Red Light Idea

Putting the light/warning where the riders attention is already focused is a great idea.  I like it.  

If it is a super ruty track like it was in Indy, it may cause more of a hazard on the face of the jump.

Great idea! Maybe even blue for lappers, who seem unable to see flaggers waiving furiously at the side of the track. Logistically this could get very "busy", but one could argue the flags are busy and hard to see as well.  The problem will likely come down to money, like always.

Even still, I really like this idea as it puts the warning exactly where the rider is looking!

I agree the riders need better warning 

Not if they don't jump it.

Great idea!

Another idea is to just make them bigger and/or brighter. Use lights as bright as emergency vehicles. 

If you cannot see a guy flagging, you don't need to be out there.

Very good idea !  Succeeds on several levels , as I doubt it will be expensive to implement.

👍👌

Not to mention the riders who are color blind. 🤣

There is no way the riders don’t see the lights presently used at Supercross.

Sexton said in the PulpMX podcast that he failed to see the lights on the jump that he was penalized for, specifically because he was busy looking back at Dean.  He noticed the lights only when it was too late to shut off. 

I can understand him saying that.

The problem is there were 2 yellow flags before he turned right towards the triple, a medic flag on the first jump of the double leading to the triple, a red pre light on the landing of the double and 2 red lights on top of the take-off of the triple.

The other riders managed to see them.

Chase is a great guy, no doubt about that but not seeing them is not anyone else’s fault in this case.

This is what in helmet communication would be good for. If the AMA doesn’t want to allow for constant communication between the riders/teams then they could at least have it there for the race director to issue safety guidance to riders entering sections under red cross/red light conditions. 

Radio between rider and spotter would do wonders. Image a mechanic telling his rider to stay left cause the leaders are coming.

The biggest problem with Chase making any excuse related to Dean, is that he's making the assumption the red flag and lights ONLY were due to Dean. What if there was another rider down on the landing of that double?

I get him being frustrated, but the fact remains he's the ONLY one who didn't follow the rule. He doesn't get to make the decision if the red flag/lights are necessary. I like Chase and don't think there was any attempt to gain an advantage, but it was a mistake and he was penalized accordingly.

I like it Chris.

And to expand the idea and address the issue of lighting up the face of a jump with ruts, etc.  

Just have the light shine across the top foot or two of the face of the jump. Have it be a 1-2' wide horizontal stripe that goes across the top of the lip. If that makes sense? 

And I don't understand why the AMA doesn't allow radio communication. If F1 drivers can do it them surely a MX rider can talk and ride. The cost argument seems weak when there are many benefits, Lappers, caution, red flag, black flag, etc. 

JGR has done tests and it was hard for the rider to hear unless they were not on the gas at all. I think if they used the earplug style earbuds , that those would block engine noise enough so they could hear the person talking to them, and still hear the engine enough.  I don't know what they used when they tested them, but I bet it was of the off the shelf systems that put speakers inside the helmets. I think the helmet coms could be a great idea on many levels. Safety,  and if they let the mechanics talk to the rider too, then fans might be interested in paying to rent a radio or buy an app to listen to the live communications .  

With the lights they could test it and maybe if it made it harder to see the ruts they would limit the color to just the full red , roll the jump color.   If the lights did not cause a distraction then they could add in a yellow and blue. If it caused issues , then just run the red since they would need to be going slower anyway to not jump.

I don't think Chase was making any excuses , or saying he shouldn't have been panelized. I think he was just explaining why he did not roll the jump. Seemed like that to me when I heard him on Pulp.   

Nope! would not work.

That's a good point about the rider not knowing what's ahead and making assumptions.  He mentioned that he didn't expect the lights on that double to be on since the accident was behind him, so he wasn't specifically looking for them.  If he hadn't made that assumption and had looked earlier, the mistake would've been avoided. 

He said he knew as soon as he saw the lights that he was going to be penalized, and he wasn't blaming anyone but himself.  He seemed moderately aggravated with the severity of the penalty, but not with the penalty itself.  

Yeah he took ownership of jumping on the red, and I didn't really take what he said as an excuse, I just didn't like the fact at that moment he didn't KNOW Dean was the ONLY reason for the lights. He said more than once he could see Dean and he didn't put him in danger. Which is true. But he didn't know if there was a second or even a third rider down.

The actual penalty is up for debate of course, but what led to it isn't. 

Also the fact he jumped and the others didn't makes it look even worse I think, because you could argue the point the other riders are now having to process seeing a rider jump AND seeing red lights, so they are getting two sources of conflicting input on the situation. 

All that being said, that's a lot to process in a split second, so basically be aware of the lights and follow them. If you swap the riders, say Chase rolled and Webb jumped and passed him, Webb would be the one losing the points. So let the system do it's job. Chase will learn, he's a smart kid with not a lot of ego it seems. 

It's a good idea....   it'd have to be damn bright to overpower the stadium lights.     

I think if it was a laser light, similar to what you use to use to check plumb/level it would be bright enough. 

Jeff Alessi can probably recommend a good laser?

In order to remove the judgement call of when it is safe to resume jumping and to make it fair for every rider they should just have to roll  the entire section from the flag until the next corner.  This would've kept Chase from jumping too since he clearly saw the flag; he would've known he had to roll until the next corner.

Also, even if the rider gets up they need to keep the red cross flag out until everyone has had to roll the same amount of jumps.  The fact that a few riders on a lead lap have to roll while others further back may not have to is crazy to me. 

Seems like an easy/fair fix to me.  

If they removed all the jumps from SuperMotocross there would be no need for flashing lights. They could drop the Super and just call it Motocross.

That's actually a pretty good idea. But if someone tries to claim the light is a safety issue, then they should at least go with flashing lights at the base of the take off, and another set at the top. You can claim you missed one set, but if you missed two, then you're truly in the zone and are probably a hazard.

Just think- when they are all racing electric bikes at the CA rounds, they can just remotely cut power to the bikes (like indoor go kart racing)..