Ducati Sporting Club UK > DesmoDue Race Series > DesmoDue - General Questions and Chat > Change of race format at New Era

[ali]

Been thinking about this over the weekend and still can't quite get my head around it. Lets go back to their rationale:

"This situation arises of course as a result of the increasing number of “Red Flags” that are now being displayed and the time lost is not there to be regained."

Last year we had untimed practise, timed practise and two races. I don't remember a meeting where they had to cancel a race at the end of the day due to stoppages. There may have been meetings where this happened but none that we attended.

This year we start with no timed practise, and lots of us post messages saying "this is borrocks, no warm-up is a dangerous thing". Halfway through the season and NE are concerned that they're getting more red flags. I'd have to say that, if this is the case then it could just have something to do with chucking a bunch of adreneline fuelled nutters out to qualify when the last time most of them saw the track was 12 months ago.....

Next thing we know we're told that the format is moving to qualifying and one race only. So now we have the same problem of no warm-up, but instead of having two races we have only one. This can only lead to more crashes as you only have one chance to get the result you want, and the points you're scoring are twice as important.

Having one 'endurance' style event a year is interesting, it's something you can prepare for, adjust your mindset to, but having them every meet is a nightmare for all the reasons everyone has listed.

[Murray Mint]

Well I'm coming out of the woodwork on this issue.

I normally support the MT and RC in their decisions but regarding this current situation I am left wondering just what the club officials are doing, come on guys we need some communication even if its bad news, let us know that you are indeed doing something or as it would appear doing nothing.

Murray Mint

[phoenix n max]

Dya know - this is what I will not miss about DD - all this last minute change of goalposts.. Every meeting has been the same.

[Mark Hill #36]

has anyone in the MT realised that 50 riders bringing their entries in is enough to cover about a quarter of the circuit hire? (very rough guess)

How much clout does that earn, and they just keep squeezing you....

something's fishy

[skidlids]

Quite right Mark, even with one combined grid plus a few doing races in other classes the DD contribution would be in the region of £5.5k to £6k at this meeting which I would think would cover the cost of 1/7th of the meeting.

With the meeting running from 9am to 6pm and allowing for a 1 hr lunch thas 8 hours track time of which about 1hr 10mins is paid for by DD members.

The DD grid itself puts £5.2k into the meeting so roughly 1/8th of the meetings costs so that should buy 1 hr of track time and what do DD get got the money, 15 min practice and a race that probably takes up about 30mins from taking to the track until last rider is off it.

So either way you look at it DD is getting short changed with 1hr tracktime I'm sure a 10 minute timed practice and two 8 lap races could be fitted in with time to spare and with the format they have now adopted of only one longer race and a 15 min timed practice there should still be enough time left for a 4 lap free practice session