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So your ok with having a championship contender like Tomac, Sexton, Lawerance, Roczen, Stewart, Webb, crash on the first lap getting up and lapped and having to pull off the track with no chance of gaining any points? Lappers are part of racing!
Let's move the races outside and make the tracks longer.
If he had to do this he likely would’ve finished in 20-22. As it stands he finished 18 and those are valuable points for anyone. Great sense of entitlement you have
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Sounds good until "My Guy" get punted by another rider and gets lapped. He is 22nd and right on a pack of 10 riders with 10 mintues in the race. Gives up 10 points to the crown. End of season , he loses the title.
Some ideas are solid, some not so much.
Better yet. Just have 20 riders like F1. The rest can take on Vince in Arenacross until they earn one of those 20 spots.
We have 22 in the main....what's your point....
F1 just added another team so there will be 22 drivers before long.
The problem isn’t lappers. The problem is how much slower some lappers are. The speed differential is too large.
The solution is actually simple. 107% rule like f1
If you can’t put a fast lap in within 107% of the fastest qualifier you aren’t allowed in the show.
It’s so simple.
Listening to you all go back and forth and hash out the reasons why pulling a lapper off doesn’t work, is exactly why the 107% rule is why f1 goes that route/
You’re always going to have lappers, but people who are 6+ seconds off a 55 second lap time aren’t even in the same zip code and are a legitimate hazard.
Good way to turn every lapper into Vince Freise.
Imagine how hard they would fight to stay in front of the leader.
MAYBE if they are lapped twice I'd be ok with them having to pull off.
f! consistently produces some of the most boring races on the planet.
Yup, I’m okay with this.
And it’s “you’re” lol
Both those riders had qualifying times that would have put them right at 107% but in their heat race they were well under the 107%. They qualified 22nd and 24th. So under this rule some weeks we would have 25 riders vying for 22 spots or in some race less than 20....with this rule you now look like WSX having "qualifying" races but yet everybody makes the main....that's just dumb. As typical of Vital every action requires a major overreaction...all that really has to happen is a clearer understanding by riders and officials of what should happen in a blue flag situation...not this stupid 107% rule that doesn't belong in a sport with so many variables or removing racers once they get lapped (which is really dumb) . In my opinion the track design (long rutted sand section) is what caused this....Hand went a little to the right because of the ruts and Roczen went to the left because of the ruts and Lane was just an innocent bystander doing what he was supposed to do by the rules and stay in his line. We all know what the blue flag is for and the rules are pretty clear on what a rider should do while being lapped, but what is the rule if one doesn't follow the blue flag rules...that is what needs to be clearer...
In Tampa there would have been no heat races or lcq's, just 20 riders straight to the main based on timed qualifying. Is that really what you want?
I'd prefer to see them race their way into the main as it has always been. Nichols would have been eliminated after timed qualifying but ended up 12th in the main.
Then make it 105% if 107 isn’t tight enough for moto. F1 uses 107 as their standard but we do have different needs for moto so tweaking that to find the right formula would make sense.
And maybe the format changes over time so we aren’t watching 2.5 hours of heat races for gate picks on the main program.
The fact is, that incident could have happened between people on the same lap as well. The sand was the true culprit.
Where is your god now?!
It is if that’s what it takes to keep people safer out there and keeping people who don’t belong on the track off of it.
There would still be heats for gate pick jockeying since everyone gets so excited about that.
Pit Row
Can you show me another motorsport where lappers ignore blue flags and try to race leaders without being penalized?
I did some math for you and determined that the top 20 riders in qualifying were within 107% of the leader at the Tampa race. This rule would work for Triple Crown races but would not work without completely overhauling the structure of the night program as it would eliminate essentially half the field, resulting in a 10 rider heat race.
You can't just say "use the 107% rule" as it was developed for an entirely different kind of racing with an entirely different paradigm and culture
EDIT: Also, the danger isn't how far off the leader's qualifying times a slower rider is, it's how far off their times become halfway through the race, which you really can't predict
I guess you're happy with people ending up like Pierce Brown going through the death whoops....all for your entertainment of course.
You don't think Colt Nichols belonged on the track at Tampa? Was he a danger to the other riders? I'm not following . . . at all.
so now we have 15 riders or less total? You really want this to look like WSX don't you....
you really aren’t following at all or are you being willfully ignorant to the thought…
It keeps people from doing 40 mph on the autobahn with their hazards on while there’s a police chase heading their way…in a hurry.
That’s an analogy to maybe help you conceptualize it.
Said this before. Need to pull the riders off before they get lapped. Once lapped, it's to late. They get a full lap worst case to be in the way. That could be 1-5 getting screwed.
Put a time limit on how much behind a leader you can be per track, like 50 sec. Anyone who reaches that, get pulled.
Then a cut off for who can get pulled based on qualifying times, like 1-12 or something is protected
Slow down, take a breath, if it’s 15 of the baddest dudes alive, it’s nothing like wsx where it was Kenny eli and joey vs a bunch of well, not the baddest dudes alive.
I've got a great idea...how about we just do better with the blue flag on both the AMA and riders side so it is clearer with what happens if you cause a crash while being lapped....no reason the re-invent the wheel here...
If you guys think SX riders have it rough, go watch Petit Le Mans o Le Touquet👍
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPct0HzRA4Q
An old post from @LB / Larry Brooks on the topic from over 14 years ago. https://www.vitalmx.com/forums/Moto-Related,20/Blue-Flags,1167669#comment-8746
I'd assume he wasnt happy about last weekends ordeal with Kenny..... LB being the Team Manager and all. I'd assume his opinion still stands.
I’ve been beating this drum for years. I fully support this motion, OP!
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