I propose that before accepting these rules for the 2014 season, the general membership has a chance to discuss/vote on this topic. rationale: the rule was not discussed/voted on by either the rulebook comittee or the general membership during the 2013 season.
Kind of my point ... See thread in WMRC News entitled supplementary Rules. Started by Dean on06-25-2013. Section entitled weather related...
Clarify the rain rule, to say that a top rider is any rider in the first row, with preference going to poll and 2nd position. Then there is no grey area.
I still find the document difficult to understand. What exactly are "rain rules", it's not clear. I think it means that the top rider, referee and race director can order that the race is delayed so everyone can change tires, is this correct? I've always thought part of racing was strategy, making decisions based on the information available and sometimes following hunches or gut feelings. If I'm the guy who already had rain tires on because I had a hunch, and it starts to rain so the race gets delayed so the club can tell everyone else to do what I did, you're taking away my advantage and a big part of racing IMO. It doesn't seem fair to me.
At this point, I am still undecided on this. I understand that this rule was brought on due to safety concerns. I want to point out, from a 'tech' persepctive this means you now have a lot of people madly scrambling to change wheels. Calipers and pinch bolts come off. In the mad rush, how are we to guarantee that everything is put back together properly? Spot checks in the pits and in pre-grid are great, but will not catch everything. Are we creating a bigger safety problem than we are trying to eliminate? I see Tony's point as well. Make the wrong tire choice - live with it. Either limp it around the track for a couple of laps to get points, or don't grid up. If it gets too hairy, pull off. Your choice. It's all part of racing - YOU made the wrong decision... My other concern is with the 'budget' racers... Many do not have a second set of rims with rains already installed. So they will que up waiting for Marbod to change the tires. Depending on how many are in line, they might make it in the time limit given or not... My comment below applies to this group as well. What about people that only have one set of tires? DOT's... You have now taken away their chance of racing in isolated showers, and by making them wait they might race in a full on monsoon... cheers alex
Hmm, not sure how I feel about the rules per se. In practice, when I have been announcing, it has always seemed to work pretty well, with communication between the entire raceday staff from Radio Control, to Race Director, to pre-grid to starter and announcer. I recall keeping an eye out at the lineup at marbod's to see how they are doing with tire swaps. I seem to recall radio contact and referree/race director riding through the pits gauging when people are going to be ready. Is this a case of making a rule for something that isn't really an issue? I know at other times we have had "top racer" like Spero, Ken, Bez, Al or Kramer go out and do a few laps to assess the track surface due to their advanced skills and experience, they could assess the condition of the track surface without putting themselves in significant danger.