Meat Ball Penalty

[rorlando]

If a racers receives a meat ball flag he would be docked x amount of seconds, equal to a stop and go ride through, and that time will be added to his overall race time. This would eliminate the need for a stop and go penalty and keep the hot lane safer and eliminate the need for a racer to exit and enter a hot race track making for safer race day. The AMA is now using this procedure.

Ricky Orlando

[jmaher]

Like that.

[Throttleroller277]

I like the idea of Safety... However..... How does one "predict" how many seconds it takes a person to serve a "Stop and go" penalty?.... 8)

[The GECCO]

I like the idea of Safety... However..... How does one "predict" how many seconds it takes a person to serve a "Stop and go" penalty?.... 8)

No need, just pick a reasonable number. There's really no need for it to have any relation to the actual time it takes to make a stop and go.

I say 30 seconds.

[Throttleroller277]

I was trying to get Ricky fired up.... but Ricky is such a good sport he just meat balls himself by taking the "long route" ... :shock:

[Throttleroller277]

I was trying to get Ricky fired up.... but Ricky is such a good sport he just meat balls himself by taking the "long route" ... :shock:

Sorry Ricky.... I had to do it 8)

[rybo]

As a competitor I don't really like this solution as it creates a "theoretical" finish. One of the reasons I like racing motorcycles is that it's not "theoretical" in any way. We grid up, the light goes off and the first one to the finish line wins. Furthermore, if we have a timing incident, like we did at Pueblo a couple of years back, this type of penalty is much harder to administer fairly. We had a small army of scorekeepers on the sidelines, I was one of them. In the larger races we had a hard enough time assuring that we got the finishing order right, much less putting a stopwatch on one or more competitors who may have incurred a penalty.

An incident like this with a timing penalty, you could say: "If the timing system fails we will revert to a standard stop and go penalty" but now you are changing the rules on penalties in the middle of a race weekend. This sets up potential confusion for the officials and the competitors alike.

The hot pit lane is part of the racetrack. If the club needs to be more strict about enforcing the crossover at HPR so that competitors feel safer executing a stop and go, then that is what we should do. I've had at least one penalty at each of the racetracks we currently race at and have never felt like executing the penalty presented a safety hazard. As the competitor merging back onto track, it is my responsibility to merge in safely. When I saw the initial track design at HPR I thought that merge was going to be dicey, but it works really well in practice.

My .02

[gsnyder828]

The one thing I like about the time penalty in place of a stop & go is that it's reversible. If someone gets a meatball for jumping the start and there's video evidence they didn't jump - then they can protest and retain their actual finish position. If they have to serve a stop & go then there's no practical way to know where they would have finished in the event of a successful protest.

g

[DOUBLE A]

In favor 8)

[aspenbum]

let's say somebody get the meatball for a start and you know for a fact and have video evidence that you did not jump start, would it be possible to protest that meatball pending evidence verification?

[DOUBLE A]

let's say somebody get the meatball for a start and you know for a fact and have video evidence that you did not jump start, would it be possible to protest that meatball pending evidence verification?

if you have $25 cashish

[Fastt Racing]

I agreee with Rybo on the theoretical finishes. If you don't feel safe on part of the racetrack then don't go on the racetrack (spectator or competitor). Also don't meatball!