MCRA ULGT Race - Putnam Park Road Course - 04/16/2016

[green_bread]

Here is the video from our first race of the year. DCMoney came through with the win. I need more power and to get my aggressiveness back with my passing so I can get by those slow ass SV's! Congrats on a great race, DCMoney!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9ZU3C9TSrQ&feature=youtu.be

 

[micahpearlman]

Oh man that looked brutal trying to get around that SV. Been there.


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[Muckabucka]

Too bad mikey decided to race you even though he wasn't in your class. You probably could have chased those guys down. Oh and clean your windscreen!

 

[RobbiRob76]

Too bad mikey decided to race you even though he wasn't in your class. You probably could have chased those guys down. Oh and clean your windscreen!

Nothing more frustrating than when a guy who is scored in a separate class decides to get in the middle of your race. Let alone hold you up. Racing a single and sometimes being in dual grids, can completely ruin your day when this happens... Why did the Race Stewards allow this? Was there ever a blue flag given? I would be pissed. If he was battling someone else in his own class, then I get it... But all he did was race someone who was not scored in the same class, and mess your chance to battle with the leaders... WTF? I would be livid!
Robbi

 

[green_bread]

Too bad mikey decided to race you even though he wasn't in your class. You probably could have chased those guys down. Oh and clean your windscreen!

Yeah, it was unfortunate. Especially given the fact he was leading his race by so much and he could have easily let us pass, sat back for a minute to let us get some distance, and it never would have made a difference for him. I talked to him about it on Sunday and he said that he didnt realize it wasnt someone from his race. I dont see how he wouldnt have known it was me after I passed him in the bus stop and he immediately re-passed me. I also meant to clean the windshield before the race but I forgot. The bugs were BAD up there this year. On Sunday, I had to clean my visor after every session, pretty much.

Nothing more frustrating than when a guy who is scored in a separate class decides to get in the middle of your race. Let alone hold you up. Racing a single and sometimes being in dual grids, can completely ruin your day when this happens... Why did the Race Stewards allow this? Was there ever a blue flag given? I would be pissed. If he was battling someone else in his own class, then I get it... But all he did was race someone who was not scored in the same class, and mess your chance to battle with the leaders... WTF? I would be livid!
Robbi

Ive asked our organization to implement blue flags or another means to let riders know that they are impeding someone else's race. The reason Ive been given as to why they wont is because they do not want riders concerned about what is going on behind them and possibly causing more issues by trying to get out of the way. I guess I can see that, but it really is frustrating that riders in other classes are affecting our race outcomes so much. This has always been a problem when MCRA runs the GTL and ULGT (formerly the 250 class, but it was also a problem then) together in one race. Now people are complaining about the fact that theres no "spec" class or "budget" class (I am one who is disappointed about the lack of a "budget" class, but I also get that we changed the rules to try and make the grids larger) and asking to add more bikes of varying power/speeds in to that race. I dont think thats a good idea, personally. If people want to see several bikes dicing it up for the lead, they need to do something about the slower riders that are making us spread out so much. But yeah, I wasnt really happy about how much the SVs were affecting things for us. Doesnt really do any good to get mad and dwell on it, though.

Now, after all of this bitching, I do have to say that the first SV (the white one) that I got held up behind in turn 7 was my fault. I should have followed Drew and Alex and passed him on the corner entry. It would have been kind of a dive bomb from a ways back, but watching the video back, there was room and I could have made it. I ended up catching back up to the leaders, anyway, but I had to push pretty hard to make that happen. Right after I caught up with them, I made a mistake in turn 1 and immediately gave a second back to them. I also made some pretty dumb mistakes in other parts of the track that really ended up costing me.

I know that all 3 of the guys who finished in front of me have quite a few power adding mods. DCMoney has cjwells' head kit installed and all of them have aftermarket exhaust, fuel controllers, etc. Im still completely stock as far as power goes. The only things Ive upgraded on my bike, so far, are suspension, tires, body work, clip ons, and rearsets. Putnam is also my least favorite/comfortable of the tracks we ride. Im trying to look at things like this and take the positives out of the weekend. I have confidence that Ill find my way back to the front of the pack soon!

 

[RobbiRob76]

Yeah, it was unfortunate. Especially given the fact he was leading his race by so much and he could have easily let us pass, sat back for a minute to let us get some distance, and it never would have made a difference for him. I talked to him about it on Sunday and he said that he didnt realize it wasnt someone from his race. I dont see how he wouldnt have known it was me after I passed him in the bus stop and he immediately re-passed me. I also meant to clean the windshield before the race but I forgot. The bugs were BAD up there this year. On Sunday, I had to clean my visor after every session, pretty much.


Ive asked our organization to implement blue flags or another means to let riders know that they are impeding someone else's race. The reason Ive been given as to why they wont is because they do not want riders concerned about what is going on behind them and possibly causing more issues by trying to get out of the way. I guess I can see that, but it really is frustrating that riders in other classes are affecting our race outcomes so much. This has always been a problem when MCRA runs the GTL and ULGT (formerly the 250 class, but it was also a problem then) together in one race. Now people are complaining about the fact that theres no "spec" class or "budget" class (I am one who is disappointed about the lack of a "budget" class, but I also get that we changed the rules to try and make the grids larger) and asking to add more bikes of varying power/speeds in to that race. I dont think thats a good idea, personally. If people want to see several bikes dicing it up for the lead, they need to do something about the slower riders that are making us spread out so much. But yeah, I wasnt really happy about how much the SVs were affecting things for us. Doesnt really do any good to get mad and dwell on it, though.

Now, after all of this bitching, I do have to say that the first SV (the white one) that I got held up behind in turn 7 was my fault. I should have followed Drew and Alex and passed him on the corner entry. It would have been kind of a dive bomb from a ways back, but watching the video back, there was room and I could have made it. I ended up catching back up to the leaders, anyway, but I had to push pretty hard to make that happen. Right after I caught up with them, I made a mistake in turn 1 and immediately gave a second back to them. I also made some pretty dumb mistakes in other parts of the track that really ended up costing me.

I know that all 3 of the guys who finished in front of me have quite a few power adding mods. DCMoney has cjwells' head kit installed and all of them have aftermarket exhaust, fuel controllers, etc. Im still completely stock as far as power goes. The only things Ive upgraded on my bike, so far, are suspension, tires, body work, clip ons, and rearsets. Putnam is also my least favorite/comfortable of the tracks we ride. Im trying to look at things like this and take the positives out of the weekend. I have confidence that Ill find my way back to the front of the pack soon!

That is a piss poor excuse by your racing organization as per the Blue Flag... Racing 101 is this. The flags are the ONLY Communication between the riders and the racing officials. A Blue Flag does not mean pull over, or slow down, only to hold your line and let leaders pass. You then resume racing. THE ONLY INSTANCE this does not happen and you really cant throw the blue flag is if the leaders are coming up on a lapper who is battling for position with another rider. Even then a flag can be displayed. But to let another rider in a different class affect the outcome repeatedly is completely unacceptable. HE IS NOT RACING YOU!!! If he and your organization is so worried about the competency of a rider that they only want racers focusing on what's ahead, then they have no confidence in their participants... You "race ahead", but you should also be aware of what is going on around you. Once he saw you were not in his class, he should have let you go! If this is a hard thing for riders to figure out, then the number plate background should be different in color for easy reference! In other words... If you have a yellow background, and he has white, once this is recognized he either lets you got or gets black flagged for repeated interference... One last thing. Don't blame yourself for dive bombing when following the leaders. In the moment, you made the exact right call! You should not have risk life and limb to pass a rider in a different race all together, it's those decisions that make it so you can drive home at the end of the day, rather than in the back of an ambulance. There is a time and place to make risky passes. But to do it to someone not racing in your class, is never the time nor place.
My 2 cents.
Robbi

 

[tecknojoe]

I was a corner worker before racing, for both pro and club level racing. Blue flags are very tough to implement at the club level. An experienced corner worker could do it properly, but most of them wouldn't be able to. It's hard to recognize the bikes as they come around sometimes (face it, it's easy to spot valentino rossi but most club racers blend in). Hell I even saw someone accidently blue flag Casey Stoner when I was working turn 1 at Laguna.... as he was in the lead. You also don't need it for lappers because the lappers in club racing get passed before anyone even knows it's coming.

Best bet is to have a conversation with most of the top guys and explain the situation, asking for some courtesy. However, if the guy in first doesn't know you're in a different class, he may be inclined to block you. Remember, he only gets a quick flash when he looks back, and he shouldn't be looking behind him anyway.

One more thought, if you blue flag the leader of one class to allow someone to pursue ahead, he's giving up some of his lead to let you through. He's not going to know if he has a 1 second lead, or 20. Even still, there could be some hot shot who had to start from last place who's working his way through the pack. What if he's caught on the last lap?

 

[RobbiRob76]

I was a corner worker before racing, for both pro and club level racing. Blue flags are very tough to implement at the club level. An experienced corner worker could do it properly, but most of them wouldn't be able to. It's hard to recognize the bikes as they come around sometimes (face it, it's easy to spot valentino rossi but most club racers blend in). Hell I even saw someone accidently blue flag Casey Stoner when I was working turn 1 at Laguna.... as he was in the lead. You also don't need it for lappers because the lappers in club racing get passed before anyone even knows it's coming.

Best bet is to have a conversation with most of the top guys and explain the situation, asking for some courtesy. However, if the guy in first doesn't know you're in a different class, he may be inclined to block you. Remember, he only gets a quick flash when he looks back, and he shouldn't be looking behind him anyway.

One more thought, if you blue flag the leader of one class to allow someone to pursue ahead, he's giving up some of his lead to let you through. He's not going to know if he has a 1 second lead, or 20. Even still, there could be some hot shot who had to start from last place who's working his way through the pack. What if he's caught on the last lap?

Agreed... However, If race control is doing their job communicating to corner workers, and the person in the flag stand this is rarely an issue. Of course every circumstance is different, I have raced with WERA,CCS and AHRMA and never had any huge issues. All of that being said, someone should have done something with the dude on the SV!!! Hell the announcer was all over it person in the flag stand at least could have communicated to the SV. These are the topics that should be covered in the MANDATORY ATTENDED RIDERS MEETING. If these topics are covered there. it becomes less of an issue on the track,,, GREENBREAD you rode awesome, you deserved more respect from the rider in the other class.

 

[reenmachine]

These are the topics that should be covered in the MANDATORY ATTENDED RIDERS MEETING.

That's what I was about to say. About all you can really do is place some emphasis on this topic in the riders' meeting and hope people can see through the red mist enough to think about it on the track. Also, talking racer-to-racer in a calm way the way green_bread did can raise awareness for next time.

 

[green_bread]

Also, talking racer-to-racer in a calm way the way green_bread did can raise awareness for next time.

Yep. The guy is actually a friend of mine, so it made it easier to approach him about it. He said to give him a signal if it happens again. I told him Id do my best, but I also only noticed one time when he looked back, so it would have been tough to give him a signal.

We actually ran 4 classes at the same time in this race, last year. There was expert GTL, amateur GTL, ULGT, and 250 GT. The EX/AM GTL classes were combined due to low grid sizes in each and the ULGT/250 classes were combined because the bikes were more even, at the time, and they wanted to make the grids larger in the ULGT class. These were member proposed and voted on changes. The organization actually had nothing to do with the decisions being made, there. Im getting a bit off topic, though. Since all of the classes were combined, they allow people to run either a yellow or a white number plate. I agree that it would have been smarter to have one class run one color while the other runs another. I might bring that up, but we cannot make rule changes until after the season is over. I believe rule change votes happen in October.

I also would like to see some sort of communication with the riders implemented to let them know they need to make way for faster people. Unfortunately, that is completely up to our race directors, and they have decided to keep things as they are, now. I dont have to like it, but if I want to participate, I have to go along with it.