NPG10 Suggestion Box

Replies to This Discussion

Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Trav on December 7, 2009 at 19:45

not really a NPG issue, but more local races throughout the year would help with this...? It was the first real competition for a lot of riders and it's not the ideal first race course, being an international race, super fast and mega gnar... I guess it'd be an idea if everyone pitched in and organized more local events during the year....?

also has anyone thought of racing down the other side of the mountain? the current hill seems like if you get in front first and don't crash you're pretty much set, there doesn't seem to be many spots to maneuver and overtake.. (not from what i saw anyway..)

and do the tech inspection guys look at helmets again after someone crashes hard?

Robbo said:

During our contact negotiations with council this year we pleaded for a 4th day but were unable to get it. We will be aiming for a 4th day again this year. The split qualifying is designed to accommodate possible bad weather and injury. Due to IGSA regulations we must provide for 2 qual runs which puts us in a difficult position if it rains on the qual day and we have more people entered than the tree allows.
We are most definitely aware that we need more freeride but the IGSA regs make this difficult to achieve without the use of a forth day. If we held practice all day on day one you would likely not practice again until finals day and we would be unlikely to fit a repecharge race in. The simple answer to this is we need more days Isaac said:

Way more practise
Pretty much any method to achieve it, even if you push back first qualifying and group it with the second.

• ▶ Reply

ASRA AdminPermalink Reply by Bugs on December 7, 2009 at 20:49

The other side of the hill has a lot more residents living on it, and resident access is a big issue. But it does look like a nice hill.

• ▶ Reply

Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Dani on December 7, 2009 at 21:18

Mischo came off just out of the dipper an hit the grey concrete. He had no contact with bales at all. A few people came close in that area because as you stand coming out of the dipper your board can twitch and wobble which can potentially send you sliding. Mischo was lucky he hit the wall with his ass.

I would love to see a bin at the start line. Maybe one of those big blue plastic drums for people to drop water bottles into and the backing paper that's left after putting your sticker on your helmet. Im sure that next year we could organise to get the bottles taken back to SA, deposited for 10cents each with the money (after petrol costs) going to the ASRA fund.

• ▶ Reply

Premium MemberPermalink Reply by sean meaney on December 7, 2009 at 21:32

dani thats an idea, the amount of water we drank was huge, you get 10 cents off every bottle thats some worth while cash

• ▶ Reply

ASRA AdminPermalink Reply by bernie on December 7, 2009 at 22:46

Bigger issue is how the concrete barriers are lined up. Going the normal way, the concrete barriers overlap like fish scales.
Racing from skyline to mountain straight presents a lot of driveway openings with solid wall-ends to hit, on the outside exit of many corners, ie just where skaters, cars, or bikes expect to finish up if they don't make the turn.
Would be very expensive to make it safe.
(you get to notice these things driving a bus down that hill!)

Bugs said:

The other side of the hill has a lot more residents living on it, and resident access is a big issue. But it does look like a nice hill.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Guff on December 8, 2009 at 6:52

Riders are so focussed coming into both the dipper and elbow a yellow or red flag could throw a rider right off especially if they are going into the corner in a pack. If you were coming into the dipper or elbow and saw a red flag what would you do you can't footbrake once you are in the corner and an emergency slide could put you straight into an injured rider , what if the marshalls are too slow or have a radio malfunction and are late with the red flag there will be all sorts of whinging and finger pointing.Crashes at the dipper were happening so fast a flag system would have made no difference. More bales exiting the dipper could also have had a negative effect as riders were using more and more of the road as they got faster had haybales been placed here you would have seen more crashes similar to nick's where the rider was holding his line thinking he is gonna make it then whammo. I am not sure if there is enough room for say 8 riders on track at once i think there would be more carnage and if there was say 3 riders injured at once with all requiring an ambulance i don't think st johns would be happy. If you want to speed things up have one qualifying round or better still none and draw the first round from a barrell at the pub or mountain on the thursday night .The qualifying from a spectators point of view is boring and as far as marketing and promoting the sport serves no purpose. It is the racing and the rivalries that should be showcased.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sakamoto on December 8, 2009 at 7:53

The downside to not having a qualifying round and draw the heats from a hat is that the top four riders could possibly end up in the same heat, with two going home or relagated to the repercharge, or injured in a major crash....there goes your marketing and drawcard aspect. By having two qualifying runs, it gives the rider a second chance to improve their times if they happen to blow their first run with a stupid mistake.

Your comments about flags, etc, are a good observation.....marshalls have to remember to get the flags close to the ground in the line of sight of the rider to make them effective, especially for luge and buttboard. Waving a flag above the marshalls head is totally ineffective. A yellow flag means everyone holds their line, don't pass anyone and ride conservatively. A red flag means you stop as quickly, BUT SAFELY as possible.

Guff said:

Riders are so focussed coming into both the dipper and elbow a yellow or red flag could throw a rider right off especially if they are going into the corner in a pack. If you were coming into the dipper or elbow and saw a red flag what would you do you can't footbrake once you are in the corner and an emergency slide could put you straight into an injured rider , what if the marshalls are too slow or have a radio malfunction and are late with the red flag there will be all sorts of whinging and finger pointing.Crashes at the dipper were happening so fast a flag system would have made no difference. More bales exiting the dipper could also have had a negative effect as riders were using more and more of the road as they got faster had haybales been placed here you would have seen more crashes similar to nick's where the rider was holding his line thinking he is gonna make it then whammo. I am not sure if there is enough room for say 8 riders on track at once i think there would be more carnage and if there was say 3 riders injured at once with all requiring an ambulance i don't think st johns would be happy. If you want to speed things up have one qualifying round or better still none and draw the first round from a barrell at the pub or mountain on the thursday night .The qualifying from a spectators point of view is boring and as far as marketing and promoting the sport serves no purpose. It is the racing and the rivalries that should be showcased.

• ▶ Reply

ASRA AdminPermalink Reply by Bugs on December 8, 2009 at 8:04

Good points Guff.

The qualifying system is an IGSA standard. It has a few disadvantages - it takes a long time, riders don't get many runs down the hill, it requires an expensive timing system, and it's not too spectator friendly. On the plus-side it's objective and similar systems are used in other sports (motor-racing for example).

One alternative that was suggested was for the seedings to be determined by a series of 4-man races, drawn randomly, with points awarded like in the Women's finals - 1 for 1st, 2 for 2nd etc. After six races the points table would be used to seed the riders for the 64-man draw. There would be no timing system, no single runs down the hill, and every rider could have six races in the time it took for the two qualifying runs.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Robbo on December 8, 2009 at 8:17

The flag system we tried to use was to have a person at the top of the dipper and at the beginning of the waterfall. The one before the elbow was more efficient as there was a 60m distance to the elbow where the flag marshall could view if a crash occurred and there was often a greater distance between riders. The one at the dipper could have been a little further up but was limited by the closeness of riders coming into the dipper.

The qualifying style is a requirement of the IGSA and cannot be improved without an IGSA rule change. There is a very strong groundswell among riders for a rule change on this but at this stage the IGSA does not look like changing this.

It is possible to improve this system, some methods include having a round robin system where riders are given points for each race with the top 32/64 going into the finals based on the points system. You could also have a random draw with 6 person heats in the first round with the bottom 2 riders dropping off then moving to regulation 4 man heats for the following rounds.

• ▶ Reply

ASRA AdminPermalink Reply by bernie on December 8, 2009 at 9:20

Would a rider carried transponder timing system allow more riders to run during qualifying?
Instead of waiting for each run to finish completely, you could send down the next rider as soon as forest elbow is cleared, or sooner if the flag marshall system stacks up.

Example of transponders usually seen at indoor go-kart tracks.
There are other types that use finish line beacons, and the timer is carried on the vehicle.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Robbo on December 8, 2009 at 10:07

Sorry that was an option I meant to include. if we could get transponders we could do open practice and qualifying at the same time as in F1. People would do runs all day in 4man lots and we would collate everybody's lap times for qual results. these transponders are used very widely in many sports

• ▶ Reply

Premium MemberPermalink Reply by nathan on December 8, 2009 at 11:03

Bernie we were sending riders in qualifiers once the elbow had cleared as you suggest. Marcus' kick ass Tag Hauer system doesnt require the finish to be triggered before the next rider leaves it can run the splits. I think it can do multiples.

bernie said:

Would a rider carried transponder timing system allow more riders to run during qualifying?
Instead of waiting for each run to finish completely, you could send down the next rider as soon as forest elbow is cleared, or sooner if the flag marshall system stacks up.

Example of transponders usually seen at indoor go-kart tracks.
There are other types that use finish line beacons, and the timer is carried on the vehicle.

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• Next ›
• Page