He did not place you in a situation where you lost your cool. You were placed in a situation where you could lose your cool, and you did.
I've walked up to riders who yelled at me or got pissed off at me after a race and apologized, and we've joked around about it. That was because I took their insults and laughed them off and said, oh yeah nah don't want to do that came here to apologize for almost cutting you off. Their faces turn from angry to shocked. They seem ashamed about it after.
Take responsibility for your own actions.
Have the officials made their decision final? Even if they keep the sentence, send an email thanking them for their time and telling them that it won't ever happen again ("I realize how dangerous what I did was, and I do this for fun so there's no point blah blah blah").
Edit: And here I was thinking that Virginia was for lovers.