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did the leaders "trickle" by again....??
The Shop
I see....
Whew! I passed
Can we beat this dead horse a few more times next week just to make sure???
Seventeen years ago Robbie Reynard hit a caution flagger trying to get to his spot after cutting half the track on the first lap of practice to get ahead of everyone else. Racing through the infield is now illegal too.
Whether it's first or 35th that goes down and causes a flagging issue, we're watching and constantly trying to come up with better ideas and procedures. Thanks.
DC
Racer X
Again, we have a staff of eleven officials that go to every race and oversee different sections of the track. The idea of taking 40 flaggers on the road for the summer is just not even close to affordable. And go back to the very beginning of this whole conversation -- what did the flaggers do that was so wrong in this situation? They were told not to go out on the track in traffic. The bike was in a bad spot, there was confusion with the rider on the track too and the riders weren't slowing down enough or "exercising caution" on the yellow flag. We can learn from all of those things and take more preventative measures moving forward, which we are.
Motorcycles and their riders can and will fall down, and flaggers and officials can and will make mistakes. It's the nature of the sport when you have 40 fast guys on a mile-long track. We're doing our best to minimize the danger and warn the riders to slow down, just as they are at supercross, MXGP, Canada, the UK, Australia, France and every other professional series in the world of motocross.
Edit: I know everyone is just trying to help...
DC
Racer X
Ummmm..... Only one little problem with your proposal....
Pit Row
This is so simple to fix that it hurts my head wondering why we've seen the responses we've seen.
You don't need a wheels on the ground flag. Use amateur rules. I'm guessing most can figure out the fact that in the am's safety is paramount while in the pros money has a negative influence on safety. Davey even says he thinks a no jumping under yellow rule brings too many protests and confusion. Get it? No one wants to see their big fancy rider get protested, so if you're a big shot team you bitch until you feel a little more untouchable. He even says riders might not be able to race through a significant section of track under yellow as though it's reasonable to sacrifice safety for ticket sales. Get it yet? It's too hard to monitor the protests? Figure it out. How about if it's not on tape then don't honor the protest. Problem solved. What are the parameters for a successful protest? Figure it out. How about if both wheels leave the ground the rider loses one position for each time he violates the rule. Why is this so hard? Money and politics.
Not as much of either in the am's. That's why we get rules that actually make logical sense.
Yellow = stay on the ground.
Get rid of wheels on the ground flag.
Red Cross = same as yellow but send the medics over.
Pretty hard to write all that without throwing a few F bombs in there. Who cares if the riders and teams don't like it. They're blinded by the prize. Who cares if the racing is hurt or looks less sensational due to yellows. Is that really a thing people worry about?
All of this has nothing to do with anything other than the rules being hijacked by greedy teams and riders. End of story.
Stand in your spot, don't get on the track, wave the flag when someone is down. Rule takes care of the rest.
Yellow Flag has to have real meaning.
The rest doesn't matter. They follow the rules/meaning of the yellow flag or they get punished.
It won't happen. We may even see another worthless diluted flag, Like a "we really REALLY mean this time flag".
One last thing. I get that "volunteers" who do this flagging stuff all over the country are riders and racers who love the sport. This is good, cool and likely pretty damn fun for them. For the most part I bet they do and Excellent job, flagging isn't easy.
But I never understood the "local club" mentality in this whole thing. Getting Volunteers to flag (arguably) the most important job out there, and then expect they all will perform the same at every venue.
It all the stick and ball sports, Nascar, etc. I am sure they ask to find Volunteers to take on those kind of duties.
Lastly. Will it "cost more" yep. Last i looked this is a business, and it's critical part of this business is it's riders.
One possible solution is if you had one flagger on each side of every blind obstacle, then in the event that the flaggers wanted the riders to go to the oncoming rider's right for example then the flagger on the oncoming rider's left wood run "up track" along side the course waving their flag in a certain fashion letting the Riders know to move themselves in the direction of the opposite flagger who would be waving their flag in a different fashion. If this or similar system was understood and recognized it might be effective. Maybe the flaggers had a certain color light in the end of the flag stick bright enough to see that indicated say Red for blocked side of track vs, Green for clear side of track. They each flip a switch, have comms with each other, and i think I see slight improvements in safety already.
Any other ideas on how to better direct a slew of rapidly approaching riders as to which way they should be heading as they approach a blind obstacle with a wreck on the other side?
Maybe it is something the eleven guys who are currently evaluate the sections of the track for safety could implement or I could be hired to implement it. Send msg, ill report for duty.
DC
Racer X
Post a reply to: Those flaggers don't know how to flag