Some Road Atlanta facts

I want to clarify the second red flag as I have more information - he did not go onto the track. He did go next to the track while still waving his arms (per the corner worker and riders who didn't know if there was something huge going on past that point or what) then went back by the bike and "collapsed".

 

It was an issue with one half soaked and the other dry, then it swapped before it became consistent. Just as I would have called for a red in that situation and we have done so many times in the past we couldn't restart that way.

I ask for advice when I need it and have done so repeatedly over the years - having some sort of meeting with team reps wouldn't have changed anything. Having riders and teams vote on things is rarely ever a good idea, yeah it gives people warm and fuzzies if they're on the winning side but causes hatred from the other side and way more bullshit than it is ever worth. We have the more much experience running races safely than anyone on any of the teams. I honestly don't care if you agree with my decision Saturday or not but know I made it based on a lot of experience and the underlying first thought is always rider safety. For some reason people keep forgetting I am a race fan and my entire job is putting bikes on track, I have absolutely no interest in teams sitting on pit lane or riders sitting in the paddock.

 

So wait, you're fine with shutting down even longer than waiting 45 minutes to clean up the riders and teams who made the wrong call? Because with the runoff being as it was we couldn't get the crash truck or ambulance off track, that means a red flag anytime anyone is hurt or anything is in dangerous spot.

Interesting.

 

I never said rain tires go off immediately, the newest batches seem to actually work pretty well on a dry track for quite a while.

Doesn't change that having a tire for one extreme or another doesn't work when the track is drastically different in one half from the other.

 

Yeah and when your bad decision results in you dying I don't sleep for a while, not to mention spending time in depositions when your family decides to sue us.

 

Yep, and I'm good with the call I made no matter how mad people are. Only rider who left in a flashy box crashed on the warmup of the 2 hour earlier that morning. Given the weather I'll take that as a huge success.

 

One rider screwing up - even as badly as in this case - isn't something I really fault the entire team for. If it were the only way to get through to the rider then we'd have to penalize the team - and may still do so - but at the time I was still getting more information and we will be penalizing the rider.

 

Cold tires are not inherently unsafe.

I find it absolutely hilarious that people think we should have put them out on a track that was half dry and half wet and still insist at the same time they don't have the throttle control to warm up their tires.

Requiring every single team to have a generator is a great way to kill the series growing like it has. It's hard enough to get people to do it without large tanks and quick fills and quick change everything that they see as being a necessity. Cords across pit lane are a hazard. The entire theory about how we could honk a horn and give everyone a certain time period to take them off and clear pit lane is great but I can't even get 1/3 of the teams to get their helmets and gloves on and fire the bike up to make the warm up lap without all of that.

Is it something that could happen? Yep. We'll see how the series plays out as we go forward. But years of safe cold tire starts prove it is not a safety issue and isn't a necessity.

 

If the tire alone is the only circumstance, yeah I could see saying that. I will say I'm still a little pissed at the rider coming all the way from T4 to pit in with a flat rear but he didn't crash while doing it. Just slow enough to be a hazard for the other riders.

Now if you're factoring in tires and weather and the track and so on, sometimes it's easy to deal with it for the rider, other times not so much.

 

In a sprint I agree, in endurance races its the number of laps complete in green flag racing.

I will obviously be considering levying a penalty for any team causing a race to end under red for the future but I still remember the bad old days of having to assign blame for red flags on riders. It is much better with the current method for sprints. Used to be that the rider who caused it was dq'd and anyone else left in the results - so you could win a race after crashing if your crash didn't cause the red.