Bumper Cars at TMP | Page 5 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Bumper Cars at TMP

Pro 6 has always been concerned about rider safety and constantly stress the rules in their rider meetings. At CTMP if you are a first time rider there you will spend your day in the green group the whole day no matter your ability. In green group there is absolutely no passing in breaking zones or corners. Only on straights. Here is a video of a friend of mine who is a very good rider and has some racing experience at his first day at CTMP doing a Riders choice day;
Now if it was a Pro 6 day he would have been black flagged and pulled off the track. His passing was safe but in green group it must have scared the f*** out of some riders.
All the issues you see at this car track day could occur at a Riders choice day but would not be tolerated at a Pro 6 day. And that's not to say that Pro 6 has not had some bad days at their track days. There have been some bad incidents that have occurred at their days both at CTMP and Bogie and they really take it to heart. As Katatonic mentioned about a Riders Choice track day a couple years ago at CTMP it was a real s*** show. And when riders have to be transported in ambulances to the hospital the track is shut down so everyone loses track time. When you pay the money out like you do at CTMP and Bogie you don't want to lose a minute of track time. We all appreciate the opportunity to be out on the track but the approach can mean the difference between having fun and being safe or being hurt or worse yet.

I thought black flags were a decision of the Marshalls. Which would be the same people for both organizations.

CTMP days have been disappointing the last few years for me.

Go and ride where and with who you are comfortable. It's a demanding track to begin with.
 
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I picked out a 1:37 lap time and that was with some interference from traffic. That video looks like he's seriously in the wrong group. Assigning someone to "green" (novice) group for a whole day does not make a whole lot of sense, either. For example, I doubt if Marc Marquez has ever turned a lap at CTMP. Would they put *him* in green group because of that? Or are rules bent depending on what your name is and who you know ... ? ? ?

Other organisations have different ways of handling this. As of right now, the last lap I turned on a racetrack was at Phillip Island on a rental bike. They have a lap timing system, and everyone has a transponder. They take an educated guess at what group to assign you to at the beginning of the day based on your prior experience, and actively move people between groups depending on how things work out. So ... first lap I ever did of Phillip Island, which is a seriously fast track, on a rental bike that I've never ridden before, was in their "medium-fast" group ("fast" group is reserved for people who have experience on that track). The only consideration for me having never been there before was putting the bike in "rain" mode for the first session. Green flag. There's the entrance road, don't cross that blend line. Go.

They also handle passing differently. "Do what you need to do, but stay 2 metres apart." Same in all groups.

I'm still here. That was an awesome experience. I won't be taking Jonathan Rae's place, but it was great to get a taste of it.

I totally agree with you Brian. He is a red group rider but Pro 6 and Riders choice rules are if you have never been to Mosport before you ride green group for the day. Should he have been riding like that in that group; I would say no. And should he have been black flagged and talked to yes. If an organizer sets out rules they should be followed whether we like it of not. The interesting thing here is that Riders choice does not have any set rules for riding in the green group. Passing anywhere is ok they say as long as you do it safely which i would disagree with at that level of riding. Pro 6 would not let passing in corners or braking zones. Anyways I like how they set it up at Philip island. That makes sense. Every organizer has to determine what rules they want to go with and riders have to comply or bad things happen. And in the case of this TMP car track day the rules were not spelled out very well and the end result was bad. But these were damaged cars and no one was hurt. For motorcycle riders at a track day this could be much more physically dangerous or even deadly.
 
They'd have to set it on fire again for that to have a chance at working... That fire would have left significant burn marks wherever it happened... burnt car in driveway but no damage to house or actually driveway.. will raise questions.
Let's not forget the fact that it's on social media for all to see...
 

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