Posts
9022
Joined
9/16/2006
Location
MONTGOMERY, AL, USA
Edited Date/Time
1/27/2012 12:51pm
They need to be notified not to jump and it needs to be instant. The MA incident and the one last week where the rider could not get to his bike after the step down. Someone needs to wake up, the red light someone mentioned is a good idea, it would have saved mike some pumishment and it will also save someones life down the road. If the people running the show don't do something, someone is going to get killed.
Not trying to take anything away from your idea, just posing a question to you from a different point of view.
Everyone knows the risk when they roll up to the gate.
I have not yet seen the MA incident, but sometimes coming off of the start, it doesn't even have to be a jump for someone to go down and end up getting run over repeatedly (ala DV last year at Millville).
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Nothing
Everyone is going way too fast too close together for any light or flagger to change anything.
Starts in racing, all racing, is the most hairball part.
Lot of horsepower, adrenaline, speed, nerves and more mixed together in close quarters, ain't nothing gonna change it.
Then the problem is with the flaggers. Like FCR says they're not Pros, they get free entrance to the race...The issue I always have is the way the flag guys face.
It should be mandatory for a flagger to face the traffic as it rides away, not looking at oncoming riders. For this reason, when a crash happens the flagger is still watching the race instead of doing the job at hand.
Alway been a problem always will be.
This was a high speed section, little could have been prevented, but if the flags were waving further up the track, then maybe it may not have been so bad.
Pit Row
Go to that video, and time it from when MA hits the ground and the pack passes, it is probably 3 seconds max
Then factor human reaction times, to radio times, then the human reaction time of the 2nd person.
The incident would be long over by that time.
You're dealing with fractions of seconds in an incident like this
MX is very amateur in comparison
One of the hardest parts of flagging is keeping focus that you are not there to give aid a downed rider. Your job is to summon the Medical team (Red cross flag) and protect the rider from additional injury. The medical staff will handle the injuries that have already occurred. It's a natural instinct as a racer and human being to want go to a rider who is down. However, leaving your position to a place where you can no longer warn the on-coming riders puts them, you and the downed rider in more risk. When a rider goes down hard, there's always some idiot spectator screaming at you to go help the rider. This usually includes some insults and profanity. I've never done it, but those idiots deserve a nice juicy STFU after the moto. Flagging is like the military...hours of boredom interrupted by moments of chaos!
PMP, here in AZ uses this system and it works very well. Each flagger has control of a couple areas that he can light up if someone goes down in his section. All he has to do when he sees a rider go down is press a button. How many seconds does that take? 2 Maybe. Lapper says it was less than 5 seconds when MA went down of people hitting him, lights could have saved up to 3 seconds of that. Is that worth it? YES!
The system they use at our track here works with the amount of people we have. There is absolutely no reason why they shouldn't be able to designate 1 person and 1 button for each blind jump on an AMA National track. The flagger with the button is placed where he can see the landing, and the lights will light up as far back as you decide the rider would need to be able to shut off for the jump.
Crashed at :07 secs of the video, first hit at :12 secs last hit at :17 secs. you would have to be quick but those aren't fractions of seconds. Flagger has a button to turn on light and hits it as soon as he sees the rider down on backside of jump, the 2 guys that hit him last were way up that straight or maybe a turn before, they would not have jumped.
Now go review the tape of the guy that couldn't get to his bike last week or the week before, that was just stupid man. This thread is not only about MA's crash it's about how can we notify a rider that it's not safe to jump.
I stated how i feel and don't see how arguing will help here. (unless someone can't post facts)
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