Posts
12
Joined
8/29/2008
Location
Brea, CA, USA
Edited Date/Time
1/27/2012 12:39pm
and others utting the corner when Barcia and Musquin went down?
It IS on video and has "Documentation". You even provided it again in Racerhead #22.
And you had an AMA staff member right there (waving the yellow flag, while getting out of the way of the cutters).
Nico about took out Rattray by stopping early to cut the corner out.
Guess its Nico's first instinct, to cut wherever he can, Unadilla last year was funny.
(But that took AMA-MX Sports-Coombs mid week to rectify).
And friends behind Nico CHOSE to take that shortcut.....while a few professionals CHOSE to stay on the track boundries.
The rider's meeting has been a lecture of "we have many video cameras and personnel watching and it is your resposibility to stay within the yellow markers....and we will penalize anyone cutting the course".
So why no action or comment, from the sanctioning body, on the riders cutting out the corner?
It IS on video and has "Documentation". You even provided it again in Racerhead #22.
And you had an AMA staff member right there (waving the yellow flag, while getting out of the way of the cutters).
Nico about took out Rattray by stopping early to cut the corner out.
Guess its Nico's first instinct, to cut wherever he can, Unadilla last year was funny.
(But that took AMA-MX Sports-Coombs mid week to rectify).
And friends behind Nico CHOSE to take that shortcut.....while a few professionals CHOSE to stay on the track boundries.
The rider's meeting has been a lecture of "we have many video cameras and personnel watching and it is your resposibility to stay within the yellow markers....and we will penalize anyone cutting the course".
So why no action or comment, from the sanctioning body, on the riders cutting out the corner?
For the past season or two I've noticed more and more riders taking a lot of liberties when it comes to going off the track and re-entering it at a safe spot.
It happened a ton in supercross where a rider would make a mistake and go off the track and then just skip the entire section (while hauling ass beside the track, mind you) and enter the track in the next turn without losing ANY time overall. This should not be acceptable.
Even when RV and Brayton overshot the first turn in their LCQ at Jacksonville. They didn't enter the track at the first safe spot available to them. They hauled ass beside the track to get to the next corner and enter it there (which coincidentally didn't work out too well for RV). This is just the first example of many that come to mind.
At around the 2:10 mark Champion is on the track and then shoots off of it when it's all too clear that he wasn't forced to do so.
Here's the clip starting at the incident to which I'm referring:
https://youtu.be/NewguAoVIGQ#t=2m10s
As you can tell, he passed that rider in front of him in the process.
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As for re-entering the track where you left it, I believe the rule is now to re-enter the track at the next safe spot, just like it is in SX, without gaining an advantage but I don't have the rulebook on me. Isn't that what RV was doing when he crashed the second time at Jacksonville?
That whole corner at Freestone should have had repeaters down the inside, but the wind was blowing so hard it was likely the banners would have blown out into the track, so they didn't go up, unfortunately.
DC
MX Sports
And yea, there are 40 guys out there on track that first lap. MX Sports doesn't have 40 track marshals to watch each one. If one guy cuts the track it's obvious, he gets penalized. But to think one flagger who might be watching that section could possibly rattle off 10+ numbers of guys who cut a section to avoid a crash is asking a bit much. Even if like you suggest we put an AMA official in front of the live feed with a pencil and paper you think he'd get all the guys who did it? This ain't the NFL, we don't have instant replay unless you're going to hook the guy up with DirecTV DVR and the HD package so he can watch it on Fuel.
Some may state that cutting the track when Barcia went down was a safety issue. That's a legitimate argument, but it did allow some riders to bypass a course obstacle and continue without incident. Accidents are part of racing, and if you're looking for the fast line and a rider hits the turf, going off course to avoid that rider (and take advantage of a clear path) doesn't adhere to the spirit of the race.
As it's been repeatedly stated, the start can make or break your day. And if we cannot trust officials to enforce rules during the most critical moments of the race, when can they be trusted?
Okay so you can't reenter on the exact spot but withing 20ft you can and if it takes some effort and time there is your penalty for leaving the course.
Supercross has this wrong and Motocross should not follow the wrong thing.
Even in the clip from freestone the rider has to go about 100 yards to get to a break where he can pull back in.
Having a rider reenter at the EXACT spot brings up a lot of safety issues.
If a rider takes a bad bounce or cross ruts on a jump on a fast straight and has to go back and reenter at the landing where he ran off that is a recipe for disaster, especially if it is a blind landing and the offender can't see oncoming riders.
At the very least riders should be penalized for actual advantages they gain as a result of running off the track, even if it is to avoid an accident.
An advantage gained would be either positions or an obvious amount of track closed on the riders ahead of the offender.
Penalize a few, no matter who they are, and it will force the rest of the field to fall into line.
Some things require a zero tolerance, like speeding on pit road in NASCAR.
Why not position about 10 or 15 go pro cameras (or some other kind of affordable, reliable video system) that can be reviewed if there is any question.
At the National level, saying a flagger didn't see something is a bit podunk.
The flag guy's should not even be in the discussion they are safety people not rules enforcement.
And I also agree with your statement about the flaggers..........they are there for safety, not rules enforcement.
Pit Row
There are 2 types of flaggers. The hired for the day get a tshirt (your "podunk" reference?). And the AMA officials with flags and told to us during riders meetings, they are looking for cutting the course.
Shawn142.
Rattray was just behind and INSIDE of Nico going into the corner. He had to brake to stop from hitting Nico who braked and turned left to cut over the hay bale. Rattray turned right and like a few other riders, chose to stay on the track and go down the middle even though it was deep there.
If the AMA/MX Sports is going to keep adamantly preaching at each riders meeting "it is your responsibility to know where the track boundaries are and to stay within them or you will be penalized" and do nothing about when it does happen (because of excuses like"it's the first lap" or "he was in the line and it was muddy").
There will never be any respect of the rules and it will always be an "interpretation".
This sport will always remain "podunk" without a respected sanctioning body.
its the sanctioning bodies (ama)
unless they are running some sort of business model that is different from 99% of all the other motorsports (which is entirely plausible) then the blame should be going to the ama. but i agree with notifying dc/mxsports about this, cause its technically their product that is being tarnished by the ama not doing there job.
dc, if youre still reading this, is the ama still responsible for enforcing the rules or have they completely dumped everything on your guys' lap? (serious question, not being a smartass)
and i totally agree with the above statements regarding protests. it shouldnt take one to get the rules enforced. and a rider shouldnt be able to enter the track 60ft down from where he exited. leaving the track should be a penalty, not a rest area.
If you get forced off the track then you should have to immediately get back on. If you pin it up the side of the track (which is obviously much smoother and faster) after you're off, then there should be a penalty for it. Maybe average out the time it takes to get through the section then double it? That would be a fair penalty.
Unfortunately the banners in MX do prevent riders from doing that unless they want to risk the banners wrapping up in their rear wheel. In that case they should at least take it easy on the side of the track instead of pinning it. I know it's racing instinct to pin it, but it's not fair so something should be done. Maybe have openings in the banners every 20 feet or so? If you blow by one of these openings specifically made to re-enter the track, then that's a penalty of however much they want to make it. That seems fair to me.
Hypothetically speaking: rider A gets shoved off the track by rider B, so rider A starts pinning it up the side of the track. Then rider B crashes on his own, allowing rider A to pass while off the track. What's the ruling on this?
It's a topic with A LOT of gray area and it definitely needs to be made more clear. However, until the AMA or MX Sports does something to make it clear and enforce it, I can't say I blame the riders too much for what is essentially "legal cheating".
DC
MX Sports
Post a reply to: DC Why no comment over Nico