Yesterday, at the FSR-PCA drivers meeting (and I think FSR-PCA is VERY good, comparatively, an excellent culture), they asked if anyone had NOT been at the drivers meeting Friday. Two people raised their hands, so they said, we're going to give the COMPLETE and comprehensive flag talk.

Someone behind me swore under their breath...

You know, until the mindset evident behind me gets fixed, we're going to continue with issues of flag awareness, appropriate response and compliance in all groups and organizations. A damned shame.

Sure, we've all heard it. You know what? We can stand to hear it again. Until there is full compliance, we can ALWAYS afford the time to hear it again.

Maybe the heat's getting to me, but I have less patience for this than I used to.

Last week at the Glen during the Zone 1 three day DE they gave a very good driver's meeting with full explanations of the flags along with what to do and NOT to do when seeing them. Afterwards, my buddies girlfriend who wasn't driving says "wow.. that's a lot of stuff to remember when your going 125.." and she's right. After four years and 36 days on track I still listen closely to every word they have to say. Let it be pounded over and over in to your head.

In heated cat n mouses with a friend or nemesis you're chasing on track when your laser focusing on them I constantly say "look at the flag station, look at the flag station".

My first time with Chin was at VIR this past March. Before my checkout ride, I had to complete an online flag test. It took about 1 minute.

At the time I thought it was silly. Of course I know the flags. But now I understand the purpose.

Maybe this should be mandatory before solo signoff with all groups.

Absolutely, even with over a decade of doing this I still review the flags and SCCA GCR each season. I want to program in the on track procedures, so the appropriate response is automatic. At a DE, folks see the Green, Yellow, Blue/Yellow (passing), Black (All) and Checkered flags fairly frequently. But, the Yellow/Red stripped, Meat-ball, White and thankfully Red are not often displayed and a paused or wrong response to these can be catastrophic.

Yep, poor attitudes are too often displayed by too many at the track. I know, peoples' time is tight in the morning, but keeping yourself and other safe and your property is worth it. This is probably the same mentality possessed by those that run red lights on the street. Folks think that until that light IS red they can continue on. However, the yellow actually means "prepare to be stopped." And, how do prepare to be stopped? By applying the brakes. I don't know how many times I've had the lights turn green and sat there, while 1-2-3-4 cars continue through an intersection. Ridiculous! I also, recall a driver's meeting at a race, where a driver was arguing with SOM about the the Purple-35 instituted at VIR. If you are getting "red-mist" with the SOM over a flagging procedure,I personally don't want you on the track with me. I don't know how you screen or educate out poor attitudes, but wish we could.

I think some of the impatience is driven by ignorance that not all tracks/organizations use the same flags. If one does not go to a geographically diverse number of tracks (I'm one of these people) then a mindset can set in that it's all the same everywhere. Specifically teaching this situation could help along the lines of "I know a lot of the locals know this, but this is how we will be doing flags this weekend..." during the driver's meeting plus a specific bullet item in the classroom.

Another angle is perhaps standardizing the flags across the country. Perhaps naive, but how hard could that be? It's not like there are a lot of them (locally we use 10 aspects).

-Mike

OUCH!!!

Was talking to an instructor who had a green/beginner student ~ student came to a complete stop, on track, in a blind corner, because he had traffic behind him.

Who remembers the gym teacher (head flagger) giving the flag talks at Pocono. He used to be there for all the Metro events. His flag talk was awesome!

Coach Hines?

Not the heat Peter, you're just getting old.... :cheers:

I've seen many drivers meetings where participants are having full on conversations during the meeting. This goes both ways as Ive also seen lots of drivers meetings where the chief instructor running the meeting is waxing on about personal stories and funny anecdotes from the night before. Missing flags and not knowing what they mean is truly dangerous for everyone.

Live blogging from a chin event. Drivers meeting did not cover flags. Group meeting same thing except some guy asked if a red is thrown whether he should stop or go to the pits. This is in intermediate with a Maclaren and other expensive cars...

Red to the pits is FIA flagging. While not as common in the US, it is used at some events.

I'm surprised they didn't cover flags in the general meeting.

Not to pick on Chin, because they don't have a monopoly on this phenomenon, but arguably there is NOTHING more important to cover at a drivers' meeting than what actions to take upon seeing the different flags.

There's also nothing that could be repeated and quizzed more frequently than actions to take with various flags.

Talking and sort of listening is a crappy way to learn something that is a visual cue seen under some degree of stress.

If we collectively actually cared about this topic (as we seem to agree re. safety) then flag drills should be run at every event.

Best to learn, review, execute with simulation rather than blah blah blah that apparently few people listen to.

I've asked that question more than once at COTA drivers meetings because it does vary.