Thoughts on Madison Final Heats

[craigmont]

I think the Madison course is too narrow for 5 boats (made even tighter by the fact that no one wants to be too close to the bouys). Then we add 2 trailers, only 3 seconds off the clock, when half the front row miss the start by a second or 3. Now we have a cluster*@%^ of 7 boats trying to fit down the tight chute and into turn 1. This leads to accidents and some difficult officiating.

Would it be better to go top 4 in the front row, 5 and 6 in the 2nd row, and the conny winner in the third row?

On the other hand, I know it may be a little harsh for 20 guys to race for a couple hours only to have 4 boats make the front row for the final.

What do you think?

[bcmont]

5 boat final makes it more of a crapshoot I agree very tough to negotiate & to officiate...I remember the start of the last final heat was a mess as well

tough question though, does suck for only 4 guys to have a shot to win the final after an entire day of racing, would make the prelims that much more important though..

my opinion is let's race for it in the prelims...4 on the front line.

I have fallen deeply in love with racing on the Ohio in Madison, IN, this course is awesome great job NEO

HydroMod

[craigmont]

I also think 3 seconds is not far enough back for trailers. In this picture, the last boat you see is a trailer. He times his start perfectly, 3 seconds off the clock, and he's within overlap of half the front row:


(Not trying to give you a hard time, Scott )

[Scott Przybylski]

Well, the way I see it, if one of the guys on the front row misses the start that bad, one of the trailer's should be allowed to move up, I mean, where's the other front row boat? He's not even in that screenshot he's so far back, so we end up with 5 on the front row anyway.


Maybe we should just change it to 4 on the front row for the final, or maybe try something new and run a single elimination semi final, run 2 4 boat heats with the top 8, the top 2 of each heat goto a 4 boat final.

I dunno.

It is pretty tight going into that first turn with 5 boats.


Scott

[Freebird]

I envisioned a similar elimination run-off as to what Scott just proposed.

It sounds a lot better coming from him!
Gary

[Kevin L]

I know this is far from real but when they race at Madison they get 5 boats at the starting line and raceing through the turns. It use to be 6 boats before they basically outlawed lane one in turn 1&2 as there is a sandbar that makes for a bad turn.

[Jarcaines]

I like 5 on the front row, the trailer might be right up there at only 3 seconds back, but it's his job as the trailer to make sure he is not driving up roostertails. In the screen shot you posted, the trailer could have been trailing the lead boat just fine, or finding the open lane (like he is doing) I really don't see the problem. I think maybe we just need to start calling when the boat in lane 1 is drifting out to lane 3. I mean, look at how far off the bouy line that inside boat is? I know, nobody wants to run close to the bouys at Madison, but if you don't want lane one, change your mill to get a different lane.

[Dawgfan]

I don't know how the people decide this, but a simple answer could be to move the inside bouys inward a little more.

[jojoinotown]

I say 5 up front, the cream usually rises to the top.