Quote Originally Posted by TRK View Post
Yup, and I agree with you. We go to the race track to race, and I would be pretty pissed too, if someone crashed going I to turn one first lap two starts in a row and my day was over. That is why the rulebook is worded the way it is, if the TM or board thinks cooler heads will prevail he can move the race to the need of the day. I firmly believe we all show up to race and should be afforded every opportunity to do so.
scott and shannon, all good points and i understand that perspective. but again, supersport and endurance racers end up being penalized because of the time taken for multiple starts in what is typically the first race of the day. so maybe a potential solution would something in between the current rule and my original proposal where after the 2nd red flag the race automatically gets moved to the end of the day, unless the red flags both happen on lap one, where there is likely still time to do a 3rd restart and not make every subsequent race during the day way behind schedule. another option would be to have a max time limit that a regular sprint race can run. so lets say 30 minutes for a novice sprint race at hpr...the clock starts at the first green light, and you've got 30 minutes max to complete the race. so if you red flag on lap 2 after 5 minutes, there's a restart. if the 2nd restart red flags after 5 minutes (or anything <= half that laps), it can get a thrid restart but will be set to a number of laps approximately equal to time remaining. this would prevent what should be a 15 minute race (at hpr) going any longer than 30 minutes. this way multiple red flags still allow the race to happen, non crashing racers aren't unduly penalized, and at worst, the first race of the day would only set back the schedule by 15 minutes max. the track marshall and board could still have the discretion to move the race to the end of the day if they wanted as well so that option still exists.

my goal with this discussion is to figure out a way to not have endurance races cut down by 1/3 of their allotted time because of crashes earlier in the day as well as make sure all racers have the best opportunity to get some good racing in as shannon mentioned.