MotoAmerica my perspective.

the rider was not on the race course.. he was some distance away in the gravel/dirt. (or do you mean you agree that the only time a car should be on course is to shield a rider that is down, on course)

totally agree sooner on the flag, and totally no reason to have a vehicle on the course.

 

He wasn't on the track but in the impact zone.

 

I agree that the sc had no business stopping. The rider was off the course. We could very easily be discussing how unfortunate it was that someone or several riders crashed because of where it was stopped. The nit-wit driving the sc should by default assume that the race is still green and park off-line in case it isn't red-flagged.

 

If a car is required to follow the grid on the start i feel that the red flag should fly the moment it stops anywhere on the hot race course. FOR REASONS OF RIDER SAFETY. The rider on the ground and the riders racing deserve no less!!
Tim

 

Many riders were clearly surprised to see the sc on track and I would call that a near miss that could have been avoided. I cringed as I saw the pack check up and swerve to avoid the car and each other. The red flag should have come at at start finish and they pushed the decision too late in the hopes of keeping the race going.

The mixed class is growing on me. Bottom line, there were 30+ bikes racing for SBK points. Most were racing a lesser spec bike, but they were all racing for SBK points. The red plates made it easy to see who was in the race within a race for STK points. I could easily see the race between the leading red plates and thought it was good. Slick chasing Herrin will always be a good show! In the end however, I would just have everyone run to STK rules.

How about a KTM 690 class? Or something in the 70-80 hp range.

 

I agree and I'm sure everybody else does, but, common sense would tell the driver to not park on the race-line in the middle of a hard-to-see-through corner at least until they KNOW FOR A FACT that it has been red-flagged.

 

The drivers responsibility is to get the Trauma Doctor to the potential patient as quickly as possible. I have no issue with using the car as a shield. As soon as that car stopped they should have thrown the red flag which would have been going up the hill to the corkscrew, the slowest point on the track. That would have taken riders straight into the pit and nowhere near the car.

 

Decisions on flags felt slow all weekend. We went through T3 twice with a dozen Geese on the track before our session was red flagged to clear them off. We didn't get a flag for animals on course only a waving yellow on the exit of T2.

There were a few other times that I went past an incident and was surprised there wasn't a flag before it as the rider was already up and the bike was being moved.

Having said that, the weekend went incredibly smooth even with the red flags that were thrown.

 

yep, and the car shoulda been anywhere but on the race course As suggested, if the car had to stop in this area, it woulda been better to have sto

throwing a red prior to riders getting to pit in before the crash, will never be possible all the time. but that car had zero business being there. the fucking thing should have LEFT and continued on to pit in after dropping the doctor off (if that's what it did) instead of stopping on a HOT track. hot as in there were bikes coming.. even if the red came out just before the first riders arrived at that scene.

 

Using the car as a shield to protect one rider and possibly kill 3 more makes no sense. That's why they use the non-deadly tough-blocks labeled 'doctor' when someone truly is in a bad location. Just my .02

 

they didn't use it as a shield.. i think that is where Rob, myself, and some are getting confused.. the oncoming bikes were in DIRECT line of sight to the fallen rider. the car was just up ahead, not being a shield at all. it was just in the friggin way, and a danger to all riders coming outa T2 and into T3.

now, IF they moved the car off the pavement to block a fallen rider? different story. but they didnt' do that.

 

I myself didn't think it was being used as a shield either but had to comment on the thought of it being even slighty thought of as a sensible thing to do if that were the case.

 

I was in turn four and haven't seen the video, but from my perspective it appeared to be shielding them, but I was a bit far.

Ultimately the responsibility to know and act on the situation lies with race direction. They were very slow to act.luckily no one was hurt.

 

From what I remember the car stopped past the riders, as Wyatt highsided mid turn and the car was right at the exit point.

 

Will be arguing for new rule. Car stops, red flag gets thrown. There was no medical personnel in car. The car is a flashy light feature for tv that i presume has the purpose of reporting to race control whats happening on sighting, warm up and first lap prior to pulling off into pit lane. You can hear that on the team frequency. Gives opportunity for car manufacturer to pay organization for exposure and give vip ridealong capability. I'm good with all that til it stops on track!
Tim

 

The car was too far to really shield the rider but just far enough to barely not get hit by a pack of approaching riders.

 

If that's the case it doesn't belong on track and it did a shit job of reporting what was going on. I thought it carried the track doc with it.

 

I didn't see any waving yellow or ambulance flags anywhere. You could see Josh put a leg out going into T2, then holding up a hand getting those behind him slowed. But it didn't look like he was expecting to see a car in T3. That's where a yellow or ambulance comes into play.

 

We had a red flag over turn one (yes, real turn one, just at the crest after start finish). Plenty of time in my opinion and from my perspective at the time, think I was 9th or 10th or so, nothing seemed sketchy or surprising to anyone.

Also, we were still all relatively at speed because the soft tires that 90% of us were running don't heat-cycle well during red flags. We all want to get back to the pits quickly to keep heat in them throughout the lap and get back on warmers.

 

Thanks Kyle. Its good to hear from your perspective. Hard to tell from way up pit lane. It felt like the flag was slow. Anytime that car stops on track i think the red flag should be shown immediately. Takes the decision making delay out of the equation.
Tim