LARRY BROOKS SPEAKS ABOUT ANAHEIM III: Something Needs To Be Done About Lappers; He Has A Plan To Make The Blue Flag Work, Not Just Be A Decoration On The Side Of The Track

A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR MAKING THE BLUE FLAG WORK: THE PROBLEM IS THAT AMA WOULD HAVE TO DO SOMETHING

By Larry Brooks

    As everyone knows who watched this week’s Anaheim III race (or read about it), Southern California had some heavy rain leading up to the sixth round of the 2009 Supercross series. Thankfully, the track had been covered in plastic since Thursday by Feld Entertainment and Dirt Wurxs. As a result, what could have been a mud bog was actually a semi-dry track for Saturday night’s Supercross. Anaheim III might well have been a disaster as far as the track conditions go, but it ended up being a good track (one lined, but a good track in the dirt department).

    This week’s track was designed by Jeremy McGrath and if we hadn’t had all the rain, I think this would have been the best track I’ve seen in a long time. When the track workers pulled the plastic off the track that it had been protecting, there was actually dry dirt underneath. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the low spots of the track had water in them and that water soon turned into soup, but the conditions were better than I expected. It is obvious to me that plastic tarps aren’t a good enough solution because while the plastic protects the track from rainfall, nothing protects the track from the water collected by the plastic. Dirt Wurx and Feld need to figure out how to pull the plastic off without dumping all the water back onto the track.

WHICH BRINGS ME TO AN ISSUE...

    Because of the soupy low spots (between jumps and in the corners), the track was one lined, which brings me an issue that has bothered team managers (and racers) for decades--lappers. The leaders of the Anaheim 3 race lapped up to fifth place and because of that, lapped riders were a serious issue.

    As I recall James Stewart began lapping riders on the first or second lap of the 20-lap main event. The AMA rule for riders being lapped is that when a rider receives the “blue flag” (which is a warning that they are about to be overtaken by a rider who is essentially a full lap ahead of them), that rider should hold his line and avoid impeding the faster rider that is about to put him a lap down. That’s the rule, but like the 55 mph speed limit, it is never obeyed. What does happen is part-and-parcel with human nature. When a rider sees the “blue flag” being waved, he speeds up because he knows that the rider in front of him got the blue flag also...and he just might catch a rule-abiding rider slowing down and nab an easy pass. There is a weekly struggle to get lapped riders to obey the blue flag (and since there is no rule that says that a rider being lapped can’t pass another lapped rider while the blue flag is being waved, it is worth the effort for a following rider to ignore the blue flag to try to pass a rider who is obeying the blue flag).

    When the lapped riders start jockeying around; speeding up to avoid getting lapped; trying to catch up to the about-to-be fellow lapper in front of them; and engaging in races within races (albeit a lap down on the real race for the lead) they are endangering the leaders.

    Last year during the 2008 Supercross series, I stood by an AMA official and told him exactly what was going to happen as the leaders came up to lap a bunch of riders. Sure enough, the lapped riders, who had been dogging it up to this point, suddenly began to race harder as they received the “blue flag.” They started to dogfight with the other lapped riders and, in the process, interfered with the leaders that the “blue flag” had warned them were coming. After watching this, the AMA official said, “Yes, I see the problem taking place and since were deep into the series already, we will take care of next year. I promise you we will do something about this.”

    Well, its next year and nothing has been done about this issue! The AMA is the sanctioning body for professional Supercross in the United States and they are notoriously slow about changing rules...even if it is for the safety of the riders. I don’t know if my fellow team managers have complained like I have, but they should. We should all speak out about the blatant disregard of the blue flag. I’m tired of waiting for the AMA to act and I think that the fans, the media, the mechanics, the team managers and everyone concerned about the integrity of the race at the front of the pack should have their voices heard.

    My thinking is simple (and I want the AMA to act now). Not next year! Not someday! This is my thought about what should happen when riders are being lapped during a motorcycle race. I agree with the “blue flag” scenario, so I feel that the AMA should keep this part of the system intact. But, the instructions that go along with the blue flag should state that when a rider or group of riders receive the blue flag (which means that they are about to be lapped), they should hold their positions (and under no circumstances improve on their position while under the authority of the blue flag).

    The AMA doesn’t need any new flags. They don’t need to make a big deal about changing the rule book. All they need to do is inform the riders that from now on, starting this weekend in San Diego, that any rider who is deemed to have improved his position or impeded the lead rider will be docked a lap (which I think is the perfect punishment for a lapper). After the lead rider has passed the single rider or group of riders that had received the blue flag, they can resume racing. Seems simple. Seems logical. Don’t you think?

    The integrity of the races depends on the AMA trying to maintain some semblance of order. This is what we rely on the AMA for. It will be a sad day when some disgruntled lapped rider determines the outcome of a race that 45,000 people paid to watch. It is dangerous enough on the track for all the racers without having scofflaws trying to greedily take advantage of the blue flag.

    Although it would be easy for me to put names with the most egregious violators of the blue flag, I don’t want to go there. I want to place the responsibility for ending these actions at the door of the AMA. Let’s see if they shirk this responsibility also. You never know, we might get lucky.

{I do have one request. Please give me the respect to not copy, paste and post my comments all over the web. You can link to my column if you want, but don’t take my words, cut them up and distribute them as though you own them. Thank you for your consideration, Larry}.

Larry and Mike: L&M

(Editors note: Larry Brooks raced the AMA Nationals for 12 years. He was the 1986 AMA Rookie of the Year. Larry finished sixth (1986), eighth (1987) and sixth (1988) in the AMA 125 Nationals; fifth (1992), fourth (1992) and tenth (1994) in the 250 Nationals; won the Orlando, Pasadena and Los Angeles 125 West Supercrosses. Larry also was the two-time Mickey Thompson MTEG Ultracross Champion (on the Noleen/Sizzler/Yamaha team with Larry Ward and Mike Craig). After retiring from racing, Larry ran the Chaparral team, Bud Light team (with Jeremy McGrath), Factory KTM team and the L&M team (with Chad Reed and now James Stewart).