2015 Rulebook Suggestions

[peteyt328]

Rule Change:

1. No fork extenders in Supersport. The rules are vague but say something to the tune of aftermarket caps are allowed strictly for the purpose of adjusting components, not for altering geometry past stock limitations. No different than the shock linkage I got shot down for last year.

2.2.2-D-b: Fork springs may be replaced with optional or after-market springs. Fork caps may be modified or replaced to allow external adjustment of fork springs only

Proposed: Fork springs may be replaced with optional or after-market springs. Fork caps
may be modified or replaced to allow external adjustment of fork springs only, and must be of OEM height. Extended fork caps are not allowed.


Procedural Changes:

1. Practice - As Wyeth suggested, break up practice into groups based on speed. There have been multiple incidents this year due to the current practice format, plus we have enough sessions that I can take naps between each of my practices. I have raced with several other clubs that do A,B,C,D or Slow/Med/Fast based on lap times and it seems to work much better. I personally like 3 groups since it allows more track time for each group, and could potentially cut the length of our days down so we're not cutting down race length to beat the rain every weekend. however since the 250/300's are in a class of their own perhaps we break it up as follows (using HPR as an example):

Production 250, 300, 400, etc - 15 min
middleweight and open bikes > 2:00 - 15 min
Middleweight and Open bikes > 1:53 and < 2:00 - 15 min
Middleweight and Open bikes < 1:53 - 15 min


2. 3rd call - our 3rd calls tend to be sporadic and leave people either sitting on the grid for 5 minutes or having to start from pre-grid because they wanted to keep some heat in their tires. Reason being the call is made at the checkered and that guy that was about to get lapped still has to make 2 more laps before exiting the track. How can we make this consistent? Make 3rd call when the last place guy (that hasn't been lapped) crosses the checkered, and enforce that the riders are released 1 minute after 3rd call (May need to add 30 sec depending on track). 1 minute is plenty of time to pull warmers and get to pre-grid, and we'll have consistency that everybody can count on.


3. Blue Flags in ROR - I've brought the blue flag up before and got some heat that this was a bad idea because many riders aren't experienced enough to safely get out of the way. Fair enough, but in ROR every rider should be experienced enough to see where the lap traffic is and try to stay out of the way. I've seen some close calls, and a couple bad accidents, due to lap traffic in a heated ROR race.


4. Double header race weekends - I know this has been discussed before. I've thought about this one a lot, and at first I didn't like the idea, but after racing with clubs like Chuckwalla I really liked this format. Essentially this turns a 7 round season into 14 rounds, making scoring a lot more reasonable and crashing out or having a mechanical isn't a season killer. It also gives the guys who race superbikes the opportunity to race Sat and Sun rather than sitting around waiting all day saturday because we've structured our schedule to be supersport dominant Saturday and Superbike dominant Sunday. Sure, we'd have to cut down on some of our classes; but let's be honest, we have more classes than CU's undergrad program. Many of which are duplicative, or don't even have enough riders to create a 3rd row (if you want suggestions just ask).


5. Red Flags - Round 7 was actually really good, but for most of the season it seemed like the red flags were revealing themselves easier than a hooker on Colfax. I realize this is going to be a sensitive subject but it's frustrating when we have to restart a race multiple times, start cutting laps off all other races, and keep the beers in the coolers until 7PM, when most of the red flags were minor accidents. I know this is a call the corner workers have to make and if somebody is seriously injured we don't want to delay sending the ambulance out. But I can think of several red flags this season that were typical low sides, off the track, and rider was up quickly and ok... Just something to consider.

[Chadwick929]

2. 3rd call - our 3rd calls tend to be sporadic and leave people either sitting on the grid for 5 minutes or having to start from pre-grid because they wanted to keep some heat in their tires. Reason being the call is made at the checkered and that guy that was about to get lapped still has to make 2 more laps before exiting the track. How can we make this consistent? Make 3rd call when the last place guy (that hasn't been lapped) crosses the checkered, and enforce that the riders are released 1 minute after 3rd call (May need to add 30 sec depending on track). 1 minute is plenty of time to pull warmers and get to pre-grid, and we'll have consistency that everybody can count on.

Since I was grid girl for a bit last season, I thought I'd throw some info about this. 3rd call is made when the checkered is thrown, then pre-grid is "supposed to" let everyone go once the last bike clears a certain turn. Like at HPR, we usually let you guys go once we clear Turn 9 or 10. If we did 3rd call when the last bike passes start finish, I think more people would be late to pre-grid and more people would be starting from pre-grid because they only have a minute or 2 to get out there. So I don't know if waiting would be the best option, but I do know that pre-grid should be more consistent in letting you guys go. AND we also need to be more consistent on announcing that the air fences are going to be blown up between a race. I think that's one of the areas where we could see the biggest improvement. I saw it a couple times at Round 7 where we knew that we were going to to the air fences, so made the call for a hold. I think that could be greatly improved if we could keep that up, instead of just deciding to do it right before a race or practice is about to start.

3. Blue Flags in ROR - I've brought the blue flag up before and got some heat that this was a bad idea because many riders aren't experienced enough to safely get out of the way. Fair enough, but in ROR every rider should be experienced enough to see where the lap traffic is and try to stay out of the way. I've seen some close calls, and a couple bad accidents, due to lap traffic in a heated ROR race.

I think it's a good idea for ROR, BUT, the problem is getting corner workers to see who the leaders are and getting the flag up. Some of the corner workers just see bikes going by and wouldn't know which is which. So maybe that's a Chris decision on whether or not we would do that. I think it would be a cool thing and I know I'd be able to figure that out, especially for ROR, but some people couldn't and it would be inconsistent. Maybe on Sunday we have the most consistant workers in certain corners throughout the track that would be willing to throw a blue flag and announce those corners in the rider's meeting for Sunday so the ROR guys will know where to look for them if they are about to be lapped.

5. Red Flags - Round 7 was actually really good, but for most of the season it seemed like the red flags were revealing themselves easier than a hooker on Colfax. I realize this is going to be a sensitive subject but it's frustrating when we have to restart a race multiple times, start cutting laps off all other races, and keep the beers in the coolers until 7PM, when most of the red flags were minor accidents. I know this is a call the corner workers have to make and if somebody is seriously injured we don't want to delay sending the ambulance out. But I can think of several red flags this season that were typical low sides, off the track, and rider was up quickly and ok... Just something to consider.

We throw the red for a rider down or a bike in the race line. We did throw a red for rain too. When making the call about a bike down, we call, "Bike down, Turn 4" wait for it..... "Rider is up" or.... "Rider is down". Then it's red flagged. We do wait a few seconds to see if the rider gets up first. There were a couple instances where the rider was down and then popped right up after the red flag was thrown. I know when I raced Round 4, in NovO the red flag was thrown because there was a bike on the track. It wasn't quite in the racing line, but it was close enough for me to have to check up and go around it just before the red was thrown. Sometimes there's nothing you can do about it, but we try to not call a red flag unless it's completely necessary. I remember one of the rounds at HPR it seemed like every race had a red flag! But again, if it needs to be thrown, we aren't worried about the beer in the cooler till 7pm, gotta make sure everyone is safe.

[MikeinDenver]

I think it's a good idea for ROR, BUT, the problem is getting corner workers to see who the leaders are and getting the flag up. Some of the corner workers just see bikes going by and wouldn't know which is which. So maybe that's a Chris decision on whether or not we would do that. I think it would be a cool thing and I know I'd be able to figure that out, especially for ROR, but some people couldn't and it would be inconsistent. Maybe on Sunday we have the most consistant workers in certain corners throughout the track that would be willing to throw a blue flag and announce those corners in the rider's meeting for Sunday so the ROR guys will know where to look for them if they are about to be lapped.

I have wondered about this myself. Watching F1 blue flags are going all the time. Having worked all three tracks this year(my first year) I think some tracks would be easier to do this on than others. HPR corners can't see much if any of the track beyond their section. I would think it would require either tracking equipment at the corners or maybe a separate radio channel with one person at the corner pretty much dedicated to that, working with the rest so they knew whom to blue flag. I like the idea but I think it would be difficult to implement reliably.

We need a live timing app like the F1 app.

[The GECCO]

Blue Flags in ROR [/COLOR]- I've brought the blue flag up before and got some heat that this was a bad idea because many riders aren't experienced enough to safely get out of the way. Fair enough, but in ROR every rider should be experienced enough to see where the lap traffic is and try to stay out of the way. I've seen some close calls, and a couple bad accidents, due to lap traffic in a heated ROR race.

Blue flags are a bad idea. The safest way for a pass to happen is it the person getting passed never sees it coming. The problem with the blue flag is that no matter how "good" or "bad" the lapped rider is, there's always the potential for a problem when someone intentionally goes off line. I watched Eric Bostrom (leading) get pushed off the track at PPIR by a rider who was shown the blue flag and moved over....right to where Bostrom was already committed to make the pass. If there was no flag, the pass would have been incident free. Traffic is a part of racing.

The other problem is deciding who earns the privilege of the blue flag? Obviously lappers being passed by the leader would get it, but what about when 2nd place comes through? Or 3rd? or 10th? Why should some riders get an "assist" with traffic and others not?

It should never be anyone's job to get out of the way. As the overtaking rider, it's your responsibility to make a safe and appropriate pass, whether it's a lapper or for position. If you catch someone mid-corner and get held up, that's racing.

Lastly, as much as I love the workers, virtually none of them are even close to being experienced enough to know when to display the flag, and we don't have the ability to have a central "control" person advising them when to display it.

If this is purely an RoR thing, perhaps the best way to solve it is to lower the threshold to 107% and make it a RULE rather than a recommendation. The reason I say 107% is that if the RoR winner runs 14 laps and the lapper runs 13, that's roughly a 7% difference. Obviously that goes out the window for a track as short as PPIR, but it's a place to start.