Close Shave of the Passing Kind *video*

[josh817]

Hmmm good point. However when I was being trained they always taught us to get a good idea of the different speeds because the person in charge of blue flag must be able to think "that car is far away right now but by the time they get to my corner/section he will be right behind them"

 

Blue flag isn't always shown right when the guy is blazing his lights in your rear view. My area of coverage, basically from my post to the next post, if I think some passing will occur there, then I use the blue flag. But... then again blue flag is practically an optional thing. If I throw a blue flag and they fast guy hasn't caught up yet, it's no big deal. Not like throwing a yellow on accident or even grabbing the wrong flag in the heat of the moment and accidentally throwing a red flag!

 

If the blue wasn't ever shown then indeed the both drivers have a more valid argument. Workers would probably get **** the next day of events "the drivers are requesting more blue flagging".

[johnc]

I've flagged the last couple MotoGP races at Laguna Seca and the race director tells the flaggers, over the radio, when and what corners to show the blue flags. As a flagger you can only make decisions on yellow and debris flags. In all other cases you're told what and when to display.

 

AMA leaves it all up to the corner workers. They tell the race director what's up and what flags to display including the red flag. They call other corners to ask for standing yellows, warn of a blue flag condition, and can have riders black flagged.

[josh817]

That is one thing I detest to on an EXTREME level. I only work PCA, BMWCCA, CVAR, Drivers Edge, etc. I don't do SCCA, Nascar, IRL, any of that.

 

From what I have seen with PCA regional races when the directors come in and start calling the shots... they usually have no idea what the hell is going on, on the track. Thankfully they didn't have the authority to call yellows and blues but they had control over black flag. The guys I work with who have been doing it for god knows how long with all their cool workers licenses... they'd go so far as to not follow instructions in an unsafe situation. For instance a director wanted a standing yellow rather than a waving yellow but a worker was out on course responding to a car. Nope, sorry director but you're just the guy sitting in the tower, you'd want a waving yellow covering your butt if you were responding on a hot track.

 

Other instances like a guy goes 4 off and spins/loses control, whatever, they get the black flag to come in and get their car checked over real fast and make sure they're ok. A director says don't black that guy, don't black that guy either, on and on. Eventually, and you can see it in their driving, the drivers start getting very aggressive and make some really stupid calls because they know the director is here and they won't be black flagged, thus they won't lose their Saturday or Sunday race from going off and being black flagged 3 times in a day and you can't do anything about it until someone gets hurt.

 

Last example I have seen, we're holding a surface flag for some car guts on the track. Get a radio call saying drop the flag. Nope, sorry, you aren't standing 10 yards from the track. You're more like 3/4 of a mile away since we're way in the outfield. Surface flag is only a warning to the drivers, as is blue, it doesn't hinder the results like a yellow or a black!

 

We wouldn't black flag someone if the directors said not to because the driver would come in while black flag chief is asking why are you even in here no one said to black flag you... Basically, just a safety thing, don't change the outcome of the race. No passing under yellow regardless of standing or waving status but the difference is how much attention the drivers give to the flag. Urgent waving will hopefully slow them down a little and keep an eye out for where a car may be sitting.

 

Then again MotoGP and AMA are a bit bigger than club racing, so the directors have camera's and resources to make good calls. I should edit my statement "I detest directors calling the shots in club racing where they don't have a track side perspective".

 

Workers can bicker amongst each other all day about flagging etiquette. Haha Those first two hours during dinner are the worst because all the workers scrutinize each other on how a previous situation should have been handled.

 

 

In the end, the situation in the video, we ultimately only discuss amongst ourselves. No metal to metal occurred, no accident was caused, therefore unless you are a chatter box on the radio (everyone despises you) then there is no reason to make a call. If words were exchanged between the drivers then whatever... We try to stay as neutral as possible unless it was a serious offense. Keeps the all those pesky accident reports to the minimum.

Edited December 9, 2011 by josh817

[260DET]

Here is a highlights video the Mazda driver has made of the entire race, it shows just how much passing was going on. My own modest experience with driving a fairly powerful car is when passing someone you want them to hold their line once you get close, it can get a bit scarey otherwise.