kids like rispoli, no offence to him, should not be in the class this year. take the top 5 in points, bump them to DSB the following year. bumping the top 5 would eliminate some of the lapping.
AMA wants to fill that grid and take their money. You guys call it following a dream, whatever. I agree with Russ, though. Lappers just keep your lines, the fast guys will figure on a way through. Lappers are part of the race and should be a part of the winners plan.
It was a great weekend of Racing Regardless and Jake pretty much wrapped it up regardless... Kudos to ALL of the racers out there.. It was as Hot as a MoFo and the 2 Reds in the Begining of Sunday didnt help...
lol people bitch about the cost of racing and the purses ok, let's cut the field in half, less racers, less entry fees, smaller purses, etc... if it's not one thing it's another I think their is definitely a happy medium but cutting half the field is not the answer I personally think the rule allowing anyone to enter an AMA race once you get your expert license is a bigger problem than anything else. what happened to having to accrue a certain amount of races/points first? dropping that rule was stoopid
This fascination people have with full grids is all well and good unless it turns in to a safety issue. Sure, its an entry level pro class but it is a pro class. If you cant hold your line and get spooked by people passing you you are a year or 2 from being ready for any pro class.
The Superbike cutoff is at 107% and they still had lappers. DSB lapped up to 18th on Sunday. Cutting the field down to reduce lappers is not really practical. MotoGP usually has a couple of lappers each race. It is not a matter of holding your line or being spooked, the guy on the yellow bike was holding his line and then the race line intersected the turn 2 "out of the way" line coming down to turn 3. All he could have done was slow down more before he got to that point, but there was no way to know how many or how fast they were coming. If he weren't required to get out of the way, they would have likely caught him on the straight after the hill and it would not have been a problem because he would be riding a normal predictable line that the leaders could have passed. My $.02.
The only way to eliminate the "problem" of lappers and the problems they "cause", is to do what happens at the top level karting series in the US. Black Flag the backmarker the lap before they are expected to be caught. I suppose in bike racing, it would be the "Meatball" flag. The first three of four families love that rule, they don't have to pass anyone, the midpack families that love to race even though they aren't fast enough to be in the top 2 are just happy to not get the black flag, and the families that are realizing that being the fastest at the home track doesn't translate to being the fastest in the country, are working hard to not get lapped. My kid has been in all three scenarios. Getting pulled off early sucks. My opinion, leave the backmarkers on the track, on their racing line. Let the fast guys show they can handle lap traffic. My reasoning, when US karters go to race on the Worldwide stage, they tend to do well in practice and qualifying, but not so well in the races. Fast in the US means you aren't passing very many people, backmarker or not. Once in the deeper World pool, passing is required as the front row isn't assured in qualifying or the Pre-final. Dumb question, Why would AMA rules appear to be different from US Club racing rules, and World racing rules when it comes to backmarkers and their lines?
they should go back to the minimum 1 full expert season/xxx points as an expert with an approved org (wera/ccs/cmra/etc) before being eligible for a "pro" license. it would remove the novices, i mean 1st year experts from the grid
DMG wants to do it right, they'd buy WERA, get Evelyne to stay on, and use it as a full on feeder series. To move up to DMG Pro you have to have X number of years as a WERA expert or create a new classification, something like Pro-Am for people with the goal of moving up.
I agree. As a first year expert I decided I needed a year before I went. I wish I was out there but its not smart for me to be. I see several guys I regularly beat getting in the way. Ill wait till next year to get in the way
Just like the first part of your post stated - entries and fees..... and round and around we go........ Do what's best financially - do what's best for the racing. When things aren't going well, these are at odds with each other. So is it pure racing? or is it a business? Oh wait, maybe both. There in lies the screw - a compromise that screws both sides in trying to balance the two.
+1 meelion ! It was brutal and felt worse than some of the WERA rounds I remember at the GNF. By Vesrah's crew chief Walker Jemison, Jake had 7 extra laps on his soft tires due to the 2 red flags. Then add on the 15 regular laps and he just couldn't make his passes stick due to tire degredation when he and Rispoli were dukeing it out the final laps of Sunday's race. FYI - due to the extreme track surface temps they were running the rear tires at 16 psi versus the normal 28psi !
