Pitt Race endurance round 2023

I’m curious to see how they enforce only racers being allowed at the track day. When asked N2 said “You must run a working transponder. Easy to figure out if you are registered or not…”

So if a racer is racing Saturday on a team but not Sunday are they allowed to practice on their own bike Friday using a transponder not registered to any races providing they purchased a spot at the track day?

If a team has purchased two spots one for the A and one for the B bike can they run an unregistered transponder on which ever bike they do not want lap times to count on?

Or are they trying to say teams are only allowed to run a single bike in practice unless they have riders signed up for races Sunday or are doing the relay?

My team has a spot and I doubt we will get another one on from the waitlist so this doesn’t apply to me. I am excited to go to the riders meeting as I’m sure these scenarios are going to pop up and I’m sure track day guys are going to try and slip through the cracks. Especially if they took PTO and booked hotels etc.

 

I’m not racing, so I canceled the trackday. I buy the N2 season pass, so it’s just a lost day for me. But I’m not going to be that guy. Kind of disappointed, but I’ll be racing next year.

I was riding the Friday practice before the races last year (at least when there wasn’t a flag). That was the first time I was at a track for a race weekend instead of just trackdays. I was like this is awesome, I have to start racing. Seeing these qualifying cut off times, I should have started racing this year. Enjoy my spot. Looking forward to taking someone’s spot next year.

 

I'm curious how N2 will divide the sessions since there will only be licensed racers riding Friday. My recommendation would be MWT and HWT group 1, LWT and 1/3 of ULW group 2 and final 2/3 of ULW group 3. This is just a guess based on grid sizes of each class and trying to even out the group sizes and also reduce closing speeds since qualifying times will be taken. Pitt Race last year had 7 HWT teams, 15 MWT teams, LWT 13 teams, ULW 30 teams. Relay last year was 10 teams but this year is limited to 5+ and there is a mix of bike sizes to spread across the 3 groups.

 

ULWT, LWT, MW/HW

 

"Only" 30 ULWT teams means 30 bikes on track if ULWT has their own session, and 30 bikes at Pitt is really light. I think N2 and Evolve cap the groups at 45 or 50 per group.

ULWT race is separate from the regular race for speed differences on track...practice shouldn't be any different (And the practices aren't any different for sprint weekends, with either WERA or CCS)

Relay class entries should be put into whichever group is smaller (LWT or MW-HW) to balance out group sizes.

Have someone watch start finish to ensure each bike on track has a transponder (no relay teams or B bikes getting 'extra' seat time in) and it should be fairly easy to regulate.

 

ULW and LW practice in the same session for sprints.

 

N2 doesn't separate ULW bikes from other sizes at their track days. WERA also combines ULW bikes and LWT bikes in the same practice group during sprint race weekends. In past N2 trackday events before the endurance race day all Relay team members could roll out on track at the same time if each has paid to do so. I've also watched 4 hr teams roll out together if they have paid to do so as well. They don't stick to only one bike and trade off. If they had 4 riders and had to do that they would only get 2 sessions with one rider only getting 1 session. Totally unfair if each person has paid to practice.

 

What if you had an endurance team with 4 riders but only one team entry?

And there's still not enough ULW bikes to justify having their own groups at track days. 30 ULW's on track at once is a little different story. I would say I've seen, on average, one to three ULW bikes at any given Advanced group session (Not counting Friday race practice days, normal track day weekends) that I've attended in the last 3 seasons.

 

Edit- you said track day weekend

 

Keeping in mind that there are going to be a number of people practicing for sprints Sunday and not doing endurance.
Does seem logical though to run ULWT, LWT, and 600/1000 groups.

 

If each bike is required to have a transponder when on track, how is the organization going to go with tracking which displacement bikes in the relay teams have?

One team might have LWT/MWT/HWT, but there's only one transponder. Multiply this by 5 teams.

There's no way this can be efficiently tracked.

 

In past N2 practice days before the endurance round transponders aren't required. Just the sticker from N2 inspection and verification you paid to ride. Qualifying times were set during Saturday morning warm up. Teams put their fastest rider out there with the transponder. If qualifying times will be taken Friday I suspect the same theory will hold true with the teams fastest rider carrying the transponder on their bike and none on other bikes if they paid to ride. I'm sure N2 will have a good plan and communicate that plan at the riders meeting Friday morning.

 

45-50 bikes on the track at once is complete chaos. Now imagine those 50 bikes are a mix of people racing that weekend and normal trackday enthusiasts... That's why the trackday at Pitt last year with N2 was such a crap show... Props to N2 for making it a racer only day! Hopefully that alone prevents so many bikes riding at such different paces being on the track at once. I understand its a bummer for the trackday guys who signed up, but this really does make it safer for all involved.

 

I love how well you listen to all the riders Sean. We love having our voices heard so well And here I was afraid nobody learned anything after what happened last year...

 

I was in the intermediate group last year on that Friday as a trackday rider. I’m not complaining that it’s racers only this year so people racing can practice, but the trackday people were not the issue. I’ve done a lot of N2 trackdays, and I have never seen so many unpredictable people lost through the esses and swooping everywhere. I wouldn’t ride in that group again if you paid me.

I think to some extent the speed difference in the groups this year will be greater if they mix the racers from the intermediate group in with the advanced groups based on bike size. IIRC, there were 4 groups: 3 advanced based on size and 1 intermediate for all sizes. So group sizes were actually smaller than normal. I was only doing 1:59-2:01s and there were people a lot slower than me.

One of the racers complained I passed her on the first lap of the session between t4 and t5 and needed to let my tires warm up.

 

https://www.roadracingworld.com/new...-from-injuries-sustained-during-n2-track-day/