Hot Pit Etiquette

Med23

Med23

Goin' Gorilla
Now most everything seems pretty obvious when it comes to hot pit protocol and expected behavior. Everything except one thing.

The behavior in question is doing a hard accel and decel using 50% of the length of the available hot pit. Then doing it again for the second half of the hot pit length before turning around.

I don't see a problem with it because we are all trying to maximize our brake/tire/suspension heat in a small space of time and...space. But last round I saw a near rear-end collision occur because the following bike thought that the lead bike was using the full length. I have also been ass packed by someone when I myself did the double up in Sonoma years back.

My thinking is that if you are following too closely and inline with bike ahead, you are the one creating the hazard because of the somewhat unpredictable nature of bikes in the hot pit.

What are your thoughts? And more specifically, is there an unspoken rule on this?
 
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Noah's Dad

Noah's Dad

Benjamin Enzo's dad too!
Well, I guess there are two different areas that this could happen. Hot Pit such as behind the garages at Sonoma where you don't have access to track entrance and the space after Barb shows the 5 board and waives you onto the track.

When you're talking about the area behind the garages it seems that it would be very foolish to not give space to the rider in front of you. You almost have to expect them to do multiple braking efforts. I would think that at minimum you'd be off to the left or right of the rider so that you wouldn't run into them.

Where it gets more murky for me is that area between the area Barb waives you out and the track entrance. Specifically that long straight at Buttonwillow before merging onto the track before T2. Prior to a race I don't think I've seen anyone doing a stoppie but I know, and have done it myself, a gas/brake in that area between practice sessions on trackdays happens.

If there's an unspoken rule or a guideline that we should be following, I'm interested to learn it and modify behavior if necessary.
 
Med23

Med23

Goin' Gorilla
Noah's Dad said:
Where it gets more murky for me is that area between the area Barb waives you out and the track entrance. Specifically that long straight at Buttonwillow before merging onto the track before T2.
Click to expand...

Well, for that specific section I would definitely not expect anything but hard acceleration to get up to track speed for entrance.

But how about the short hot pit area between track exit and start/finish tower? That's more what I am referring to.
 
afm199

afm199

Well-known member
I think that anyone who stabs the brakes suddenly in the hot pits is an idiot. Do it at the end.
 
J

jaybocc2

o lento
I Smash gas out of hot pit and do some hard braking right before pit out ... which varies by track and i'm on a zx10r which WOT thru 1,2 will require braking before pit out, i've never had a problem.

I use tire warmers so i don't have to do the tire warmup dance in the hot pits which is funny/silly imo since you can easily get your tires up to temp on warmup lap if you dont piddle around with the exception of a failed warmers and super cold tire situation.
 
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TWF

TWF

training hard
Ass packing in hot pit is fine with me, you dressed for it :)
I wonder who was idiot on dirt bike blasting through paddock?
 
stangmx13

stangmx13

not Stan
All the stuff ud regularly do before a race is accomplished on the warmup lap, assuming u have warmers. I can’t think of any real need to do laps in the hot pit.

If I ever brake on pit out before the track, my arm is up.
 
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#1Spies Fan

#1Spies Fan

Well-known member
If you have passed Barb and are heading on track..its go time. No slowing or doing weird start stops. Once on track you need to be safe and predictable. As for in the hot pits, dont tailgate the person in front of you because its not needed...there are no racing lines in the hot pits. I used to get frustrated when people in group 5 would push up to the front and wedge in even if you were already there..then Barb would let us on track and those riders that HAD to be in front would go slow through the first couple of turns.
 
Maddevill

Maddevill

KNGKAW
afm199 said:
I think that anyone who stabs the brakes suddenly in the hot pits is an idiot. Do it at the end.
Click to expand...

I had a 125 smoker decide to do a practice start in the hot lane going to track out at Buttonwillow. So, I was glancing over at the track marshall and when I looked up , there he was, STOPPED right in front of me.:wtf Well, I grabbed a handful of brake, flipped my bike on top of him just as he took off. Broke a footpeg. Had to go get my bike re-teched, joined the race half lap behind. The extra anger meant I rode brilliantly...:mad:laughing

Mad:thumbup
 
afm199

afm199

Well-known member
stangmx13 said:
All the stuff ud regularly do before a race is accomplished on the warmup lap, assuming u have warmers. I can’t think of any real need to do laps in the hot pit.

If I ever brake on pit out before the track, my arm is up.
Click to expand...

The only time I do it is Sears Point, and it's hard throttle until the final braking for turnaround.
 
afm199

afm199

Well-known member
Maddevill said:
I had a 125 smoker decide to do a practice start in the hot lane going to track out at Buttonwillow. So, I was glancing over at the track marshall and when I looked up , there he was, STOPPED right in front of me.:wtf Well, I grabbed a handful of brake, flipped my bike on top of him just as he took off. Broke a footpeg. Had to go get my bike re-teched, joined the race half lap behind. The extra anger meant I rode brilliantly...:mad:laughing

Mad:thumbup
Click to expand...

:rofl

Back in the day I had my Norton in a slow practice and there were 125s in there. For some reason the morons would pass me on the brakes at T7, Sears Point, and then cut back over in front. I suspect they had no idea of just how shitty Norton brakes were and that I had both the rear and front squoze and crushed as hard as possible and I was praying that I didn't ass pack them.
 
Holeshot

Holeshot

Super Moderator
Staff member
Mike, there actually is an AFM rule against running counter course in hot pits. Clearly, we're not enforcing it.
 
#1Spies Fan

#1Spies Fan

Well-known member
Berto- remember what the hot pits looked like in the 90's. I do and i was 10 lol...the whole grid was out there doing laps!
 
Holeshot

Holeshot

Super Moderator
Staff member
I wasn't around till 2002 and even then it was a mess Patrick! It was like Thunderdome...
 
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