Parade Laps redux

[Aavitt]

The corner workers in the first session get a parade lap when they drive their first practice session. Their first practice will always be the 6th run group of the day for every AX event. So it would be easy to plan for that parade lap. It is always in the 6th run group. As I mentioned not everyone in Green, yellow or blue is a student so they may not have gone out with an instructor and may want to take the Parade lap. The time frame of the first early morning parade lap should be about 8:45am and I would hope the tech team would get a chance to drive a lap by then.

Angela Avitt
Car #425

[mrondeau]

I thought the goal was to streamline and simplify so that we could finish on time. Thanks for showing me the light.

[Aavitt]

The 15 minutes in the morning while we set up corner workers is usually just wasted time anyway. No time lost there. First car out still has to be at 9am. We are reducing parade laps from 6 runs groups to 1 run group and we are are reaching a "compromise." I think many of us who have done too many AX's to even count anymore, tend to forget what it is like to be driving your 5th AX, cut off from an instructor, left on your own. Everyone learns at a different pace and everyone cant remember the track instantly. If the AX team is willing to try it out for a couple of AX events, I do not see what the harm would be. There is definitely drivers out there that still find something positive about a parade lap.

Angela Avitt
Car #425

[Mmagus]

If the AX team is willing to try it out for a couple of AX events, I do not see what the harm would be. There is definitely drivers out there that still find something positive about a parade lap.
Angela Avitt
Car #425

I am still on the "no" side of the debate, but what you have mentioned is a possible compromise. It could be tested at the next couple of AX's...which...it just so happens...I will be unable to attend.

Jerry...its your call.

(giggle....evil snicker....)

[JERRY B]

It's Kim's baby now, He has to deal with it

[jenniferreinhardt]

[Kim Crosser]

Angela, please go back and re-read my last post. Then consider the following:
1. If the point of the parade lap is for the STUDENT to drive it at a reduced speed, then the first lap of the day does NOT work for the first run group, which is always instructors. None of their students would get to drive the parade lap. So this doesn't help unless we are willing to further complicate and mess up the initial starts with students and instructors swapping cars.
2. Also, students in the 4th group would only get to drive if their FIRST exposure to the track is one lap with them in the driver's seat and NO prior experience as a student in the instructor's car. Is this really useful?

In my view, parade laps are only useful for initial sweeping of the track for debris, in which case we might as well have one "free for all" parade lap right before the first run group and be done. Anyone who wants to run it, fine. If you are corner working, too bad - but next time you will probably get a chance and someone else will be corner working.

If any instructor wants to do a reduced speed lap - whether they are driving OR riding with their student, just ask start for a little extra time and do it as part of a regular lap. We don't need to hold a formal parade lap for everyone just to allow some reduced speed laps.

My position is:
NO PARADE LAPS AFTER THE FIRST PRACTICE LAP STARTS

[Gary Burch]

When I was ax chair, when we always had a 100+, we always finished on time, the lot wasn't nearly as bad as today,few, if any X-cars, the beer was colder and the times were faster, you know the good old days. Anyway, I think we would sometimes have a parade lap for everyone while the cornerworkers were going out. Took about 10 minutes, and totally cleaned the track. Cornerworkers got their's in their run session.

[Aavitt]

Hi Kim,
Gary makes it sound so simple and easy. It worked in the past with over 100 cars. I know it is not a perfect solution and it is not really fair for all drivers. Instructors cannot be forced to take their students, and students really should not be allowed to go on their own. If we have a "free for all" 15 minutes while the corner workers are being set up, it has to be held to a low speed for sure to be safe. If we do not give the first group of corner workers a parade lap in the 6th run group, then it seems really unfair to them.
I think that if it became the "norm" to have this open time for a parade lap, that perhaps some of the bugs might get worked out eventually. I would like to talk to Gary to see what issues, if any, he encountered. He did say they made it fair by giving the first corner working group a parade lap before their first practice session.

Angela Avitt
Car #425

[Kim Crosser]

I've stated my position. I have no problem with an initial parade lap before the first practice run group.
Giving the corner working group a parade lap removes at least 80% of the lost time and timing hassles, so if the AX chairs feel that is worthwhile (I don't), so be it...

Keep in mind that while this might be "fair" to the corner working group, the students in run group 2 won't get a parade lap (they are riding with their instructors) and the students in run group 4 probably won't get a parade lap (they are probably riding with their instructors) and the instructors who went out with their corner working students won't get a parade lap.

You can't make parade laps "fair" unless you do them between every run group, which is the current state (and problem).

So - again - run one "free for all" parade lap before the first practice lap. So it isn't perfectly fair - stuff happens. The corner workers for this event are probably not the corner workers in the next event, so it evens out over time.

[pecivil]

I wonder if a 1st "free for all" lap could devolve into some people going too fast vs people going slow all at the same time?

To me the parade lap mainly involves making sure I don't hit the guy in front of me. I am watching his bumper vs really seeing the track.

Maybe an option would be to make the 1st practice lap for the students be set at 5/10ths speed by their instructors as an established rule? Say establish the 1st practice lap as a "parade" lap in the sense that they are told to "go slow on purpose" but it is not a "special" parade lap. Start can allow more time per car on this one lap and only with students. Everyone should be driving at this speed on the 1st lap anyway. Tell the student the 1st lap "must be driven s-l-o-w-l-y on purpose" to see the track, have the instructors point out things, see the corner worker stations, etc. Get "going fast" (which is what they are thinking about as a newbie) out of their heads for this "special" 1st lap.

[Ted Myrus]

A possible solution to this whole issue that provides course oreintation, does not cause additonal time, or provide unfair advantage is to adopt a feature used in HSR West Racing.

At the beginning of the weekend in the mandatory driver's meeting contestants are asked by a show of hands if they have ever been on this track before. Those responding that they have not are invited to join a race official (who is the driver) in a sedan(s) to do a parade lap to become orientated with the track. The driver also offers driving suggestions as to apexes and braking points. This occurs while the paid corner workers take their positions.

[Gary Burch]

The basic purpose of a parade lap is to see and feel the course. It does not have to be fast and in a parade lap it shouldn't be at speed. There is no reason students cannot drive the parade lap by themselves. Which would actually put a lot of things in context for them, considering the pace most instructors take the first official lap.
I am not quite as opposed to them as Kim is( could be some suppression here or maybe just a phobia ). Either way is fine.

[Kim Crosser]

I am not quite as opposed to them as Kim is( could be some suppression here or maybe just a phobia ).

I am not opposed to a single parade lap at the start of the day - I appreciate a track that has at least partially been swept for debris and dust.

I do think the ones between all the first run groups are a waste of time and they frequently screw up the timing. I have had to jump out of a car at least two or three times already this year to go to the trailer and fix the timing after a parade lap. Despite repeated requests at the drivers' meeting, it seems there are a lot of drivers who don't understand how far apart two seconds is, and when a batch go through the finish we wind up with some "orphans" it thinks are still on the track.

Plus, several comments above talked about the "fairness" to the drivers of the various schemes, but what about the fairness of the first two corner working groups working corners for 18 run group laps, while the later corner workers only have 15 or 12 laps to work?

[gulf911]

I have been a member since before 98 and parade laps were announced after the drivers meeting IF you wanted to drive it. This indeed was to clean off the track and driven ducks in a row , not at speed, for those that wanted to. A student can certainly drive the coarse safely in this manner , I mean he did drive to get there right? NO PARADE LAPS after first practice.