Flagger Spotting Guide

Sure, we just started the off-season, but we figured you might like this primer on the different roles of the flaggers at a National. We've seen a few threads in the Vital MX Forums that lead us to believe there's some confusion about who's doing what out on the track.

Caution flaggers: On any given weekend there will be up to 50 caution flaggers from the local area spread out on the track. You can spot them in their flag crew t-shirts. Or mud.

Wheels on the Ground flaggers: Flaggers wearing vests like these? Their job is to display the Wheels on the Ground flag when necessary. Their number varies from week-to-week, depending on how many obstacles the officals deem necessary for those flags to be positioned on. Wheels on the Ground flaggers also have radio communication with the officials, and they're told when to display the flag and when to pull the flag back in after an incident has been cleared.

Blue flags: On any given weekend you'll have approximately  eight MX Sports observers positioned around the track to help with the Wheels on
the Ground areas, as well as blue flagging when a rider is about to be overtaken by the leaders. They also receive radio alerts to let them know potentially how many lapped riders will be in front of the leaders. They also communicate with Race Control when riders go down, as well as looking for riders cutting the track, or other rule infractions.

Finish flag: This is where you'll find the green flag at the start of timed practices and motos, and the checkers at the end of the day. You might also see a red flag for restarts displayed here, rarely a black flag for a DQ, or a yellow, wheels on

Hopefully that helps you understand who's doing what around the track.