26th-May-21, 08:34 AM
A track call / yellow flag can be really useful, especially in small-group racing. Ultimately, it's what suits your group or club - and that may change over time too. There's no right way or wrong way if you're all having fun.
Typically, I race with 20-30 people - both HO analogue and 1/32 scale digital. We always have plenty of marshals and so we have no custom of using a track call. The only time we stop a heat is if there is a technical problem with the track (rather than a car problem or a driver forgetting to plug in their controller). Our racers accept that 'things happen' and bad luck is part of racing - especially with less experienced racers on the track. We don't 'seed' heats, so there's always plenty going on. That's just the culture of our club...
In our digital racing we also have a culture of 'no contact' racing - that puts responsibility on drivers to avoid crashing into de-slotted cars. Race control very rarely has to warn drivers of 'no contact' infringements, although I did yellow flag an endurance race once to calm things down.
The no contact culture in our digital racing and no track calls in analogue does mean we tend to keep our eyes on the track ahead of our car - and are ready to slow or stop if there is a hazard. I think that is different to some clubs where drivers race flat-out and 'blind' - with the assumption their lane is always clear.
A regular summer activity for a few years was some smaller-group racing on my HO bullring oval - anything from 4 to 12 people...
If we had six or more - four racing & two marshals - we'd run without track calls. If we were 4 or 5, we'd run with track calls - but with a twist. Each driver would have three cards. Each time they caused a track call (by de-slotting), they threw away a card. If they threw away all 3 cards, the next time they de-slotted it was 'crash & burn' and they were out of that heat. It was a different way of racing and a different challenge. I also added a short delay on the track call (using TrackMate) for an extra penalty. Only the first car to de-slot had to throw in a card.
Although we only used the card system when we didn't have enough marshals, we did routinely run short 'crash & burn' races as part of the evening schedule, irrespective of the number of racers and marshals. I guess that suggests that any group can use a mix of different formats successfully.
Typically, I race with 20-30 people - both HO analogue and 1/32 scale digital. We always have plenty of marshals and so we have no custom of using a track call. The only time we stop a heat is if there is a technical problem with the track (rather than a car problem or a driver forgetting to plug in their controller). Our racers accept that 'things happen' and bad luck is part of racing - especially with less experienced racers on the track. We don't 'seed' heats, so there's always plenty going on. That's just the culture of our club...
In our digital racing we also have a culture of 'no contact' racing - that puts responsibility on drivers to avoid crashing into de-slotted cars. Race control very rarely has to warn drivers of 'no contact' infringements, although I did yellow flag an endurance race once to calm things down.
The no contact culture in our digital racing and no track calls in analogue does mean we tend to keep our eyes on the track ahead of our car - and are ready to slow or stop if there is a hazard. I think that is different to some clubs where drivers race flat-out and 'blind' - with the assumption their lane is always clear.
A regular summer activity for a few years was some smaller-group racing on my HO bullring oval - anything from 4 to 12 people...
If we had six or more - four racing & two marshals - we'd run without track calls. If we were 4 or 5, we'd run with track calls - but with a twist. Each driver would have three cards. Each time they caused a track call (by de-slotting), they threw away a card. If they threw away all 3 cards, the next time they de-slotted it was 'crash & burn' and they were out of that heat. It was a different way of racing and a different challenge. I also added a short delay on the track call (using TrackMate) for an extra penalty. Only the first car to de-slot had to throw in a card.
Although we only used the card system when we didn't have enough marshals, we did routinely run short 'crash & burn' races as part of the evening schedule, irrespective of the number of racers and marshals. I guess that suggests that any group can use a mix of different formats successfully.
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