Ducati Monster Forum

Interesting concept:
http://trackaddix.com/?race=1 (http://trackaddix.com/?race=1)

IMO, it's one of those 'looks good on paper' deals.

YEAH...there had to be a reason why they stopped doing it in the 70's...like people sandbagging and saying they are enjoyment racing and become monsters of the field or something...I just don't see how it could reasonably work without some abusing it.

I think the concept is more suited to drag racing. It would be hard to regulate sandbaggers for sure. I also don't see how it would necessarily be safer. Who knows though.

Well, they've taken care of the sandbagging issue the same way as drag racing, if you get to the finish line too soon, you're DQ'd.

The issue of everyone (theoretically) arriving at the finish line at the same time.... that sounds like it could go wrong.

I've run this race so I can tell you exactly how it works. We've been doing it in the CRA for years in a race called the Framstad Cup. It is a race run once a year and you have to qualify for it by being the fastest from your class during a trophy dash race. Then we started doing it more because it is so much fun. Now we do Turtle and Hare which is the same concept only you don't have to qualify. Trackaddix got the idea from the Turtle and Hare, because lots of the Trackaddix instructors race with CRA, and have run this race.
You pick your laptime, and you don't want to beat it. It goes like this...
The slower laptimes are on the grid first. As you go back on the grid, the riders have faster laptimes until you get to the last bike on the grid which is the fastest laptime. The grid marshalls do the math ahead of time and calculate when to start each rider. The first bike gets a green flag then a few seconds go by then the next rider, etc. If the math was done correctly, and everyone sticks to their laptimes, on the last lap everyone is coming up to the finish line very close! It's super fun. You can have the slowest bike on the grid and still win. Everyone that runs this race loves it...it's so unpredictable.

The CRA has done an excellent job of making this work. Trackaddix is a well run organization and everyone involved with them is top notch. I'm very familiar with them. (in fact, I'll be racing in Moto St with one of them next year...depending on economy)
So, I would assume that they could pull it off as well as CRA has. It may take them a few tries to get the timing right for each track but once it's worked out, it's super fun.

Hmmm.. I thought this was just an idea, and hadn't been tried before.