OK folks... got an important announcement for you all.
I'm sure most of us are aware of the reasons why Andy is no longer a member on GTP... we all understand the situation that led up to it. Whilst it was all going on pre-season, I made all parties involved pledge that they would keep all of that business out of my series, which, up until yesterday, was the case. Andy had kept his head down and done well, and gedi had been very respectful and a good asset to have back in the series after a season out.
To keep it short, as a result of an on-track incident in one of the races yesterday, Andy forgot his pledge, and has sent some rather distasteful comments about gedi to a third party. Because the comments come as a direct result of something that happened on track in my series, the whole situation has now become my business, and therefore I have had to act.
I've been given solid photo evidence of these comments and therefore I have no other option but to do what I have done in similar cases before - Andy has therefore been banned for the rest of the season.
As part of his case, Andy had asked me to look over comments which were made to me privately which he felt suggested he was cheating. Two things to mention with that - firstly, I do not believe he has ever cheated. Secondly, I don't believe these comments are worthy of punishment. I'm the series host and therefore comments to me work a bit differently. There's a difference between sharing legitimate concerns about someone with a series host, and sending inflammatory comments directly to another driver. Obviously it's not nice to be labelled a cheat, even if it's just speculation, but when it's said to me it just doesn't constitute 'offensive chat'.. it would if you were to go out and call someone a cheat directly, which hasn't happened in this case as far as I am aware.
I hope that Andy's time off will allow all of this nonsense to be put to bed. I will make this clear now - if this situation ever flares up again in any series I host (either on-track or directly because of an on-track incident) then the people involved will be banned PERMANENTLY from BTCC. I've had enough of it now.
