2018 Race Day Schedule - CHANGES

[Holeshot]

The upcoming issue of City Bike will have our upcoming Buttonwillow schedule for the March round printed in the center spread.

In 2018, the board has decided to try something new for the club; Saturday qualifying sessions for Formula 1, 2, 3, 4, and FP. Additionally, these races are now in the middle of the day, culminating with FP and the FP winner's circle. We've talked about giving all non FP formula classes an extra 2 laps each to further separate the prominence of Formula classes in the AFM, but we have not made that determination yet. Regardless, the new schedule layout and updated Formula classes will make a race day geared more towards bikes in class championships and Formula championships where we push competition among a wider range of bikes within each Formula championship.

I'm really excited to see how this all works out, but it's something we've talked about for years and are finally taking a shot at!

Long Live the AFM, 2018!!!

 

[Shaggy]

Sounds cool. Couple questions, Berto:

Is this for all rounds or just testing the waters at Buttonwillow?

Is it required to pay for Saturday Practice to get the QP session?

 

[rjbrittain11]

this excites me even more about 2018!! This is a great revision to the schedule by AFM in a positive direction. More qualifying than FP, and who knows, maybe after this is a success we can start expanding qualifying to other classes as well.

Oh, and i would love the extra couple of laps!!

Good job AFM :thumbup

 

[FourThreeSix]

This is really, REALLY cool. Thanks AFM team for trying new things. Looking forward to this new format!

 

[lilchap08]

Pretty cool! Should be interesting with only 10 minutes to put in a flying lap but who cares lets RACE!

 

[thedub]

Is it required to pay for Saturday Practice to get the QP session?

Pretty cool! Should be interesting with only 10 minutes to put in a flying lap but who cares lets RACE!

Berto can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's going to be one single qualifying session. Your qualifying just comes from your best lap in regular Saturday practice.

 

[Honey Badger]

Berto can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's going to be one single qualifying session. Your qualifying just comes from your best lap in regular Saturday practice.

According to the schedule posted on the AFM website, you would be incorrect



I'm looking forward to seeing and trying the changes!

 

[Moose]

Race Weekend Schedule for 2018 is now available on the AFM website

http://www.afmracing.org/schedule

 

[thedub]

According to the schedule posted on the AFM website, you would be incorrect ;

Not the first time, wont be the last.

 

[quietman]

So will novice and expert grid up based on lap time?
One winner with top novice?
I'm all for it.

 

[Shaggy]

So will novice and expert grid up based on lap time?
One winner with top novice?
I'm all for it.

That was my next question. Are we mixing Novice and Expert grids or still separate grids on same flag?

 

[Holeshot]

So far, separate flags...but we could change that I suppose.

 

[KazMan]

I believe that will probably be determined by the number of bikes on grid :dunno

 

[Shaggy]

So far, separate flags...but we could change that I suppose.

Separate flags? I thought we were doing same flag, but Novice grid started one row back from Experts. Or does it vary by class? I know my Novice 450 grid launches on the same flag as Experts.

 

[KazMan]

Nick, for larger grids (like F1 which is primarily made up of 600's), there could be a separate start for Expert then Novice. Not sure we want racing of old days with 60-70 bikes all trying to get through T1 or T2 at Sonoma...but it was a lot of fun

 

[thedub]

Separate flags? I thought we were doing same flag, but Novice grid started one row back from Experts. Or does it vary by class? I know my Novice 450 grid launches on the same flag as Experts.

It varies by class and even by the weekend. Barb uses her judgement for each individual race. Could be separate flags one round, and all together the next round. We had it both ways in F1 last season.

 

[Shaggy]

Ahh... That sounds much safer.

 

[2wls4ever]

This is great news! Yes, more laps please

 

[quietman]

My question was for the races with qualifying.
Let's say a novice rider was third fastest in qualifying.
Would they still start their novice wave or grid up where they qualified?

 

[rjbrittain11]

Just a thought: I think if you get both novice and expert in a session for qualifying it will be really hard to get a clean lap because of the traffic. What if it was just qualifying for the Expert classes in the Formula races (of course depending on entrances) and then they would grid up depending on qualifying times. The novice would grid up behind like they have always done behind the experts depending on points like normal.

This would give the Novice's more incentive to bump up to expert, especially the faster Novices who are "sandbagging" in Novice. I think that would be a better overall experience for the races and the safety factor.

I'm just looking at it from a racers standpoint of how it would work without actually experiencing it yet. But since F1 and F4 qualifying are together, you get a Novice F4 racer and a top Expert F1 racer on the course at the same time and those two speed deltas might pose a slight issue.