Dear AFM

scratchpad

scratchpad

Well-known member
Dear AFM,
Please consider never starting 350P ahead of F40LWT again. I'm not sure if it was a mistake and got overlooked or if it's meant to be like that but i dont remember it being that dangerous if they normally start in front of us. No other races are gridded like that that i can see. It was very dangerous. We caught them on the first lap right after Riverside IIRC.

IMO they should start right behind us with less wait time. We will still catch some of them but it wont be until later in the race and more spread out. 23 bikes in approx. 3-5 bike groups spread across the WHOLE track for the whole race was concerning. It appears 10 were lapped.

While i only speak for myself i did talk with a handful of fast guys in the same race (F40LWT) that had the same mindset.

How about the 350P guys/gals, whats your opinion?
 
MZarra

MZarra

AFM Treasurer
There were, at least, three races that started small -> big like that.

I will be at the next board meeting to push for a permanent change as that was NUTS.
 
ZXR400SP

ZXR400SP

Well-known member
There has been lots of discussion about this, hard to believe it keeps happening. The front of F40 class was faster than the AFemme class. Looks like the largest speed difference was 55's to 2:39. How about those time cutoffs that were discussed too?
 
IgoFstNcorners

IgoFstNcorners

Catch Me Man
scratchpad said:
Dear AFM,
Please consider never starting 350P ahead of F40LWT again. I'm not sure if it was a mistake and got overlooked or if it's meant to be like that but i dont remember it being that dangerous if they normally start in front of us. No other races are gridded like that that i can see. It was very dangerous. We caught them on the first lap right after Riverside IIRC.

IMO they should start right behind us with less wait time. We will still catch some of them but it wont be until later in the race and more spread out. 23 bikes in approx. 3-5 bike groups spread across the WHOLE track for the whole race was concerning. It appears 10 were lapped.

While i only speak for myself i did talk with a handful of fast guys in the same race (F40LWT) that had the same mindset.

How about the 350P guys/gals, whats your opinion?
Click to expand...

x2 :thumbup
 
UMZenki

UMZenki

Quick. ish.
It did catch me by surprise to be passed so early by the big guys, but as was mentioned, everyone did a great job and was pretty respectful getting it done. As long as that takes priority, i don't have a preference for wave orders.
 
TWF

TWF

training hard
UMZenki said:
It did catch me by surprise to be passed so early by the big guys, but as was mentioned, everyone did a great job and was pretty respectful getting it done. As long as that takes priority, i don't have a preference for wave orders.
Click to expand...

If you look for trouble you will find it, sooner or later it will catch to you.
Better to avoid looking for it. We already had problems with this pairing in past.
Putting 60 bikes on the track with big difference in speed is looking for trouble.
 
MZarra

MZarra

AFM Treasurer
TWF said:
If you look for trouble you will find it, sooner or later it will catch to you.
Better to avoid looking for it. We already had problems with this pairing in past.
Putting 60 bikes on the track with big difference in speed is looking for trouble.
Click to expand...

This was discussed and changed last year. There is a HUGE difference between catching 30 bikes in T2 and 2-3 bikes around the track.

We can't avoid putting 450s, 650s and 250s on the grid at the same time; just not enough time in the weekend.

Putting the smaller bikes behind will make it far safer.
 
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Mick-e

Mick-e

Ride, Race, Live
scratchpad said:
Dear AFM,
Please consider never starting 350P ahead of F40LWT again. I'm not sure if it was a mistake and got overlooked or if it's meant to be like that but i dont remember it being that dangerous if they normally start in front of us. No other races are gridded like that that i can see. It was very dangerous. We caught them on the first lap right after Riverside IIRC.

IMO they should start right behind us with less wait time. We will still catch some of them but it wont be until later in the race and more spread out. 23 bikes in approx. 3-5 bike groups spread across the WHOLE track for the whole race was concerning. It appears 10 were lapped.

While i only speak for myself i did talk with a handful of fast guys in the same race (F40LWT) that had the same mindset.

How about the 350P guys/gals, whats your opinion?
Click to expand...

Please see my post from March 11th
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9371285&postcount=73

I asked Berto to make this change before the race weekend. I knew this was going to be an issue.
:thumbdown
 
TWF

TWF

training hard
MZarra said:
This was discussed and changed last year. There is a HUGE difference between catching 30 bikes in T2 and 2-3 bikes around the track.

We can't avoid putting 450s, 650s and 250s on the grid at the same time; just not enough time in the weekend.

Putting the smaller bikes behind will make it far safer.
Click to expand...

Did I say something different?
We have been asking for this last 10 years, at least. To either separate them and if not possible put slower bikes behind so you catch them later when they are spread and not in groups.
Looking for trouble is when you put 350's in front.
 
McLovin

McLovin

I wanna ride all the bike
MZarra said:
This was discussed and changed last year. There is a HUGE difference between catching 30 bikes in T2 and 2-3 bikes around the track.

We can't avoid putting 450s, 650s and 250s on the grid at the same time; just not enough time in the weekend.

Putting the smaller bikes behind will make it far safer.
Click to expand...

Last summer we had a petition that was signed by every 250 and every 450 rider to switch this to little bikes 2nd. *sigh*
 
scratchpad

scratchpad

Well-known member
synfinatic

synfinatic

Wannabe Fast Guy
Seriously, this is like a dead horse. Sooner or later someone is going to get seriously injured and the AFM is going to be on the hook for knowingly and intentionally creating a dangerous and yet avoidable situation.
 
ZXR400SP

ZXR400SP

Well-known member
Wow, Berto, this one is on you. I can't believe no one was punted in turns 1,2,3 on that first lap.. They were nicer with their passes than I might have been in that situation on my 400.
 
Grease_Monkey

Grease_Monkey

Sloshie Joshie
I'm all for this. lets call the 250/350's "featherweights" in this instance for the sake of argument. I've been on the loosing end of a "featherweight/lightweight" meeting in a turn. And I do remember a video from last year when a light came through on a pack of feathers and completely punting and unsuspecting ninja in turn 7 at Thunerhill. I believe the less these two classes of bike spend on track together the better. And I concur that having lightweights gridded before Featherweights will greatly reduce this as the lightweight riders on the slower end of the spectrum are usually running close to the same pace as the faster featherweights. Also the delta of a slow light compared to a fast feather, is much smaller then that of a slow feather and a fast light
 
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sckego

sckego

doesn't like crashing
pappy said:
You think the F40Lt race was bad. In the last race of the day on Sunday, they started the SV's (Leg Lt) and the 250's in the same wave!!! Turn one was heart pounding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDblVa_9bHg

Patrick
Click to expand...

Is gridding SVs and 250s together in lightweight that uncommon? Hell, I used to be gridded on my R6 with the 250s in CLW. Certainly requires a bit more awareness in the first few corners that the guys ahead of you might not be driving out as fast as you can, of course...
 
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