Manfeild slip road use

[Skunk]

Manfeild old suites closed
Posted on 01 Sep 2012


The original Manfeild suites, constructed around 30 years ago, ....
The perfect slip road veiwing platform is going too...........................

Copyright infringement! Stolen from the Vic Club website!

[JayRacer37]

Couple of points in the above statement for everybody to consider,

1/ Its not whats is in your head thats required for a redflag incident,Its whats in the rulebook,Assuming everybody's read it,Then they'll all be thinking the same thing and any chance of an incident is greatly averted.

2/ Once in the slip road,EVERYBODY should stop and remain behind the whiteline until signalled its clear to cross the track,No matter how or why you ended up there,Thats the protocol,NO EXCEPTIONS,I observed at the last round a number of riders pull up between the whiteline and the edge of the track while waiting to be signalled to cross,There is a strict protocol to be followed for the use of that section and if your not sure,Ask at riders briefing or approach the riders rep for clarification,Do not enter the race control room and start asking questions while they are running the meeting.

Billy, I think I need to clarify here - I meant 'In my head/to my way of thinking that is the best way to handle a red flag' not "I think that was what the rule was"

[JayRacer37]

I've only ever seen them in the middle of the track, but it's been a year since I did a vic club meeting.

Jay did say that he came hurtling round to find a marshal standing on the track too though.

Told not to do it if it isn't safe, yet there he was. My noob comments are starting to ring more true than my antagonistic intentions realised.

It was John. He was at the edge of the track, not on the track. He's been doing this a long time and he's not stupid.

Jay should NOT have been hurtling there anyway, RED Flag means hurtling time is over!

He was on the track. me and Sloan were surprised to come round the infield and find someone standing on the track,

He was actually on the track...and was on other occasions too but was never an issue from my point of view as I was going slow anyway

Having reviewed the video I handily have of said incident, the marshal was NOT on the track. However, when we came around splash and the next right, he was heading TOWARDS the track at quite a clip, and I had thought that he was heading onto the track - like when you think a car is coming though the red light cos they are hell bent on braking late. I was actually touring fairly slowly (100k on my dash which is probably more like 75-80 with the gearing) or half of normal speed through there. I was the first bike on track, but was passed by two just at that point. I was going more than slowly enough to turn into the slip road however people had already gone past and I didn't want to confuse the issue further, not to mention get out of what was now a situation with bikes likely at different speeds.

[MSTRS:Me]

Hmmmm...so no rider was 'hurtling' as such and no marshal was standing in the middle of the track.
Like I said in an earlier post, use of the red flag is ordered by race control, so whatever the marshal/s at any flag point were doing it was under orders anyway. I suspect the idea was that FP4 would get the bikes into the slip lane instead of doing a full lap, which would explain why said marshal was 'heading towards the track at quite a clip'. Wasn't fast enough to stop anyone riding on past tho, was he?
The whole incident of the aborted start and what followed was a misunderstanding on the part of the riders. Well, most of them. The start was abandoned after too many holdups with gridded riders having hands up for whatever reason. Hand signals were given by the start/finish marshals to indicate that riders were to leave their grid positions and proceed on round the track. Red flag/s were deployed, indicating that riders were to either enter the sliplane or, having missed that opportunity, FP8 had their red out showing riders were to leave the track into pitlane. Choppa was the ONLY ONE to do that. Everyone else went back to their start position.
So - officials need to learn something from this. If a start is abandoned again, riders are amped, ready for racing, and can't be expected to understand simple hand signals. Therefore a red flag MUST be deployed at every FP round the track (which is what I thought had happened, but maybe it didn't...)

[jellywrestler]

Hmmmm...so no rider was 'hurtling' as such and no marshal was standing in the middle of the track.
Like I said in an earlier post, use of the red flag is ordered by race control, so whatever the marshal/s at any flag point were doing it was under orders anyway. I suspect the idea was that FP4 would get the bikes into the slip lane instead of doing a full lap, which would explain why said marshal was 'heading towards the track at quite a clip'. Wasn't fast enough to stop anyone riding on past tho, was he?
The whole incident of the aborted start and what followed was a misunderstanding on the part of the riders. Well, most of them. The start was abandoned after too many holdups with gridded riders having hands up for whatever reason. Hand signals were given by the start/finish marshals to indicate that riders were to leave their grid positions and proceed on round the track. Red flag/s were deployed, indicating that riders were to either enter the sliplane or, having missed that opportunity, FP8 had their red out showing riders were to leave the track into pitlane. Choppa was the ONLY ONE to do that. Everyone else went back to their start position.
So - officials need to learn something from this. If a start is abandoned again, riders are amped, ready for racing, and can't be expected to understand simple hand signals. Therefore a red flag MUST be deployed at every FP round the track (which is what I thought had happened, but maybe it didn't...)

is there a one warm up lap board? If not would one be of use so then there's no confusion over hand signals?

[Skunk]

is there a one warm up lap board? If not would one be of use so then there's no confusion over hand signals?

It just got confused. I'm not blaming anybody for it. I'm glad no one even came close to harm. The Race was aborted so everyone could clear their heads - including the starters and officials! The main thing is to learn from it and not let it happen again.

[Biggles08]

So - officials need to learn something from this. If a start is abandoned again, riders are amped, ready for racing, and can't be expected to understand simple hand signals. Therefore a red flag MUST be deployed at every FP round the track (which is what I thought had happened, but maybe it didn't...)

I think you will find now riders will be paying attention to what colour the flags are on the "warm-up" lap and if they are Red they will proceed to the dummy grid...not the starting grid. As has been said already...most of the riders thought we were being waved away for another lap to re-grid...I for one did not pay any attention to the flags that were deployed on this lap as I "knew" we were not racing and I was already heading to the grid to re-form..in my wee pea brain.

[Skunk]

is there a one warm up lap board? If not would one be of use so then there's no confusion over hand signals?

Except it wasn't a warm up... Hense the confusion.

[MSTRS:Me]

I think you will find now riders will be paying attention to what colour the flags are on the "warm-up" lap and if they are Red they will proceed to the dummy grid...not the starting grid. As has been said already...most of the riders thought we were being waved away for another lap to re-grid...I for one did not pay any attention to the flags that were deployed on this lap as I "knew" we were not racing and I was already heading to the grid to re-form..in my wee pea brain.

Now there's a problem - if your comment is serious....

Choppa put it into words quite well at one time "I don't know. I put my helmet on, and my brain goes away"

No assumptions on the part of riders. They should always be paying attention to flag colours.

[Drew]

Now there's a problem - if your comment is serious....

Choppa put it into words quite well at one time "I don't know. I put my helmet on, and my brain goes away"

No assumptions on the part of riders. They should always be paying attention to flag colours.

And flaggies should always assume riders haven't paid attention.

Have you ever raced John? It might surprise you to learn that the flags are a lot further off what riders are very closely focused.

But we're all just brainless, we haven't been on a course.

[Kiwi Graham:Me]

Hang on a minute,
I'm just getting over the flu here so bear with me.
Complete the warm up lap/laps and your met with a red flag at the start line, at HD you get shown one at the last FP on the hill up to the start/ finish line to warn you of the start official standing in the middle of the circuit with the raised red flag.
We dont want riders going past to form up on a dummy grid again.

Jelly man the number of warm up laps are indicated by the number of fingers raised at the dummy grid or as you say on a black board... but of course all riders would know already how many warm up laps there are because it would have been in the entry form/regs they signed

[jellywrestler]

Jelly man the number of warm up laps are indicated by the number of fingers raised at the dummy grid or as you say on a black board... but of course all riders would know already how many warm up laps there are because it would have been in the entry form/regs they signed

My point was more if there's a need to dispatch the gridded up riders as there was in this case to stop bikes cooking etc, how then do they know whether it's a return to pits situation or say one more lap then regrid, in this case i called it a 'Warm-up' lap.
I now usually watching from too far away to see what the actual signals may have been, just curious that's all

[RDjase]

Copyright infringement! Stolen from the Vic Club website!

Yep, It was my alter ego "Jase.com" did it..........


I thought I put a www.vicclub.co.nz link on that post, must have got sidetracked, or was waiting in the slip road.................

[Biggles08]

Now there's a problem - if your comment is serious....
They should always be paying attention to flag colours.

My comment was very serious...usually on warm up laps I'm thinking about how I'm going to start, waming my clutch, getting my race brain in place...I know where the flag points are why would I need to look at them. I guess its a bit like the safety speech when you board a plane...if you travel a lot its all much a blurr as you know the drill.

Like I say, I will look at the flag colours on the warm up lap now and if they are RED I will return to the dummy grid. Previously I only thought they were being waved so we could see where the points were...I knew where they were so pretty much ignored them. Not any more :-)

[MSTRS:Me]

My comment was very serious...usually on warm up laps I'm thinking about how I'm going to start, waming my clutch, getting my race brain in place...I know where the flag points are why would I need to look at them. I guess its a bit like the safety speech when you board a plane...if you travel a lot its all much a blurr as you know the drill.

Like I say, I will look at the flag colours on the warm up lap now and if they are RED I will return to the dummy grid. Previously I only thought they were being waved so we could see where the points were...I knew where they were so pretty much ignored them. Not any more :-)

I can kind of see why you'd ignore flagpoints in the aborted start circumstances. However...

Flag points display a stationary yellow first lap only of practice. It is indeed to tell riders where the manned points are. They only wave it if there is a problem on their patch. The yellow flag would not have been used for the event in question. The red should have been out at all points...it seems it wasn't, so that is something for officials to sort out for the future.