Sat 12th SMSP anyone going?

[johnnyb]

Anyone riding Saturday?


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[stevem]

I'll be there Johnny.

[Phat3R]

Long weekend for me - Fri & Sat & Sun.

[Marshy]

Long weekend for me - Fri & Sat & Sun.

Woohoo!!

[Button699]

I'll b there johnb! I'd race ya ... But, I'll b in the green group.. Haha..

[johnnyb]

Nice...we have a pose. See you all around garage 35.


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[Jakels]

So how did the new mob go running today!

Any differences?

[Ruckos87]

Also keen to hear how the roving Marshall went, if it reduced the red flags.


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[Mr.Ed]

So how did the new mob go running today!

Any differences?

Not there myself but from facebook "free beer at the end of the day, raffled off free track day, and free coaching if need help". Plus the roaming marshals... It does sound like a decent improvement. I mean... free beer!!!

[Jakels]

Roving marshall??

[Ruckos87]

Roving marshall??

From Facebook
REDUCING RED FLAGS
In an effort to reduce red flags and stoppages at #SMSP Ride Days, we will be using a mobile marshal to attend incidents, as directed by the flag marshals. This mobile marshal will assist the rider and make the track safe for all riders. If the rider is ok and the track safe, then the session can continue until the scheduled end, at which point any recovery vehicles can be used if need be. If there is any doubt as to track safety or a rider's wellbeing, then we won't hesitate to use the red flag.


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[zoidberg]

I was out there today. I think they did a really good job, every session was at least a lap longer than normal, absolutely fuck all red flags, they were quite sensible about it. Numerous crashes were happening, but bikes were moved far enough away that the session kept running. Would've been lots of unnecessary red flags if it were still run by mega.

Track was so grippy today! Loved it!

[Jakels]

Where did they do scrutineering?

[Marshy]

I was out there today. I think they did a really good job, every session was at least a lap longer than normal, absolutely fuck all red flags, they were quite sensible about it. Numerous crashes were happening, but bikes were moved far enough away that the session kept running. Would've been lots of unnecessary red flags if it were still run by mega.

Track was so grippy today! Loved it!

Great news!! Sounds sensible, not the usual 10,000% over-the-top "safety" bullshit.

[Jakels]

Yep thumbs up for the new mob.

Less red flags and interruptions was how it felt.

Perfect weather didn't hurt either.

[Phat3R]

Saturday was a shit fight as they booked out all the garages except the 1 - 15 or so. Got there at 7:15 and had to cart gear from one end of the carpark to the other. Lots of people trying to cram into garages with all these empty reserved ones. Turns out the reserved garages had been triple booked! I wish they would just stop with the reserved garages, it should be first in best dressed. Rego was a shit fight too. All teething issues that were not repeated on Sunday.

They did make up for it with free beer after 4pm if you keep your wrist band on, along with a raffle for another ride day.

A lot less red flags, and stopages seemed to be resolved faster, although Sunday's yellow group did seem to have a high density of muppets that kept crashing. Great weather meant the grip was good.

Roving marshal just rocks up to the crash and reminds the muppet to not stand on the side of the track and to fark off over the tire wall. Wouldn't be needed if 3/4 of those attending had any common sense and listened to the briefing.

Shippy got talking to the dude with the H2 in our garage as he described how he didn't like the bike because it ran wide all the time and the supercharger didn't kick in until 3rd gear. I thought he was going to score a test ride on it a couple of times to help the dude out. We finished off the day watching an asian female L plater wheelie a 250 through the carpark! Happy Days!

[Turbo]

Ugh! Totally agree, reserved garages are a pain in the ass. Very anti-social and unfair to folks that get up early.
Looks like some of the MEGA crew got kept on. I thought Stay Upright's whole vibe was not taking on any MEGA staff at all?
So, what does the marshal do when they get to an incident.. pull off the track entirely?
How was the overall vibe from the new lot?

[zoidberg]

<you like this> yeh, reserved garages are ridiculous, rather than get in see an empty spot, back trailer in, start to carry shit out of trailer and see the name on the door. I could always read the info they give me when I drive in, but to be honest, by the time I'm driving into the back of the pits, nervous poo o'clock is the more pressing issue .

The vibe was pretty good I felt. Very friendly and helpful to those that asked for help. A mate of mine asked Wayne Clark about some line help and he took him to a whiteboard and gave him some great advice about each corner. I wish I'd have gone with him as I still have no idea where I should be on track most of the time...

Not sure what the roving marshal does as I never saw him. When there were offs, the stationary yellow was out at the marshal point prior to the incident and waved if the rider was still near the track I guess? Next lap around, stationary yellow and bloke off the track and bike parked up. So they responded quickly and very well I found. At least in red group.

Maybe Phat3r's experience in yellow was different as the newer riders may have less experience of what to do?

I saw shippy on track a couple of times, I loved the bender image on the leathers mate! I was going to come up and try to find you in the pits to say hello, but kept forgetting! Your sticker underneath your ducktail seemed like it was peeling, it kept distracting me! Mind you, I have a short attention sp.. hey! There's a squirrel! What was I talking about?

Looking forward to the next stay upright day to see if the positive vibes are still there or if it was just first day excitement for the new crew.

[Phat3R]

Looks like some of the MEGA crew got kept on. I thought Stay Upright's whole vibe was not taking on any MEGA staff at all?

Only a few, Rich, Paul, etc.

So, what does the marshal do when they get to an incident.. pull off the track entirely?

Talks to downed rider and tells him to fark off over tyre wall.

How was the overall vibe from the new lot?

Good, the training sessions were great. Shippy & I went to the one Glenn Allerton ran re T2/3 & T4/5 ... just awesome instruction ... I will be going to more.

[simonr]

Saturday was such a good day. The garages were a complete stuff up but I think they got sorted in the end. One of the double garages was saved for "#### Group" and there was only 1 person in the 'group'. haha

sign on was a bit of a shit fight, but it could be before if you went up at peak time.

the roving marshall was a bit strange particularly when you come around turn 1 and here is this guy on an adventure bike with an open face helmet coming out of the pits. correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think there were any red flags all day so it seemed to work well, time will tell. Not sure about this half an hour for lunch though, particularly during winter when the days are shorter and there are more crashes and increased potential for stoppages.

the track was awesome, got down to a 1.42 in session 5 but unfortunately trashed a new rear hoop after running over some debris from a zx10 crashing in front at turn 4

[Kris]

Yep the garaging was weird, I ended up moving garages... Day was run very well though. More work needs to be done on the groups - some riders in Red were so slow it was downright dangerous.

[Turbo]

- some riders in Red were so slow it was downright dangerous.

Yeah, that seems to happen every time there is good weather on a weekend! Timing system didn't seem to ever work for MEGA... Not sure what the answer is?

[Turbo]

the roving marshall was a bit strange particularly when you come around turn 1 and here is this guy on an adventure bike with an open face helmet coming out of the pits. correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think there were any red flags all day so it seemed to work well, time will tell.

Ahhh, that makes sense. I guess it's an adventure bike so he can ride through the kitty litter.. Seems to be working, whatever they're doing.
I guess as long as they stick to a consistent line, a bit of a speed difference isn't too much of an issue.

[Turbo]

. Shippy & I went to the one Glenn Allerton ran re T2/3 & T4/5 ... just awesome instruction ... I will be going to more.

Pretty good to get that for free. Glenn's coaching days aren't cheap!
Is it structured or just based on questions?

[Kris]

Yeah, that seems to happen every time there is good weather on a weekend! Timing system didn't seem to ever work for MEGA... Not sure what the answer is?

Its a hard problem to fix. Wonder how they do it overseas?

[Turbo]

I wonder if it's something the roving marshall could be looking out for? Vastly different speeds, inconsistent lines etc?
I heard SU are leaving 5 free spots in each group to allow for moving people around. That seems like an excellent idea.

[shippy__]

I was boarder line slow on Saturday doing 45's i was considering dropping back to green... doing 43's 42's on sunday and there was certainly some verry slow riders

[Binksy]

Had a great day on Sunday, wasn't riding particularly well but the bike went well. Apparently I was doing 45's most of the day but my best laps were following Rob on the R6 (shorter gentleman) but had no camera or lap timer running. Hopefully be back up there in October to get back down near 42's.

Can't say I noticed a huge amount of difference between the 2 organisations. Sign on was the same system. Still have to fuck about heading back up to sign on to collect MA licence rebate. Free beer was good. Riders seemed to behaving themselves so not many issues on track.

[Kris]

I wonder if it's something the roving marshall could be looking out for? Vastly different speeds, inconsistent lines etc?
I heard SU are leaving 5 free spots in each group to allow for moving people around. That seems like an excellent idea.

Yep, leaving 5 spots is a great idea - i think the RFID lap timing thing too and actually using the data to shift people is a great idea.

[zoidberg]

There were definitely a few guys that were dangerously slow in red. Unfortunately you have the situation that the other groups book out and people just book red and hope to get moved, but there were a couple that every session were slow and had some... odd line choices. They were still there doing the same odd things last session. Still, I guess it's a trackday, so you have to expect the unexpected?

[Stu23]

I dont mind if a guy is a little slower in red as long as he knows his lines and sticks to them

[Linden]

Its an old issue - if you use lap times then people on smaller / older bikes cannot ride in RED regardless of skill ... perhaps lap time minus plus factor based on top speed eg 1:40 with 280kph = 100 + 28 while 1:50 with 200kph = 110 + 20

[Ruckos87]

I always though you should start off in white and get moved up from there, not choose your own group. My 1st track days were in white, I didn't move myself into yellow because I didn't want to cause issue to faster guys, although I was passing guys in white I had no real idea how fast yellow or Green were. The timing must work because as I pulled in to the pits after a session they grab me and moved me into Green, although they wouldn't tell me the time they assured me Green was the right group.

If they technically "allowed timing" or provided times back to riders, they could at lease stipulate to book red you need to be doing say 145s ?

Personally I won’t book into Red, until I'm sure I'm fast enough, saying that though if no other spots were available in green, and I though I was quick enough there’s nothing stopping ne doing it prematurely. If they had recorded lap times, you wouldn't be able to book into a group faster that you’re previous PB.

Not really an issue in groups other than red though...

[zooker]

I had fun on Sunday. Thought SU did a pretty good job, and the info sessions they ran were apparently very useful for the wife who was riding at SMSP for the first time in novice.

It was my first time in Red group and pretty much followed Binksy for the day, so likely doing around the 1:45 mark. Was still passing a few Struggled getting the bike on line, and consistently missed the apex of a few corners by a metre or so, but I'm still working on developing marker points having basically only done CSS at Sydney so far. Worked some out by the end of the day though. I was pretty concious of being predictable at least to make it easy for the quicker guys to get past.

Was also having some tyre wear issues having only recently gone to slicks. Gotta do some work on bike setup, as the front was pushing in corners and showing a bit of a geometry tear. Rear was pretty chewed out but gripped brilliantly.

Look forward to the next day and my chance at winning a free track day

[nigelnobody]

The inconsistent lines for me is the biggest problem,pretty obvoius when someone is overdoing it just to stay in red.
So much time can be made by breaking the track into sectors and working on nailing the points same time even as your speed increases.Leave the ego at home..moving up when your not ready takes longer to improve times sometimes even going backwards by charging the corners instead of keeping smooth.....
Im thinking by consistent low 40's you have sorted the basics and contributing to the flow for others that pay to ride with fast riders.

[Nelso]

Looks like some of the MEGA crew got kept on. I thought Stay Upright's whole vibe was not taking on any MEGA staff at all?

Their vibe was to introduce a few new ideas, but they never wanted to reinvent the wheel. It made far more sense to put a few people on their staff that already knew how to do a job, rather than start from scratch and work everything out "as you go". If you thought rego was a bit messed up on Saturday with Belinda and Paul already knowing what to do but using a new system, imagine how bad it could have been if it was a completely new system with new people who have never done it before. I think you will find Stay Upright will carefully select staff that fit into the professionalism of their company, so you might find a few old staff getting invited to join them, while others will not make the transition.

[shippy__]

Their vibe was to introduce a few new ideas, but they never wanted to reinvent the wheel. It made far more sense to put a few people on their staff that already knew how to do a job, rather than start from scratch and work everything out "as you go". If you thought rego was a bit messed up on Saturday with Belinda and Paul already knowing what to do but using a new system, imagine how bad it could have been if it was a completely new system with new people who have never done it before. I think you will find Stay Upright will carefully select staff that fit into the professionalism of their company, so you might find a few old staff getting invited to join them, while others will not make the transition.

Really happy with stay upright, they did a bloody good job........