Race length...

**McDuck** · 26th May 2008, 22:25

Well after my second marshaling experience at the VMC meet at taupo i got a feeling. I feel the races were to short. It just seemed like some guys were not into the zone till to late in the race to really do anything. It also meant that if you missed the start etc there was little chance. So what do ya recon racers? I recon a good race length would be 8-10 laps of main taupo not 5. So what do you think?

**Sketchy_Racer** · 26th May 2008, 22:37

your on the money there mate!

**koba** · 26th May 2008, 22:46

The two day event run by Vicclub (Round5 I think?) Has longer races that are awesome.

I'm not in the know too much but Clivoris, Grub, Nasty or someone who is may be able to give a better, more informed answer but

It is possible for that weekend because all the qualifiying is doen on the first day, without that I think there just Isn't enough time in the day to fit every one in.
I'm not in the know too much but Clivoris, Grub, Nasty or someone who is may be able to give a better, more informed answer but:

As far as I know as much racing as possible for everybody is jammed into the day, the second races (some at least) were made 5 laps instead of 4 due to a healthy lack of crashes and other holdups so that was a really positive thing.

The grids were packed this time with the trend set to continue.
The track is only able to be raced on within certain hours due to noise regulations and the like (and daylight in winter) so that becomes a limiting factor.
Also I believe getting enough reliable marshalls to run the events is difficult and also possibly a limiting factor for the organisers. This may be partly due to the HUGE participation rate!

SO once again big ups to the organisers for giving us as much as we get and to you and the other marshalls for allowing it to all happen

**CHOPPA** · 26th May 2008, 23:13

yeah man way to short! Seemed like the day was run well and on time I guess the only thing to do would be cut down on some classes, most of the entries were cross entrys anyway.

**ArcherWC** · 27th May 2008, 06:59

maybe run F1 and F2 together but as seperate classes, would allow for twice the race length. no cross entry but just as much racing for the 600's and twice as much for the 1000's

**chanceyy** · 27th May 2008, 07:07

Originally Posted by koba

The two day event run by Vicclub (Round5 I think?) Has longer races that are awesome.

I'm not in the know too much but Clivoris, Grub, Nasty or someone who is may be able to give a better, more informed answer but

It is possible for that weekend because all the qualifying is done on the first day, without that I think there just Isn't enough time in the day to fit every one in.

As far as I know as much racing as possible for everybody is jammed into the day, the second races (some at least) were made 5 laps instead of 4 due to a healthy lack of crashes and other holdups so that was a really positive thing.

The grids were packed this time with the trend set to continue.
The track is only able to be raced on within certain hours due to noise regulations and the like (and daylight in winter) so that becomes a limiting factor.
Also I believe getting enough reliable marshalls to run the events is difficult and also possibly a limiting factor for the organisers. This may be partly due to the HUGE participation rate!

SO once again big ups to the organisers for giving us as much as we get and to you and the other marshalls for allowing it to all happen

Good answer Koba .. & from my understanding the parts highlighted in blue above are correct

as you state one of the committee can verify, but from my perspective there was only one 7 min delay all day when we had 4 bikes to get off the track, other than that the delays were minimal

**McDuck** · 27th May 2008, 08:28

Yea. What i was thinking was i would rather have one 9-10 lap race than two 4 lap races. We shall see and i cant wait for the 21st ")

**Nicksta** · 27th May 2008, 10:00

i liked the 5 lap race... for the first round, it was just long enough to stil reel in people if you needed to.. 6 would have been the best.. but as they said at briefing... they just couldnt fit them all in in the time frame with so many entries

it is still club level, and 8-10 laps is a tough ask when it takes on average 1m50secs a lap.. thats a 20min race right there... (length of the VMCC enduro race last year)
As a racer, I would prefer 2-3 sprint races over 1 large race, its more starts and finishes and excitement to talk about in the pits....
cheers

**R6_kid:Me** · 27th May 2008, 10:17

Overseas top level racing is upwards of 15 laps per race. Of course they are running a max of maybe 5-6 classes, and generally have a race weekend where the qualifying is done on one day and the racing the next, sometimes with an open practice day before hand.

To be honest I dont think there is enough money in racing in NZ to make this viable. People would then atleast double their bill for the weekend with extra accomodation and meals etc and some of the classes aren't really big enough to justify running long races.

At the end of the day I think you'd need to find the balance between exciting (ie close, shorter?) racing and not being so long that all that's happen is the gaps between the placings are just growing such as what tends to happen in MotoGP/WSBK towards the end of long races.

**koba** · 27th May 2008, 10:29

Oh, another important point is the number of bikes on the track at one time is limited for saftey reasons, again don't quote me but I think 35 at manfeild and taupo track can run 42 cars so I think they put the bike cut off around there for the event in the weekend.

**Tony.OK** · 27th May 2008, 10:33

Would it work if the faster classes had more laps than the slower?Worked out on an overall race time rather than amount of laps.
So the slower classes may get 5 laps but the faster get say 7 but races are about the same length in time.
I'm still a newbie but it sorta makes sense.

**svs** · 27th May 2008, 11:23

I guess that would work tony, but then some of the slower classes complain that they're not getting the same number of laps as the 'big guys'. sometimes you cannot win.

also the reason for 2 (or 3) shorter sprint races rather than 1 longer race is that in the case of accidents or delays, then the first class out might get its full allocation of laps, but the last class may not get the full allocation. and that's not very fair.

with shorter races, the program can be altered during the day and shortening or lengthening of races can be split evenly between the classes

**Toast** · 27th May 2008, 13:11

I think that it's handled pretty alright as it is.

Longer races are great, but the compromise is either less classes or more days both of which mean more cost, or having fewer races.

Having more short ones gives you more time to play with set up and reflect on what you're doing.

Although it's not ideal, given cost/time considerations I think that the current format works pretty well.

**slowpoke** · 27th May 2008, 15:24

Originally Posted by ArcherWC

maybe run F1 and F2 together but as seperate classes, would allow for twice the race length. no cross entry but just as much racing for the 600's and twice as much for the 1000's

This is exactly what I was thinking. At the moment there is absolutely no incentive for people to step up to what should be our premier class (Superbikes) as they would effectively get less racing. As a result we end up with a over-subscribed 600 fields and only 11 genuine Superbikes.
There definitely needs to be a rationalisation of classes with an emphasis on progressing racers through the classes.

Don't get me started on why motards are catered for as a separate class at a road race meeting.....