Paid flaggers at Nationals

My thinking is teams would be happy to help because of the safety of the riders. 
 

100% correct sanctioning body should handle it but I’m thinking teams are getting upset as much as fans are so why not get involved. 
 

Just someone do something better.

Flaggers also lift bikes off of people, plus they often gesture in ways to help riders navigate downed people/bikes in blind sections. 

yeah was a member of pdmc  for many years. we had many members flag soaring eagle summer event for amy. food/drinks for the day. event shirt and some dollars for the day. forget what year it was. but the flag crew was basically racers and enthusiasts who completely understand flagging and were good at it. every national on the circuit ran very similar. vital board back seat drivers complaining probably would be worse at flagging but they have no idea because they probably haven't even done it on this level before.

i really wish they would allow helmet communication. even if its just one way  so rider can be warned of situation. but unfortunately it would be tough to keep teams from exploiting it for helping riders change lines etc.... it would be tough unless you could enable a proximity type warning that only broadcast  to riders in that zone/obstacle....etc...

i do like spotter style communication much like nascar it would be interesting to see it used and recorded for us to hear the communication

DC has been listening to the Wu-Tang Clan too much, more specifically to the song C.R.E.A.M

My question is what kind of training do the flaggers currently get? A quick verbal rundown? Do they watch training videos? Are they brought out on a practice day with someone to teach and supervise? It’s really not a hard task, but the number of times someone has crashed and the flagger is just watching oncoming traffic instead of monitoring traffic that’s already passed is crazy. 

This reminded me of another thing that I’ve noticed the past several years and something Lewis from Vital has mentioned in a few pods;

Where tf is a statement from the AMA?!?!

This is their mistake. Shouldn’t there be some sort of PR on it and an apology? 
 

We can do so much better than this 😒

Two, 20-30 min talks. One on Friday and one on Saturday morning. They pass around a few waivers during this time as well and ask about everyone’s experience so they can place more experienced flaggers in proper locations. The talk on Friday was at 6pm when I did it, well after press was finished. 

The issue with a radio in the helmet is the number of spootters you would need to cover 40 bikes and 2 miles of race track ,  also how to identify each section. It works well at ovals with 4 corners that are easy to identify , but I can see issues at mx tracks 

I can talk to some of this. 

In Supercross you have AMA Flaggers and Feld Flaggers. In Florida SX rounds I work as a Feld Flagger. Feld gets their flaggers from local clubs. Most every guy you see with a Polo shirt that says "Flag Crew" on the back races local moto or Hare Scrambles. There is a local team lead who gets his group, and we go through training every race day morning. The Feld crew has one guy that oversees everything and is at every race. All flaggers are equipped with headsets in their helmets and if you are out of position he will direct you where to stand. Most local teams stay together for quite a while, most guys I work with have worked with me for multiple years. Feld flaggers only wave yellow flags. AMA Flaggers have a big colorful AMA on the back and wave blue, red cross and yellow flags. 

In MX the flag crew has the same AMA officials as SX as well as locals that they round up. If you are wearing a t-shirt you are part of the local crew outdoors. My assumption is they do not go through nearly the training that Feld flaggers go through. 

The second that I hear they are hiring a full-time crew I'll be the first to throw my hat in the ring. Be a nice little retirement job. 

As far as the Deegs incident, I haven't watched it too closely, but it looks like the flagger may have been out of position. In his defense with the size of the jumps outdoors it's much tougher to cover everything. If I was flagging that jump, I would position myself so I could see the entire downside of the jump and as soon as someone crashed, I would run to the front of the jump to warn riders before they hit the jump. Keep in mind that on a 100 foot tabletop which isn't out of the ordinary outdoors will take a couple seconds to cover that ground. 

Final side note: Watching the NASCAR race yesterday a car spun and the flagger was furiously waving a blue flag until another track worker handed him a yellow. So it is not just motocross. 

This incident is getting blown out by vital. For starters if he had direct access to the yellow and displayed it immediately could the riders have even reacted in time? Also Deegan would have jumped under yellow anyway.

I don’t think riders could gain much of an advantage and Mx sports or feld would need access to the audio similar to f1 so they could determine if anything untoward was happening. 

The Deegan thing was just one incident and honestly I dont think the flagger had any time at all to change that outcome. That happened pretty fast and luckily the lapper got out of the way swiftly.

However,what I did notice in regards to the flagging....  is in all 4 motos the flaggers weren't aggressive enough in regards to throwing out the blue flag in regards to the lappers,even more so in the second motos.  

Agreed. Only a Red Cross flag would have stopped it.  And I doubt there was time to get that out and have deegan react to it and not jump 

Glad you posted this. I have been defending that flagger at the bottom of the jump that all the keyboard warriors keep complaining about. That was not his job.. 

I did read that there was another flagger at the take off, but it was mentioned that he did not see the crash. Being he was in blue flag mode makes perfect sense now. Not that he shouldn’t have been looking both ways, but he gets a pass on this one. Hopefully others will see this and take the heat off of the poor guy that everyone is mad at. 

I got way more training flagging SX than MX.

Also had one way radio communication at SX and none at MX.

Say what ya want about Feld but they have definitely put in a ton of effort into training the local flaggers. 
 

I saw a flagger throw a yellow large flag on the track at the last MXGP race. Maybe that would improve visibility and safety? 

For the “blind jumps”, maybe put a spotter at the landing to notify the flagger at the takeoff?

Having seen the footage of the flagger on the jump waving the blue flags, and not the yellow , that is on the organiser, IMO , at all the races we have blue flags at, they are always solely used by roving marshalls and the senior guys who are normally hooked up by radio. The guy on the jump needs to be back to the track, watching up to the next point, and nothing else, he shouldnt even know who the leaders are. 

That was piss poor, and needs a proper investigation, if Dangerboy breaks a wrist there, its not going to be a good look. 

Be better 

Mx sports be like: see you at Millville bros…

It's a no brainer. You used to have to have resume to get a pro lisence, apparently not anymore. Hence more back of the pack guys crashing.

I think you guys should start a flaggers union...

We need in-helmet communications and/or a heads-up display or light type system under the helmet visor or something that can be attached to goggles.  Something that’s activated by a spotter assigned to a specific area.

Not sure where the confidence comes from with some of you that a group that hasn't been able to master basics of flagging with 50 years of practice is going to be able to successfully implement far more complicated systems like lights or radio communication?

I've tried to get in to do it at Fox raceway two years in a row now. I'd happily contribute unpaid just to try and make a positive impact on the safety situation. The fact is that these people are scared to get out in front of bikes and make themselves noticeable. We ride so we get it. 

Why is that MX Guy? No sarcasm intended. Why won’t they let vet dudes flag? Or any experienced rider? 

I saw the incident in person. It happened pretty fast. You really would need the flagger in the previous corner to somehow know that a rider went down on the landing side of the table which said flagger couldn't see and know to waive the red cross. It was only 3 seconds. I am confident that they will work on the issue.