Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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are you kidding me.  safer?   your thoughts?

Lincoln Speedway Will Use A Virtual Flagman In 2024 - FloRacing

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

It's fine who looks at a flag man?

drivers better not be

i'm not, I'll looking at scoreboard, lap counter yes but NOT the flags 

Taking it to next level baby! Safer maybe? Safer would be radio controlled 410's, that way no drivers would ever be injured. You plan on attending many races at Virtual Flagman Speedway this year?

They're taking the flagman out of the picture, but keeping the flagmen in the corners????

S T U P I D

Hilarious that they also brag up the sight blocking jumbotron in the article.

A

 Flagman today have headsets on and any series out there has an official standing down in turn 4 watching the front row hit the start zone. Cars have transponders, most tracks use 1 way radio's  to get cars lined back up. So you eliminate the flagman from a spot on a stand. So the only thing there doing is the guy standing in the corner yells green green green and somebody throws a switch. I question the safety of it,  if your having an issue with your radio and they are yelling yellow or red what happens to the guy that his 1 way radio is not working properly ? My opinion. Just like others, stupid idea.

With the lights and multiple locations of flagman when a yellow or red does come out nobody drives to the front stretch to see what the main flag man is doing. We've all seen cars come out of corner to at full throttle and be stopped before they get into corner three so we know that they don't need the front flagman to do that. As far as restarts in watching the main flagman I don't even know if they would do that once that yellow light is out they know the procedure with your eyes closed. The front flagman is essentially a sitting duck if debris or a car ventures his way. Very few have an out towards safety. 

Don't your tracks have yellow and red lights in addition to humans waving flags?

I'm curious if you feel that way because of safety or because of tradition?

At first thought it sounds stupid to me.  But there is a safety risk to a flagman standing there (maybe it's small but there is still a risk).  This day and age, there really isn't a reason for it anymore.  LED lights and LED light strips are dirt cheap, you can have tons of lights around the track that the instant a yellow or red flag is thrown, every driver could see this.  If it's judgement calls people are concerned about, these days cameras are dirt cheap too.  You can literally have a camera pointing at every section of the track and the ability to replay it.  Which honestly that makes much more sense to me since the flagman can't see everything.  I know it changes things but the technology is available, so why not use it?

Another important factor that I think alot of people are forgetting about is the raceivers the drivers use now to allow one way communication from the control tower. 

Something no one has brought up. The kids, some love to watch and even go as far as duplicating his moves.  They buy flags from the tracks sovereign stand and many sit in there seats enjoying waving there flag. 

As a primarily live stream fan and viewer I can say its hard to impossible to see the flagmen anymore, the cameras move too fast.  And as a long time fan I appreciate that sprint car racing has had a reduction in injury/death of drivers in recent years after a rough stretch, and this is very good for the sport.  I think a lot of this safety improvement is because of the tracks themselves having better catch fencing and signs have been relocated.   Try it and see how it works...

Pretty much what I was going to say as well.  The kids are the only ones that will miss the starter, really.  Good point

Formula 1 doesn't have a flagman. They have a virtual safety car.

Yea, that thing is annoying!

true... its kind of a cool tradition

The Virtual Flagman will give the green light tomorrow and Sunday.      Tune into Flo in the afternoon if you are interested.