No more pushback for skusa?

The penalty for Cole may have to do with history from him (Utah Pro Tour), but not saying a tap to the helmet similar to Connor deserved begin excluded from the remainder of the weekend. However, TJ is right in that there are some young kids out there racing with adults, and physical contact between the two would not be equal. My daughter was running the class last year at 14.

I know how the frustration can feel over penalties being, and not being, handed out. I know there are some that we race with were frustrated with the regional races (SKUSA sanctioned) handing out, and rescinding, penalties.

I wasn’t expecting you to catch too much off track activity. You had enough karts to avoid and mud to clean off. I bet Bayliff hitting the barrier in qualifying was a bit close.

I would say that to work effectively all starts need to be manually reviewed. Probably need a live drone shot too with enough definition.

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As I recall during the Award Ceremonies for Round 1 in X30 Pro Greenemeier moved up two spots into 3 rd after in race penalties were handed out, so something is coming of the Camera System maybe just not as quick as a PBB.

This kind of behavior has to be squashed from the get go. I think Connor should have gotten one race penalty and potentially fined along with Cole. Letting it go the first time with Connor just set the president later for Cole to do the same thing. Who knows how many after this will feel its okay to strike another driver (regardless of how hard) after an on track incident. What happens when the roles are reversed and a Minor attacks and Adult. Would a defensive shove be considered assault? Its a can of worms no matter how it goes down and best to be avoided.

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I once heard a big, old, grumpy guy at our local club yell to a fellow driver “Are you 18?” as he aggressively stomped toward him. I jokingly told my buddy, "I dont know how old he is, but the correct answer is ‘No’ " :laughing:

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I believe she moved up 1 position into 3rd from 4th after the race winner got DQ’d in tech.

My biggest problem is the inconsistency. Maybe it’s because I grew up playing hockey, where 16 year olds are allowed to fight 20 year olds in Major-Junior, but sometimes someone needs to get knocked around when they wrong someone (side note: this is not parenting advice, I am talking specifically about peer-to-peer interaction). So I saw nothing wrong with either of the two interactions, but TJ is right that it opens up the possibility of things escalating in the future. If they had DQ’d/suspended/fined Zillisch in Vegas I don’t think this would even be a conversation, but letting it go meant that they were okay with those actions but not Cole’s.

Returning to the question of PBB and officiating, I already said they need more aggressive and serious penalties. If I know someone is getting a serious penalty for something egregiously wrong, I’d be less inclined to try and do something knowing they’re already receiving a serious penalty. If the standard was set that Fletcher is getting scored behind any driver involved in the incident, and everyone knew that was going to be the result, then they may be more inclined to let the officials take control, compared to a 5 second penalty that means essentially nothing when he ended the race of 3 drivers.

I see 3 possible outcomes

  1. Video review is used effectively, and driving cleans up
  2. They go back to PBB
  3. It turns into 1980 NASCAR and if someone doesn’t like what you did than you get sent into the shadow realm

Maybe we need this for karting. :rofl:
image
This is on my bookshelf; my son played hockey from Mites through 4-years of Club Hockey at Creighton University… Go Sharks! :grin:

I think this is the key. It seems as though depending on the series it is either a time or a position penalty for an infraction, but they don’t consider an either or situation. I think some penalties should be a time penalty, but others (like AC) be a position penalty. An AC penalty should probably be an automatic finish no higher than the other(s) involved. Then if it is AC, but you don’t end the guys race, you can still have a decent result, but if you take him out, then you’re race is ruined as well. I’ve actually had someone tell me that if they were racing in a deep field and the pre-final set the field for the final, he’d have no problem taking someone out and taking a 5 second penalty if it meant moving one of his toughest competitors to the back.

I am sure that as they go along without PBB, and UPSKS keeps it, they will get feedback and make necessary adjustments.

I’m hearing through the grapevine that SKUSA might go back to the PBB for the next Winter Series event, such was the negative feedback after Homestead.

That’d be quite an impressive turnaround as the idea had the initial support of the drivers who voted for it. I thought there’d be an initial improvement as drivers were still in ‘push back’ mode.

Just saying…

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Maybe SKUSA just wanted to end the constant complaining and have a big “I told you so” moment

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This. 100%. Most series would have done the same, they may have just taken a moment longer.

The biggest issue we have in karting is a very vocal minority and a very silent majority. I don’t know a proper breakdown of who was on which side of the fence, but that dynamic always ends up swaying promoters across the board to appease the few complaints, since they don’t receive enough compliments on the status quo or vice versa.

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One of my karting buds became internet famous for his interview after a hectic B main. He chucked a flag into the crowd, called out a dude for not fighting him, etc. dudes a legend

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What is bucking a flag?

You really have to have a no tolerance for any fighting. I’m pretty sure it was that way in the UK, you’d get straight up banned if you laid a hand in someone. It did mean drivers aggressively posturing because no one would throw a punch but that was it. Having said that I was still slapped on the head pretty hard by a certain Mr Hamilton after he crashed into the back of me at Brands Hatch.

I don’t have many memories of first corner clashes when we used to be set free earlier. Check out old karting videos from the 90s and they were flat out from before the final corner. Result is everyone is pretty spread out by the first corner. It started getting bad when they added acceleration lines.

The PBB is just a consequence of all these other decisions, bodywork, acceleration lines etc etc. As with these types of things, you can’t really go back from them.

Personally I like them.

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At least from my experience with Rok Cup, AC penalties are position penalties unless they lose so many spots that it’s too hard to count, then we give time penalties (usually 10 seconds). Only score the offender behind the receiver if they’re eliminated from the race. Other infractions are time penalties to give someone the opportunity to out-race it.

Good point. I am not entirely sure why we go so slow (in the US) on the start straight and corner prior. If you qualify poorly and start in the back, you can try to time the start, get a jump on the field, run by people, and hope you come out the other end of turn 1.

*chucking
Whoops!
20 char

Agreed. Though that was partly due to necessity with the old 100s! As you’ll know going slowly ain’t great with them.

This modern culture of stewards trying to get involved and slow everyone I don’t really understand but it seems to have grown from the Rotax era. The best and most consistent starts I saw in modern era was when f100 90s went to Garda in 2016. Basically we were told we weren’t ‘racing’ officially. So the drivers had a gentleman’s agreement. 2 rolling laps laps, form up and go. There was no stewarding assistance.

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