Fun @ Tally today ...

Bought a day at TGP today and had a good time. The weather was really good, overcast, not too warm but not cold . We had one incident I hadn't run into before, but I haven't been at this as long as some/many. There was a rider in N there who apparently thought he belonged in the I group, and apparently some coaches thought not. He promoted himself to I, don't ask me how as I didn't hear, and promptly crashed within a couple of laps, if not the first one, coming out of the 'bowl'. That wouldn't be the worst of it, but he took out another rider damaging her bike in the process . Fortunately she was good but he was knocked unconscious. I believe they carted him off to the hosp. as he wasn't remaining coherent. I can certainly sympathize with a rider who's injured but this dude needs to be banned from the track for a bit, methinks.

ACE

I have heard of that happening and strangely it occurred at TGP with a moron taking out someone else. My understanding is that it resulted in a lifetime ban with a couple of track day orgs. Makes me wonder if there needs to be a concerted effort to check stickers there given a recurrance. Hopefully the other rider is not only OK but did not suffer bike damage due to the ego of the fool.

Any improvement on time coming off the school for yourself?

I think he put himself out for a while. Glad you had a good day though.

Glad you had fun and were able to stay out of the way.

Having never been to a trackday could I ask what the "N", "I", sticker check, promotion etc is about? Sorry to be threadjack and newb at the same time. At the dragstrip you just pays your money and hopefully point it in the right direction

The first-time and/or slower pack of riders are generally in the group classified as Novice, Beginner (Nesba), Street, etc

"I" group is Intermediate

"A" group is advanced (or whack pack @ Grattan )

Different track day providers have differing rules on how to bump up between the classes, NESBA seems to be rather strict. Some organizations just let you sign up for any group. There should still be control riders out on the track to spot any unsafe riding which would include riding over your head, and might have prevented that incident. Seems odd that he would take it upon himself to go out with the wrong group, maybe he did it by mistake?

Doubt it. Some tools just think it is beneath them to be in Novice. Like I said it happened at TGP with another org and the idiot had been turned down more than once as not ready. If my memory is correct he injured the victim of his ego and was banned for life in that org and at least on other.

Most people are good but CBRVFR's advice is the best. When you see the guy that is going to crash get away from them ASAP

And to go a necessary step further, if you see someone breaking rules, whether they are sneaking out in a different group, not following the passing rules of the group, being overly aggressive, not following proper pit in/pit out procedures, or whatever bring it to the attention of a control rider, coach, and/or the director. Yours and everyone else's well being, and possibly even life, can depend on it. It's not "tattling", it's doing your part to ensure the day runs safely. The folks in charge can't be everywhere at once and see everything.

For sure. It is easy to tell the difference between an ooops and wild beavis. Had a rider looking back to someone else in "I" at Barber last time out VERY DANGEROUS as he was off pace and all over (she was actually less of a hazard). Thankfully he stopped or the next session I was going to complain.

@Sheep ... yes I felt that I had improved overall, nothing major WRT lap times, a few seconds maybe, but felt better at overall control as well ...

@All ... sometimes you don't the idiot is there until there's no time to act, it happened very early in the session, I think I have video of the aftermath ... we had a large I group and the rider may have been tucked in amongst others so that the sticker wasn't prominent to the track marshall? ... I agree with HondaGalToo although I'm not one for 'tattling', however, this activity has its share of risk and folks who forget that maybe shouldn't be on the track ...

ACE

A few seconds and in control is huge!

Or to elaborate on what evl_twn said. On a dragstrip you have no one else in your lane on the circuit track you might have as many as 40 other riders. So there is an attempt to sort on ability. That way the people in Novice are with people of similar pace and lack of predictability. The rules of passing are also more restrictive to help prevent people taking others out. Intermediate the pace picks up and the passing rules get more lax. People 'should' be more in control and likely quicker. More predictable for others who are passing them and less prone to panic when passed. Advance tends to be game on. Fast people that are generally real predictable and have no issues being passed up the inside or real close. It is a track day so a bit of courtesy is desired (and almost always given) but most anything that is safe is legal.

The person that 'self promoted' obviously was riding over his head and likely erratically (thus the crash). Sometimes they put people down a group (or keep them there) more on smoothness than speed. This guy was likely wading through the "N" group but was all over and making sketchy moves so they denied his move up request. Often people like that are on liter bikes and many of the passes are on power as much or more than ability. Sucks for the lady following the rules that his ego damaged her bike (fortunately not her also)

Usually Once I had a V8 Vega looking to intersect with me, If I hadn't broken out of my time it would have been a teeth marks in the seat caper.....not that I ever would sandbag.

Thanks guys...i understand it better now.

On a related note, hopefully more amusing, I believe I saw a rider on pit row with us at the beginning of a session, wearing cowboy boots ... I don't recall if said rider made it on track but I guess cowboy boots fit in the rules? Not something I would do myself ...

And there was the Novice instructor who went out on a fully decked out Honda Goldwing, I do know a guy who can fly on one of those so I guess it's not all that surprising ...

If I'm fortunate enough to be able to do this activity next season I'm afraid there may not be many surprises left ;^) ...

ACE

Is Bargy still instructing? He whipped past me on a full dress GW about 17 years ago.

Edit: that's not real hard for anyone to do - whip past me, that is.