Just spoke to Phil at new era, the qualifying race is NOT charged for as an extra race.

interesting.

I would have concern over newbies being gridded at the front, especially if we have a mixed grid.

Previous experience of this approach means that you can request to move back on the grid if you are novice etc and not comfortable, I just wonder how many will actually do this if it is allowed.

Other than that - seems ok for me, I am **** at qualifying anyway :mad:

The ACU book says a minimum of ten mintues practice for any road race event. IIRC it used to be a minimum of 3 laps/rider but that was before they invented radial tyres and transponders.

Is the cart getting put before the horse here.
New Era have not yet said their will npot be any practice, what they have said is timed quallifying will be replaced by a quallifying race.
They also stated several weeks ago they wanted to add better value for money, They also state that they want to encourage Novices.
Now to me better value for money would be a free practice, followed by a quallifying race and then the two points races.
There has been for some time now a Riders and officials meeting arranged by New Era for tomorrow at a hotel in Daventry. Hopefully this meeting will provide a few answers.
Such as
Will there be Free Practice
How long or over how many laps will the Quallifier race be
How much time will be allocated per class per meeting.
eg if its a 8 hour race day and there is 10 classes then each class should average 48 minutes, enough time for 10 mins free practice, a 10 min quallifier and two 12 minute races, on paper it just about works but in reality we know delays of one kind or another will throw a spanner in that line of thinking.

New Era say they are running 14 classes this year, if you add our 2 that makes 16 but the way New Era have set ther classes out they could easily be combined into 6 or 7 grids and with our 2 making it 8 or 9 then the above times for practice and racing could work

After tomorrow we should know more

STOP PRESS
THE LATEST FROM NEW ERA
we will still do a morning warm up, it may only be ten minutes however the plus side is you will be able to have three races in a day

and here is the full statement

we intend to ensure there is no hanging around in the assembly area with tyres going cold, of course once the track is clear for the next race we need all riders to be ready to rock and roll , this will be the riders responsibility and there will be a strict time limit placed on the length of time the assembly area is open ( i.e. 3 minutes ) before the gate is closed and we race, we intend to try and keep tyres warm by only calling for the race once any fallen riders, bikes, oil slicks etc etc have been concluded, it has happened far too many times in the past that we all are sitting waiting when someone falls off or breaks down and all of our tyres go cold, we intend to stop this happening and improve the show for all concerened

From the conversations I’ve had the general consensus is more racing less time qualifying and better organisation, we will still do a morning warm up, it may only be ten minutes however the plus side is you will be able to have three races in a day, Paul you wrote you could get a bad place on the grid and your right however to make it fair we will draw grid slots from the hat when you sign on and unlike some other clubs we will not have riders drawing three ir four grid positions and keeping the best one, we are still to discuss whether to offer trophies to the first three in the qualifying races or to the fastest lap riders, one thing certain is that your fasterst lap will be the lap that dictates your grid position and we all know we ride faster under race conditions than we do in free practice etc

Would be interested to know the format of the "free" practice warm up regarding whether its loads of different classes all mixed up. Horrible if it is.

Yea but it would be no different to a trackday, and it is exactly what it says on the tin.... A warm up.

All the more reason for having tyre warmers they are not that expensive....

.....over to you DSC committee

You can't just have tyre warmers tho, you also need a generator and paddock stands as a lot of circuits don't have power. If you trailer your bike to a track you then need a vehicle big enough to carry the genny and stands as well as all the other stuff.
No warmers has never been an issue in dd so why make it one ?

Back to the original post I like the idea, my 1st 4 years of racing were done this way with the first race postions done on the time your entry arrived and the 2nd on your finishing position from the first. It encouraged people to get their entries in earlier which is good for the club knowing they have the entries. If you draw pole you can always ask to be moved.