Actively competing excludes the actual act of crashing and subsequently running for cover from the oncoming pack. Ok that makes sense. This is a motorcycle race. Crashing is part of actively competing. Until he's sitting on his ass for a lap, hes still competing.
Well as I said I'm talking about numerous instances over several years, so certainly not referring to you, or this particular incident. There was confusion followed by vigorous online discussion after red flags at WSBK with Sykes at Donington, Suzuka 8HR with Johnny Rea, MotoAmerica with Fong at Barber, Gagne at Brainerd, Daytona 2023, etc etc. Often starts right after the incident when the commentators blurt out something like "he caused the red flag so he won't be allowed to restart/he'll have to start from the back" which is not in the FIM/MA/FIM NA rulebook, but fans take it and run with it. Or "he has to get back to the pits in 5 minutes" which I guess it turns out is not the case here? I didn't know that. Or Daytona 200 this year, "Petersen's XX laps down so forget about him, he's not really in the race anymore" which many of us assumed was the case. Or how and when time penalties were applied for speeding in pit lane, after the 200 this year it was clear that several of the participants were unclear on the rules they were operating under, so sometimes it's not just the fans or the commentators. I'm glad they attempted to explain themselves, whether we agree with every call or not at least we get to hear their reasoning, unlike what we've seen in MotoGP lately. And like you I especially give Nicole credit for soliciting feedback so they can improve their operations going forward, like they did after Daytona, then changed the rules for Barber and Laguna EXT SSP so for instance a rider who was down a lap wasn't going to get it back on a red flag restart.
Moto A digging a bigger hole with this one. If motoA is saying they threw the red flag because of the multi bike crash, thats PROOF RIGHT THERE Gus was competing. The ONLY way their case makes any sense is if they threw the red because Gus crashed and didnt move away from the racing surface so he would force a red so he could restart.
what if he sat in a gravel trap and threw handfuls of rocks onto the track to get a red flag? Or made pavement angels for one?
Started raining on lap 5. Rocco and Gus were leading and waved and pointed to the track for 3 laps as they went past the tower. Wasn't stopped until there were multiple crashes. Some teams began changing to rains on hot pit but stopped because it hadn't been declared a wet race and tire changes are not permitted.