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Even if he waited after he was on the track it doesn't matter. An advantage was gained when he entered the track.
The rule, like all rules, isn't perfect but it's easy to interpret for a rider in the instant. It won't always be 100% fair, which is regrettable, but you also don't want a situation where a rider is rushing to cut back onto the track dangerously because they're worried about being penalised. If the rider is clearly trying to act in good faith to the rule and his competition; then it's a legit way to deal with a difficult situation in racing.
The moment you insist on the rider rejoining at the exact place they left the race track or to not gain advantage via not suffering a disadvantage etc, then you introduce urgency, which of course there is, but you don't want the rider in an urgent mindset at that moment. You want a rider in that situation to be thinking safety first and foremost - as to not end up in an even more dangerous situation e.g Preston/Stewart in SX a few yrs back - hence why it's written the way it is (imo).
So it isn't designed exclusively to be fair. It's designed to be safe and as fair as reasonably possibly.
I get it. I do. But in no world should Rider A make a mistake and get kicked toward the middle of the track and lose 5 seconds and Rider B make the identical mistake but get kicked right and off the track and lose 0 time. I get the safety aspect. But there has to be a way to make this better. People argue there's no advantage gained, which is technically correct and incorrect at the same time. No advantage is gained relative to where they were prior to the mistake. However, there is an advantage gained because they make a mistake and don't lose any time. That's my thing. The advantage gained is that they nullified their mistake because it took them off the track.
Honestly, if I'm a rider and I make a mistake, I'm never going to try to keep it upright and on the track. If there's any sort of doubt in my mind at all, I'm ensuring I get off the track so my mistake will be irrelevant. I feel the same about Sexton's as I do AC's. They both made a big mistake and neither lost any time because both mistakes took them off the track instead of keeping them on it.
Emotional bias is ugly on it's face but downright monstrous when coupled with blinding idiocy.
Congrats.
lets off and gives Cooper the 8-12 bike lengths...
Pit Row
Like it or not, no one can argue that AC didn't accelerate off the track, which is against the current rules.
Pretty clear AC lets Cooper pull him in at least two different areas after re-entering the track: as soon as he re-enters and after the fly away he backs off again. That being said, it does kind of look like AC enters almost exactly the same time as Cooper is coming by
Post a reply to: Justin Cooper podium interview