I would say this about the flags. As Robin always told us, the flags are the flags are the flags. The green flag did not override the yellow flag in turn 2. After turn two he was free to pass (assuming no yellow at start finish), or had there been no flag in turn two he would have been free to go. His spotter may have seen a green and assumed the track workers kept up, but you still cant pass if you have a yellow on display between you and that green. But its a good lesson to learn from. I know in Ozarks i have gotten a spotter green flag before making the final turn on a long field, you still have a flag between you and the start finish flag. I mean how did this driver know there wasn't a wreck out of turn 2 where he was? the turn one flag put you in lock down until you could confirm no flag at 2. Plus you can tell they saw the flag as they entered 2. They backed off a bit until he could confirm no yellow at start finish lol. Spotter may have given you good info on start finish, but you have to make the call where you are on track. I agree the term "Or" should be removed from the CCR. But your 19.3.1 and 20.13.1 cover your answer, while green is global, the yellow was local and both can exist and each be right. I would like to point out that your field was strung out way to much for a restart. Was there a reason for that? Restarts should be a tight field, single file. The rest of 19.3.6 "Drivers are NOT required to significantly slow their vehicles; however, they should be prepared to encounter a “local Yellow Flag” situation and/or a Pace Car (or a very slow-moving pack behind the Pace Car)". Yellow flags don't mean to slow down to pit lane speeds, they say back off the pace until you have complete control and can avoid anything, that's still a good pace through those fast sections of the track. Unless you had a pace car, then they set the speed. a bunched up field would help eliminate a situation like this as well. You all would have been through turn 2 as the leaders were getting the green. or at least a lot closer. Just my 2 cents..
And yes, the entire field was way too strung out. The root cause was likely that we were told that all restarts would be at the stand in the front stretch, so everyone was thinking we had almost an entire lap to collect before the restart.
To make this matter even more confusing, at the racer’s meeting that morning, the race director said that all restarts would take place at the finish line on the front stretch, not the starting line on the back stretch (where this restart took place).
