Qualifying to help bring up entry.

[marty]

we could meet in the middle of the road and only have qualifying for certain classes. perhaps one novice/amateur class and ror gtu and gto. maybe ditch nov o/am o and call it formula novice/amateur or something more catchy. make it a run what ya brung class (for those few 1000s and 750s out there) with qualifying. that way it would only be 3 or 4 grids for scorekeeping to put together.

for the guys who have been to utah, how do they do the qual sessions for kom?

[PremiumBlend]

I think this needs to be put to a poll. Bottom line, if the racers vote for it... we AS A CLUB, need to figure out how to make it happen. No if's, and's or but's, we make it happen and that means everyone gets on board. None of this, oh well it's a great idea, lets get gung-ho and then nobody shows up.

[dave.gallant]

I think this needs to be put to a poll. Bottom line, if the racers vote for it... we AS A CLUB, need to figure out how to make it happen. No if's, and's or but's, we make it happen and that means everyone gets on board. None of this, oh well it's a great idea, lets get gung-ho and then nobody shows up.

Great idea, but how about doing a "poll" at the track where the racers are, and not here which represents 1/10th of the voting and racing membership.

Or, at the very worst -- at the MRA General Meeting would be another great place.

[PremiumBlend]

I think this needs to be put to a poll. Bottom line, if the racers vote for it... we AS A CLUB, need to figure out how to make it happen. No if's, and's or but's, we make it happen and that means everyone gets on board. None of this, oh well it's a great idea, lets get gung-ho and then nobody shows up.

Great idea, but how about doing a "poll" at the track where the racers are, and not here which represents 1/10th of the voting and racing membership.

Or, at the very worst -- at the MRA General Meeting would be another great place.

Works for me, I ALWAYS need an excuse to get some good food and beer!

[loujr]

I like the idea, if it can be done I think we should atleast try, I know personally I had a crash at the first round and haven't been working as fast as I could just because I know I will be in the second wave...if I knew there would be a chance to atleast start farther up, I would have gotten it fixed faster.

[chrobis]

Not necessarily Ben's 'ah-ha' moment (more of a single malt moment), but allow me to synthesize some of the posts on this - and some other threads.

How about making the Solo Endurance races our test case for qualifying? In no particular order:

• * They already have their own dedicated practice sessions that could be interpretted as qualifying sessions.
  * Grid could be by absolute lap time, irrespective of LW/MW or HW/O:
  [list:62447cb792]* They could still be scored independently (LW, MW, HW, O).
  * Practice lap times are already printed out in order of best absolute lap time - we could make grid stickers manually to hand out as racers enter pre-grid.
  * The majority of the crowded, 'big bike/little bike' issues would be sorted out in the first few minutes.

* Many people use Endurance as an extended practice session, so the cost of experimenting with it may be lowest. Yeah, some are going for a season's championship, but they should have nothing to fear from an 'occasional' racer that can qualify at a similar or better pace.
* Since they are held at the end of Saturday it could make for an easy half-day race weekend for a time challenged racer.

• * We could even move tech and the afternoon riders' meeting back in respect of this.

* Solo Endurance is exceedingly cost effective - 50 bucks!! - how many of the current Endurance-only racers are doing it for just that reason?
* LW includes virtually all of the most cost effective, (i.e., /$), bikes.
* Open to all of our licensed racers (unless there is an Amateur annual top-5 bump out?).
* Racers who chose to skip the Endurance practice could be gridded in our current back-of-the-pack, time-of-entry default. (probably a 'practice-only' racer anyway?)
* Maybe we could we add a sub-novice, 'street rider only', 3rd endurance race at the end of the day with a relaxed one-day MRA license:

• * Vouched for by one of the many independent or CTD instructors?
  * Track day tech.
  * Rebate their day's spectator fee.
  * Lots of time to clean up if there is an oily crash.
  * Keep the day's price lower than a committed racer's one-race/weekend price - we can't pull the needle out, but we need to coddle them until they can't either.
  * Available for one season only - if that isn't enough to commit..."screw you guys, you're going home".

* Hell, I'd love to be able to take up Marty's challenge http://forums.mra-racing.org/viewtopic.php?t=9022 and get a backup bike running and available for loan.[/list:u:62447cb792]I'm sure there is more.

We could implement this MANUALLY for the next HPR round. I would forfeit my MW Endurance race and entry fee to help make it work.

(for the curious: Highland Park & Glenlivet 12 yr)

[chrobis]

(Dave)

To your "very worst" comment: maybe that should be the 'best case' scenario - Show up at your club's general meeting, people!!

[Scored51]

I figured it out! I've been trying to feed the cat from the wrong end.

Just thought I'd share this with y'all. I don't think it would be possible for the next race in two weeks, but it is do-able from my end with the following process. It may be a little too detailed for some, but I don't know what provisions the MRA database has for accomplishing what is needed in the plan and who out there would be able to assist with the changes.

1. The online registration system would need to be altered to include a new field for a rider's transponder number. A rider should only need to enter this information once like his/her bike info, bio, or sponsors.

2. Once registrations closes on race day, a .CSV file gets generated from the MRA database of all the rider registrations to populate competitor database in the timing software. This delimited file would need to have created a record for every rider / class entered by a competitor. For example:

- Chris Dale - 51 - 1231823 - LWGP
- Chris Dale - 51 - 1231823 - LWEnd
- Chris Dale - 51 - 1231823 - MWSS

It would also need to contain the remainder of data needed to create entries in the competitor database of the timing software. But the programming geeks get the idea.

3. Qualifying is then run by class - ALL OF THEM. Different classes could run in the same session on track. This would save time, but may also prevent racers from registering for more classes if the two were run at the same time as they couldn't qualify two different bikes in one session. (BTW, one transponder per bike makes the timing system crash.) The only limiting factor I see would be our ability to program a parsing macro once the data needs to be exported. However, this MUST be done by the class of racing.

4. An export file is then generated from the timing software to be imported back into the MRA database into a program which allows for the importation of competitors and printed. This step may or may not be necessary dependent upon my ability to manipulate the printed reports from the timing software. I won't hold my breath because I've already pointed out shortcomings of the report generator to AMB-it.

5. Grids are posted with the approximate speed of results after a race has been run.

As a side note, this process would also automate the class track records thereby increasing the accuracy and speed of them being posted to the website.

Thanks for reading through all that.

[chrobis]

Chris (Dale) -

I smell a working group of some sort.

Several people have expressed their willingness to dive into the guts of this solution; I believe that Dave G would have to direct it.

Please count me in.

[Scored51]

Chris (Dale) -

I smell a working group of some sort.

Several people have expressed their willingness to dive into the guts of this solution; I believe that Dave G would have to direct it.

Please count me in.

Thank you for the support, and I agree whole heartedly. But remember the above answer is for a question that has not been formally asked of the riding membership yet. It's simply a possible path that removes large stumbling blocks in the logistics of making it happen and hopefully gives some insight as to how the race day might play out.

Of course in the three pages of discussion so far, no one has written about our Track Marshall's problems of having to rearrange an already well scheduled two days of racing this late in the season to accommodate such a monumental change.

[benfoxmra95]

Deviation and creativity.....

"I love when a plan comes together." Where's murdock and b.a. Time to get in the van and move on to the next problem and fight the tyranny of evil elsewhere


Btw.....feeding the cat from the wrong end? Defnately something only Tony baker would be trying.

[rforsythe]

Btw.....feeding the cat from the wrong end? Defnately something only Tony baker would be trying.

And suddenly this thread takes a direction nobody saw coming (or wanted to)...

[T Baggins]

Confusious say: "There can be no wrong end."

Yoda say: "No wrong end can there be."

Two geniuses light years apart can't be wrong... :shock:

[PrillerGrrl]

I agree with the concept of qualifying.

I raced in the canadian national series and sudden thundershowers are standard fare. We still ran in the rain but as a matter of policy, qualifying laps were cancelled in the event of heavy rain and practice lap times were used for qualifying and grid placement. We were always told that all practice laps could potentially be counted and not to forget that qualifying laps would be cancelled if we got hit with heavy rain.

I'm not aware of the particulars of tracking all of this and for sure, there were fewer classes compared to what we have in the MRA.. but missing a single race and ending up in the second wave so far back you can see the New Mexico state line isn't a good motivator to come back.

Katie
188

[dragos13]

It agree with the concept of qualifying.

I raced in the canadian national series and sudden thundershowers are standard fare. We still ran in the rain but as a matter of policy, qualifying laps were cancelled in the event of heavy rain and practice lap times were used for qualifying and grid placement. We were always told that all practice laps could potentially be counted and not to forget that qualifying laps would be cancelled if we got hit with heavy rain.

I'm not aware of the particulars of tracking all of this and for sure, there were fewer classes compared to what we have in the MRA.. but missing a single race and ending up in the second wave so far back you can see the New Mexico state line isn't a good motivator to come back.

Katie
188

Hey I saw your post on another thread but can't find it now. I have some decent takeoffs that should be good enough for 1:55's at HPR. Shoot me a PM and I'd be happy to get you on the track next weekend!!!