In addition to the spread of times and some dirty runs, there was a #87 CP and a #87 CSP. There were lots of scratchouts of the class designation on the manual sheet for these two cars and we had more than a few delays due to timing and scoring getting out of sync. There was also some issue with regard to a discrepancy that the timing team knew about but chose not to resolve until the end of the heat. The protest came from someone who had checked the time sheets during the heat and therefore didn't see the fast time, or something like that (the details were a little unclear then, even less so now).
The fact is, my confidence level in the accuracy of the timing crew's results was not so great. I hope that what we decided on was fair, but I didn't really have any precedent from personal experience to go on either. I was also faced with the time crunch of finishing the event before the hay baling crew finished it for us. Ultimately, all parties agreed that if Drew could run a clean run within half a second of the fast time that the timing crew had recorded, his fast run would stand. To my great relief he backed up his time and we were able to move on.
This had better not become standard practice, or I'll start collecting protest fees. IMHO for local events, there's not too many good reasons for impound/protest/etc. unless it's a very clear cut and dry sort of infraction. We're all out here to have fun, not delay the event for everyone else just because we're unexpectedly getting beat. (Not that I feel like that was the situation for Sunday's event, mind you.)