Standards

[Halo355]

I have just returned from watching a days off-road racing at Hinckley and was bemused by the application of rules to different heats and finals. I am not a driver myself, but have been attending various races for around 20 years.
Throughout the day numerous drivers failed to put their cars through scrutineering but no penalties were announced despite a warning in the drivers briefing. As the day went on there were many incidents of marshalling being, at best, leisurely, but again no penalties announced. For the finals all drivers were warned that they were to be concentrating while marshalling their races, yet during the 'lower' finals marshals were talking to people outside the fencing and no penalties announced. However, once the A final took to the grid, there was a referee on the podium and one unfortunate marshal was noticed talking to someone behind the fencing (whilst all the cars were at the far end of the track to him it should be noted), he was warned by the referee and immediately stopped talking. After the race though he was given a penalty!
Now I'm not defending that driver, but I am confused as to why the rules are applied during the A finals but not during other finals. I also wonder why, when all drivers are paying the same to race, they are not afforded the same luxury of a referee for their finals and the application of rules accordingly? I heard a number of people around me saying the same thing, not a good thing for potential new drivers to be hearing I'm sure you'd agree. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth, just wondered if anyone else had experienced ' a difference in class' at other meetings?