10-12 second pit stops may keep you on the lead lap if the rider is clocking ~<1:52s. Look at the top 15 qualifying times. Maybe there is ~some sandbagging but not much. Even if you subtracted a 1/2 second from the best qualifying times and didnt account for any other in race incidents & had perfectly executed stops with no impediments on pit road... 56 laps is a long time... provided the race doesnt get restarted on lap 54...lol. Thats 2 full stops (f & r tires, 4+ gallons of fuel) w/ the rider OFF the bike. Just catching the bike & rider exiting is 1.5 sec & you cant do fuel/tires simultaneous.
Why do you think there was sandbagging going on, in the second session the top seven riders were within a second of each other?
i said maybe... obviously as the race goes on some may benefit from the draft allowing them an extra lap or the opposite. I seem to remember guys going faster in the race vs qualifying the past few years. Its easier to execute a flawless pitstop with less traffic on pit road. Obviously it wasnt green the whole race.
12 seconds, under the current rules package where you are not able to fuel the bike and put hands on it at the same time, is pretty fast.
This is what they do and/or used to do at indoor/outdoor track meets. However, they only had to monitor 8 lanes. Couldn’t imagine tracking 69 bikes for what 3hrs???
Imagine the air time and exposure MC racing could have gotten if the 200 ran? Might have even run on an actual television channel
Similar positive exposure like the 1979 Daytona 500. Where's Aaron Yates when you need him the most?