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When flagging i dont care if they tell you to stay 20' off the track if someone goes down i am gonna be there on top of them doing what i can to prevent further injuries.. I know what i felt like in this situation and its not good at all and if people still are jumping and heading straight towards the pile up your wrong no matter what you were told!!!
Would be nice if every rider flagged once in a condition where good flagging happens. We have that at our track if a rider offers to flag we let them (normally we have all the flaggers we need on race day). Usually by the time practice is over they have a whole new perspective of what goes on out there.
On that photo, a flagger many times cna't cross a track and is likely better not too, with that many riders on the track. We had a flagger get hit about 5 years ago and break his leg pretty badly. NOT the riders fault as the flagger stepped into a bike as it was going by to "get to the other side". thankfully the rider ddin't go down and the flagger made a full recovery.
But flagging is likely the most import job out on the track and all tracks should put good if not great effort in getting that done. NOthing is more troubling then "attention in the pits we need flaggers" this only shows lack of preperation......
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I'd like to recount a situation I had in Long Island NY in 2000 at the National Arenacross. It was the 18'th lap of 20...250 main event. Pedro Gonzalas motor locked as he left the jump face of the catipult...the jump I was flagging from. His bike went upside down and planted Pedro into the landing. Greg Rand was about 1.5 seconds behind him...my focus was down track and I threw the redcross flag. Hit Greg right accross the goggles, nearly cleaned him off the bike (I have since appologized for that part), knocked the red cross out of my hand and left it at the bottom between the jumps. Denny Stephenson was coming through the rhythm section and approaching the run up to the big jump. (Do you guys have any idea how fast things happen in racing?) The only thing I could think of to do was grab 2 other flags, ran out in the middle of the jump, and held them out as wide as I could (NOT the smartest thing I ever did I'll tell ya). Denny looked up just at the last second, saw me and swerved to the right to miss me. He avoided the pile on the left side of the track and landed fine (although I think he had to change underwear afterwards) I'm sure I saved Limb, and possibly the LIVES of three riders by that move.
Davey: i know its not realistic to have every flagger be a pro, but i do think that flagger shoulda left his/her box because of the severity of the crash and location. As a flagger you gotta get the riders attention even more on something like this and sitting 20' off side track waving the yellow just don't do it.
that being said, I think you guys put on a wonderful even and do a super job. Theres always gonna be bad instances like this, less of them would be great.
He specifically mentioned a flagger well ahead of that jump, as well as that flagger both doing their jobs.
I don't think anyone's opinion has much value that wasn't standing there watching directly. How can anyone access the situation from a few still photos of a crash?
Although they were very nice shots.
From past experience, the flagging at LL's has been very good.
Yeah, I can see where that would never happen with 40 C class riders on the track. They should not have even wrapped them with haybales, right Grape?
This night was particularly bad and ran into the next day. After that stressful night ended my cousin and I were back home bedded down in the living room in our sleeping bags. Yet I was still dodging that 250 novice class and trying to save others as well as myself well into my own dreams. At one moment there they were wadding into the wall, over the wall and through the wall and my cousin just stared on into the abyss of carnage, so I'm running after him to get him to wave his flag, meanwhile ripping my t-shirt off and standing over his sleeping bag waving and mumbling frantically to start flagging! Well it must have been pretty convincing because he stands up and starts doing the same... and then we both woke and laughed our asses off!
I also remember he was in a wierd spot. I saw the yellow flag in the corner before but could not see the bike or rider because it was behind a hill. The only reason I did not take that line is because I saw one dude get out of shape going up the face of that table and thought "that doesn't look right". So I moved to the other side of the track. Ouch I just hurt my arm patting myself on the back
Pit Row
I think we have maybe gotten a little too used to people getting hurt, when the fact this kid ended up a crumpled mess on the track hardly gets a mention in the conversation. That was really nasty looking.
As for the rest of the discussion, I have no real input. It was one of those things that happen in racing and it's not very fair to blame anyone.
There is no "local club" to join because there are no races at Loretta Lynn's but this one and the ATV race to flag, and there are few tracks in the area. That "fatass" flagger had been there for two decades. He's seen more crashes than he probably cares to remember. He did exactly what he was supposed to do, wave his flag and stay OFF the track. The riders should have obeyed the flag, and I feel bad for the ones that did but still got caught up in it. An infield official was on his way there to help, but this all happened in a very short period of time.
With 42 riders, early in a national championship moto, it's a challenge to prevent chain-reaction crashes like this. Happens in the pros too. Ask Trey Canard and Ryan Morais and Weston Peick.
Oh, and that flagstand is elevated and set in the same place every year. It is not a lawn chair. It's built and placed to help the flagger see down the track and also stay protected from riders coming down the track and hitting the stand or the man.
DC
MX Sports
Continue to jump towards the pile up an lock the brakes up an cut the wheel to avoid wrecking.. Body language here is key if im racing im seeing a kid who just laid it over no big deal but thats not the case people were injured an the flagger casually waved his flag
I have been racing and flagging for much, much longer that since '92. I placed that flagstand myself last week, and spent a good deal of time on that jump during practice on Monday making sure there were no pile-ups. We wave a red-cross flag when someone crashes in the landing zone in practice because there are twice as many riders out there (two classes of 42 at a time) and they don't seem to obey the yellow flag as much, or sometimes at all.
Not sure what else can be done here and not risk causing more problems, like a flagger stepping out in front of bikes and placing himself in harm's way, as well as the riders. We will study it more and try to figure out some ways to make it more obvious what can happen in these situations...
DC
MX Sports
And yes, I was there.
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