Formula Jedi, Oulton

[Ian Sowman]

Where have all the Jedi people gone? I've not seen any comment on Saturday's race at Oulton Park. What were people's views of the race?

A number of people expressed their concern to me about overtaking under yellows during the race. Was there any comeback on that?

[MikeM]

I believe the yellow problem was Hilltop to Knicker? I was at Lodge and they seemed okay there.

[ActiveMS]

By all accounts it was an action packed race at the front and the 600's had a really good scrap as well. Not sure about the yellows, had not heard anything about that until I read the thread?

Frazer Corbyn put his car on pole and then fastest lap of the race which was impressive, but even more so because he was using my spare engine that was absolutely bog standard, whereas everyone else's had been tweeked, thus ruffling a few feathers

Race pace was pretty impressive and I think quicker than the radicals?

I ended up all on my own in 5th for most of the race. Couldnt catch the front pack and managed to keep everyone else about 5 seconds behind. Had fun making up the places I lost when I had to lift when PaulB in front of me bogged down on the start.

Cracking track and my first time at Oulton Park.
Many thanks to the Marshalls for their time and hard work.
Also many thanks to the BRSCC for allocating us the pit garages.....fantastic!

[diz]

I saw some abysmal yellow flag behaviour out the back. A car pulled off just after Hill Top and another spun at Knicker in the chicane. This had yellow conditions from Hilltop till the green at Knicker out.

Despite being a long yellow zone, the overtaking just didn't stop. There was another incident just after Hilltop - under yellow conditions - when two cars made contact and one spun on the straight !! and continued, whilst at Knicker, there were marshals dealing with their separate incident [just off track] and some superb jinking and overtaking took place within the chicane. This might have been very exciting for the spectators, but was all very naughty with yellows out.
The quick guys are very quick, lapping in 1m22s [for reference FF1600s' do 1m31s] but there is a great disparity in performance / ability throughout the field, down to 1m43s at the back.

From a friends email to me on the subject :
Must admit I noticed exactly the same things. First, the disparity in performance is amazing for what is basically a single chassis and dual engine series. That must mean the driving standards are not up to much.

The yellow flag thing - I was watching at the Avenue and saw exactly what you describe. Shocking really. I'm not aware of any action.

OK, I wear a rather obvious FF1600 hat, but I am not having a dig at F Jedi. I am just incensed with the lack of yellow flag discipline and have made previous posts on the subject when FF1600s were the miscreants. Nor am I having a go at the marshals.

[ActiveMS]

Interesting info, and will mention it to the co-ordinator as I agree safety is paramount. I for one lifted and if necessary slowed especially when I saw marshalls on the green stuff or the track.

Did manage a little spin whilst braking for the chicane, but managed to keep it on the black stuff and carried on ok...ooops.

There are two reasons for the performance disparity.
1 - Driver ability.
2 - Engines

We have two classes, the 600cc and 1000cc. There is a performance diff between the two with the 1000cc's alot quicker in a straight line. This does seem to separate the grid into almost two packs with an average of 5 seconds (ish) between the two class leaders lap times. This is down to the engines and not driver.

Then on the driver side, we have a mixture of very quick ex karters who are on career drives, then guys like me who havent raced karts and learning as quickly as possible desperately trying to get up the grid as far as possible, and then the drivers that have been in the series for a long time who just want to have fun without spending tens of thousands and run at their own pace. With an age range from late teens to late fifties plus, you will get a disparity.

Cant see what the problem with this is. Both the drivers and the spectators enjoy themselves and IMO this is the important bit. F.Jedi still provides close racing without all the hype and bullsh*t that other formula suffer from and consistently runs large grids and as a one make chassis series it is doing very well.

[diz]

Agreed ActiveMS. I'm mainly concerned about the yellow flag discipline though.
The career minded ex karters tend to come into car racing with a poor understanding of what is acceptable in driving standards and having 'got away with it' for so long in karting, expect to get away with it in cars. Coming from something with a top speed of approx 80-90mph to cars that can easily pull 140mph should remove some of their perceived invincibility mentality, but sadly doesn't.
Driving standards need cleaning up throughout the sport, not just in F Jedi.

[ActiveMS]

Diz,
Agree about the yellow flag problems, perhaps the clubs should start to be harder on the drivers and start handing out penalties for repeated overtaking manouvers under yellows? This should make drivers think more.

Did the observers report this weekends issues to the tower, as I didnt hear of anything? Will check with the co-ordinator.

Anyway, forgot to say well done to Alistair Goss for his first win in Formula Jedi. Congrats!

[Ian Sowman]

I'm not saying that the passing under yellow flags was obvious, but if the commentator spots it it has to be fairly blatant. And he did...

[ActiveMS]

Originally posted by Ian Sowman
I'm not saying that the passing under yellow flags was obvious, but if the commentator spots it it has to be fairly blatant. And he did...

.....ooops! Suprised no one was called up then.

[ofarc]

My race ended after 2 laps at lodge with another blown engine. thanks to all the marshalls rescue guys for putting the fire out and getting me out of the way. The jokes were very amusing too.

With regard to the yellow flag incidents, they should be reported to the C of C. If people do insist on terrible driving standards they should be hauled up in front of the authorities and told off or even fined. Perhaps we need some more input from the Marshalls after the race. Have an award judged by each marshall post who they think obeyed the flags. That way we can see who has not obeyed these warnings.

Yellow does not only mean no overtaking it means be prepared to stop.

However, I am fairly positive this happens across the board in club racing in this country.

[Nadine J Lewis]

I was one of the marshals down at Knickerbrook and after some fairly hairy qualifying with oil everywhere the racing was absolutely cracking.
I am concerned that the report by our observer on overtaking has not been taken into account. However, after the incident with one car hitting the tyres onto the track and everyone dodging around them and overtaking I think there were too many manouevres to account for them all. As no specifics given no action taken!!! Quite dangerous from our point of view. We waited for a gap (with no more cars spinning!) - moved the tyres and moved the car into a relative place of safety and made a dash for safety ourselves! Would like it mentioned to all competitors - those who didn't obey the rules know who they were and know they got away with it....this time!!!!

[Lenny]

Actually It was Ali's second victory in Jedi. He won at Silverstone in May with a new lap record

[Lenny]

Some notes on the Jedi times on Saturday - The quickest Radical time was 1.22.9 and more surprisingly the quickest F3 lap was 1.23.1 - all the first 4 Jedi runners ran sub 1.22.5 - enough said!!!!!

[jediracing]

Originally posted by diz
Despite being a long yellow zone, the overtaking just didn't stop. There was another incident just after Hilltop - under yellow conditions - when two cars made contact and one spun on the straight !! and continued, whilst at Knicker, there were marshals dealing with their separate incident [just off track] and some superb jinking and overtaking took place within the chicane. This might have been very exciting for the spectators, but was all very naughty with yellows out.

This goes to show how this sport is sometimes. I was leading the pack when that incident occured, and it was only cuz i was obeying the rules that i got spun out. When i was approachin the brow of the hill i could see waved yellows and as i was told in a drivers briefing that we were to all be on our best behaviour and pay special attention to yellow flags, i tried my hardest to keep people slow under yellows, especially when we are lappin backmarkers at race pace, but as it happens it would have been better for me to have ignored the flags like everyone else :confused:

[ActiveMS]

Originally posted by Lenny
Actually It was Ali's second victory in Jedi. He won at Silverstone in May with a new lap record

Ooops, sorry didnt realise as I wasnt at Silverstone this year. Also thought Chris said it was his first win at the prize giving? Anyway congrats again to Ali.

[Ian Sowman]

Jediracing - I saw your rotation and I did think at the time that you were probably the only one paying any heed to the yellows.