Posts
768
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
Bryceville, FL, USA
Edited Date/Time
1/22/2012 10:27pm
I got to experience the new flagging rules at the Mini-O’s and the Florida Winter-Am’s, and so far I do not think these new flagging rules are working. I am sure whoever came up with these new rules had nothing but good intentions and the safety of everyone involved in mind. However, replacing the Yellow flag with the Red Cross flag is a very bad idea, and IMO all it does is cheapen the value of the Red Cross flag when it is really needed.
In one of my moto’s yesterday during just one lap the Red Cross flag came out 5 separate times. I had a group of teenagers in front of me and the first 4 times the Red Cross flag came out they followed the rules and slowed way down. The problem was each time the Red Cross flag came out, it was because either someone was down in a corner, stalled in a corner, or was on the side of the track kicking their bike. Well when we came on to the 5th Red Cross flag (jump face to a Triple or Double depending on how far you wanted to jump) those kids in front of pulled the trigger. I hit the brakes and rolled it only to see a rider laid out on the track, his bike on the track, a flagger in front of him, and a medic working on him. How those kids in front of me didn’t hit him is beyond me.
Now why I suspect this happened, the kids in front of me got tired of doing a parade lap during a race, and all of the other Red Cross flags were BS, so they probably figured just another kid stalled in a corner or off to the side of the track. So they ignored the Red Cross flag and pulled the trigger.
Throwing out the Red Cross flag instead of the Yellow is not going to make the sport any safer. You can already tell that the Red Cross flag is losing its value on the track. The AMA needs to rethink this rule change, and go back to using the Yellow flag and just enforce the no passing and no jumping on Yellow. They need to keep the Red Cross Flag for what is was intended for, which to me is a Medic is needed at the site and there is an injured rider on the track. By waving the Red Cross flag every time a rider goes down or stalls, it just cheapens the meaning of it.
Sorry about the rant, but this new rule really sucks and needs to go away, and go away fast.
In one of my moto’s yesterday during just one lap the Red Cross flag came out 5 separate times. I had a group of teenagers in front of me and the first 4 times the Red Cross flag came out they followed the rules and slowed way down. The problem was each time the Red Cross flag came out, it was because either someone was down in a corner, stalled in a corner, or was on the side of the track kicking their bike. Well when we came on to the 5th Red Cross flag (jump face to a Triple or Double depending on how far you wanted to jump) those kids in front of pulled the trigger. I hit the brakes and rolled it only to see a rider laid out on the track, his bike on the track, a flagger in front of him, and a medic working on him. How those kids in front of me didn’t hit him is beyond me.
Now why I suspect this happened, the kids in front of me got tired of doing a parade lap during a race, and all of the other Red Cross flags were BS, so they probably figured just another kid stalled in a corner or off to the side of the track. So they ignored the Red Cross flag and pulled the trigger.
Throwing out the Red Cross flag instead of the Yellow is not going to make the sport any safer. You can already tell that the Red Cross flag is losing its value on the track. The AMA needs to rethink this rule change, and go back to using the Yellow flag and just enforce the no passing and no jumping on Yellow. They need to keep the Red Cross Flag for what is was intended for, which to me is a Medic is needed at the site and there is an injured rider on the track. By waving the Red Cross flag every time a rider goes down or stalls, it just cheapens the meaning of it.
Sorry about the rant, but this new rule really sucks and needs to go away, and go away fast.
When they got away from not jumping on a yellow at LL's a few years back that was just as stupid.
You got people without a clue making the decisions,but what is new?
To me nothing is as important as racing next weekend,and next weekend I say the same.
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Now why I suspect this happened, the kids in front of me got tired of doing a parade lap during a race, and all of the other Red Cross flags were BS, so they probably figured just another kid stalled in a corner or off to the side of the track. So they ignored the Red Cross flag and pulled the trigger.
This is not a problem with the flag, but a problem with the kids not respecting the flag. It should not matter if it is one lap or 20 laps in a row, the rules do not say it is ok to jump on red cross if you think there is no one there.
Throwing out the Red Cross flag instead of the Yellow is not going to make the sport any safer. You can already tell that the Red Cross flag is losing its value on the track. The AMA needs to rethink this rule change, and go back to using the Yellow flag and just enforce the no passing and no jumping on Yellow. They need to keep the Red Cross Flag for what is was intended for, which to me is a Medic is needed at the site and there is an injured rider on the track. By waving the Red Cross flag every time a rider goes down or stalls, it just cheapens the meaning of it.
The AMA has not changed the yellow flag rules, this is a case of the individual promoters implementing a system that is not in the rulebook. I agree that the system doesn't work, just for different reasons.
I agree with you 100 %. Mini'os was ridiculous with the cross flags. All their lives our kids have respected the red cross flag....now it will go the way of the yellow. Sad.
Amy,
So are you saying that the kids respect the red cross flag, but don't respect the yellow? We have two huge problems in MX safety. The first is a lack of good flagging with consistent rules, the second and a bigger problem is that kids just ignore them like they are not even there and hope for the best.
You are right.this is the 1st I've heard of this and am not surprised at the AMA's stupidity.
When they got away from not jumping on a yellow at LL's a few years back that was just as stupid.
Agreed, but that was MX Sports making the decision to ignore the AMA rules and use their own system. The AMA rules do not provide for different flags. Their rules say no jumping no passing on Yellow.
I watched that several times in slow mo on my tivo. The flagger was not waving the flag in the corner where K-dub entered the whoops at all until Kevin hit James. 2 bikes down in the whoops and he's doing nothing. The only flag waving was the outside line, and Kevin could have easily not seen that.
A tuff block was put out in front of Chad, nothing for James. James gets up and pushes his bike off the track to get out of the way, probably thinking a flagger is keeping riders away from where he is, and gets railed. And people were actually slamming James in other posts for trying to get out of harms way.
Def no ones fault but the flaggers. IMO
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