Start delay in Qual runs

[Jani Soderhall]

Suggestion for the rule book 2013:

How about setting a start time windows limit in the Qual session?
At the Worlds we could see Viking and Janis playing a game with the start because nobody wanted to leave first. They were just staying up on the ramps looking at each others until the speaker started the count down. 10 seconds until DQ.

How about: Start within one second or DQ.

...or just use the Random beep start in the Quals and it's solved. (an advantage of that method would be that we would get comparable times in Qual in Finals, something nobody seems to care much about just yet).

/Jani

[Steve Pederson]

...or just use the Random beep start in the Quals and it's solved. (an advantage of that method would be that we would get comparable times in Qual in Finals, something nobody seems to care much about just yet)./Jani

My vote is for using the random beeps at qualifying. Then it's the same conditions as the head-to-head finals.
Our current separate starts for qualifying makes no sense to non-racers in the audience. They see two racers standing at the top of the ramps waiting for their competitor to go first.

Unless if someone has a good reason why the current method is best.

[Richy Carrasco]

Radom is totally fair! I was qualifying in one race and the guy in the other lane would go out on the first beep and as I was going down the course their was a mine field of cones waiting for me!

[Peter Pletanek]

I also think the Random beep is a good solution... I don't see any disadvantage and you? (Maybe one, some of not so good racers are very fast at the beeb start, but who cares...)

[Hans Koraeus]

Yes, random start also for qualification would solve the problem.

I.e. we include also reaction time into the race qualification result. Which is not a strange thing at all.

Imagine having our current "start when you want" solution at the olympic games. It's a wonder we have not figured this out a long time ago. Or it was no problem before because racers started as expected. But since this seems not to be the case anymore let's change it a.s.a.p.

[Peter Pletanek]

I also think the Random beep is a good solution... I don't see any disadvantage and you? (Maybe one, some of not so good racers are very fast at the beeb start, but who cares...)

I see additionally two advantages

1. I think beeb start is more interesting also for the spectators

2. the organizer save one trackmate at the start (so we will have less "bad starts; because time is not running, something is wrong with the start trackmate"

[Guillaume Saint-Criq]

i think random beep will be good for qualifs

only 2 disadvantage i can see :
- time takers will have to be more focused on reaction time, even for the qualifs...
- we need an ISSA unified rule about false starts (x2, x3, DQ)... but, hey maybe we already have :D

[Guillaume Saint-Criq]

we used this format in Grenoble this weekend :
- first racers was reticent (it seems to be normal... all changes must first be rejected)
- the race run well : it was nice for the audience who always see racers going at the same time, and it was easier for me at the speaking
- we had NO false start during all the qualifs
- after the race, it seems all racers enjoyed this format

[Janis kuzmins]

Random beep its a big rule - i mean important one. Now just waiting for confirmation as regular rule for Main and Major races!