Why does CART allow pit crew over the wall before the car stops?

[Franklin]

And why are they still sitting on their asses when it comes to implementing a combined vent/fuel hose system?

[KC]

Newman-Haas and Reynard are both working on an alternate vent-hose and fuel rig connection at this time.

As far as why they go over the wall before the car arrives is so that the driver can find the pit. Just hanging a lollipop over the wall isn't going to be good enough.

[Franklin]

"Just hanging a lollipop over the wall isn't going to be good enough."

So you're saying that because they don't have the graphic arts talent to come up with a distinctive sign the driver can see it's necessary to put out live targets instead?

[KC]

No. The problem comes from when there are 30 or more lollipops going over the wall during a yellow flag condition. The driver has the chance to look for a uniformed member of the crew holding his pit stall sign up and waving to him from the entrance of his pit space. Sure it is dangerous. Nothing will ever prevent any form of motorsport from being completely non-dangerous. They can only make it as safe as possible without destroying the purpose of the endeavor.

[bella]

newman haas actaully used that new vent thing on sunday. i didn't notice a difference, but i'm sure it makes a huge change when you're there in that pit road.

to say you can't have team members on the pitroad would be silly. it just so happens that paul tracy was unlucky in that he had to pull in in front of someone and i seem to remember christian had a little problem (and admittedly, a bit of brain fade).

i don't like to compare f1 to cart normally, but perhaps they should make a team have the same place for both drivers in cart. on the other hand, it would create probalem when both drivers have to come in at the same time, as happens quite a lot now. it might change the whole nature of the racing. which might not be a good idea.

the wall isn't big enough for a big rush over it anyway

[Neil C]

Why does CART allow pit crew over the wall before the car stops?

The same reason the chicken crossed the road. To get to the other side.

[Franklin]

"...they don't have the graphic arts talent" sort of implies that when everybody uses a lollipop and thus is using a sign that looks pretty much like everybody else's sign that yes of course a driver is going to have difficulty distinguishing one pit from another.

[Crash Test]

This is scary, but i have to agree with you on this one Franklin

OK there would be problems with people finding their pit stall, but they could find some way of over coming that. At least they could get everyone over the wall once it is finished. No matter what they do with respect to this, it will slow it down, but it would be the same for everyone, plus it would probably make yellow pit stops more vital (althouhg is this a good thing?)

[mapguy]

I agree that the crew should stay behind the wall. With one exception. Have the crew chief, who usually changes the outside front tire, over the wall to flag the car into the pitbox.

[Jay]

Possibly.

Or they could just have another guy with a lollypop like F1 who makes sure that the car doesn't go until he can see that nobody is tounching the car.

[Liz]

Some other solutions:

(1) They could let only one guy into the pits at a time.
(2) They could do Le Mans rules and fuel the cars first, and have only one tire guy on each side - that would be slow but if everybody did it that way, it wouldn't be a disadvantage.
(3) They could eliminate pit stops. This would make the races shorter so they could run two races per event. In the second race they could line up in reverse finishing order of the first race. This would make the race REALLY slow and then nobody would get hurt.

[Neil C]

Actually two races per event is not a bad idea. They do it in motorcycle road races and sprint cars. It adds interest for the fans and gives everyone a chance at more points.

I'm not so sure the reverse order start would go over, but outlaw/sprint cars do a modified version of reverse order that is popular with the fans.

[Liz]

If nothing else, it would teach the front guys how to overtake! But by the end of the third lap, they'd be in their regular order anyway, except for those left smoking at the roadside or in the wall.

Oops. I think I have just invented the BTCC.