe not, I don't know, let's see what Solar thinks :-)