Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but paid users have great benefits. Paid member benefits:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2024 SX, MX, and SMX series (regularly $30).
How many times has a rider or bike and the growing pile keep getting plowed into because they dont know where to go?
Truth is.....unless at a flat track race or youre far enough back to see people swerving to a certain side that flagger is 90% worthless.
The Shop
Good to see innovation and people trying to keep the riders safe
Its not that hard. Ive flagged before. Its a flaggers job to protect the guy on the ground, (and maybe a medic or two) not read twatter while waving a flag in the breeze.
That guy? Whos looking at him? No one racing that section.
A guy on a bike has alot of shit going on right there and no time to look over to the stands.....extension or not.
If you dont have the balls to jump out there and flag guys around......You're not the guy for the job.
How about this 35s mom, since you want to call me out. When your kid eats shit, and the flagger just stands there while he gets run over multiple times, ask yourself about this thread and what a flaggers job is. Stand and watch? Or protect the guy on the ground?
Or maybe you should grab a flag, sack up, use some common sense and get out there and direct the bikes around your kid.
Fair enough?
But then again, for the pay of a free ticket and a soda, I guess its better to watch some poor kid get plowed a couple times or killed from a safe distance while you wave an unseen flag in the breeze.
They talked about this recently on one of the pulpshows or pulpcasts.
Pit Row
Not clever IMO.
Watch this video, tell me when this guy had a chance to run onto the track? I was doing the wheels on the ground flag at a national last year. It was on the about the tenth lap and the field was spread out and I still had to dodge guys flying by me on both sides completely ignoring the flag.
Look how many guys ignored the yellow flag when Alessi was on the ground. I get that the guys coming down the left side could not see him but I didn't see anyone check up at all. Granted it was the first lap and they were still bunched up but there is no excuse for the second to last place guy to come by and hit him while the flag was clearly out.
Also, the yellow flag means nothing to these guys. And you are right, I don't have the balls to step out in front of these guys, especially in the early laps. I won't be doing that job again.
I have flagged hundreds of amateur and pro events when I was younger. Good way to make money while waiting to get my own bike. They used to pay you in cash in those days. Sigh.
What I have seen is that a flagger needs to wave a flag in a way that attracts attention. A yellow rag dangling on the end of a stick is going to attract no ones attention except for maybe a confused bull. On the Allessi crash the flagger displays what annoys me at every pro race that I see. He is holding the flag in the air and not waving it in any way that attracts attention.
Most of the time inept flaggers will hold the flagstick up and just jiggle it around until the flag is wound up around the top of the stick...come on, you have all seen this. This says to riders, "lemon snow cones for everyone after the race".
I'm sorry but holding a yellow pillowcase on the end of a fourty foot poll would only be good for directing traffic on a rural two lane.
I too have decades of flagging and communications expierence, from MX to sports car.
Every training session I have given, I stress toNOT go to the crash, but posioion yourself in a safe place upstream, and flag with appropriate vigor to help describe the ammount of danger ahead.
If there's a guy stalled off track kicking away on it, maybe a stationary yellow to just give riders a heads up. If the guy is down in a blind location and there's track blockage, wave that thing like a windmill in a tornado!
I worked MX at primarily one track for 15 years, and the riders become used to how you do things. What I've noticed over the years at pro events is they just use brother-in-laws, and buddies of someone that have no expierence, and riders have to figure out what each guy is telling him.
There should be consistency, but that's hard to get with a travelling show without full time travelling flaggers.
That's why sports car races all look professional when it comes to flagging and communications. They only get proven, expierenced people who do it for the love of it. All are volunteers. Get lunch and a T-shirt...
My "kid" has eaten plenty of shit. You tube his crash from Washougal in 2012. I'm well aware of how it happens Jordan, but running out onto a track in front of Pros riding at 60+ MPH is the wrong thing to do...fair enough?
Absolute spot on there mate.
I feel the problem with the yellow not being adhered to is the fact that riders have become numb to the yellow as it's miss used. Nothing worse than seeing a yellow being waved for a stalled rider in a corner 2 straights away. If it's serious waved it till the threads unravel
I hate watching that happen and even I've jumped the fence myself to help out when there were no other marhsalls or medics around.
Post a reply to: Flagger Tech