2018 Rulebook is up

411ninja

Member
The changes to the 2018 rulebook have been made and are up on the site. The season is getting closer!
 

Jason Henton

Active Member
Was there a change to the formula thunder, or is there a typo or something else going on there? It shows up on my screen as 750cc or less twins only?
 

Nevets

EMRA Executive Member
I took a read through the rule book, a couple of items I found that still need updating:

1.1 first bullet point - states that race license costs 60$, I sure wish I only paid 60$ for my license this year
2.1 bullet 7 - pets are not allowed in pits. Is this right? I see lots of people bringing their pets to track days and it never seems to be an issue.
5.5 bullet 3 - this states that 600 superbikes have to meet all the rules for 600 supersport. I don't understand what the intent is for this rule, this says that 600 supersport, and 600 superbike are the exact same class. Why do we bother having both classes?
5.6 bullets 2, 3, 4 are repeated as bullets 5, 6, 7
5.10 bullet 1 and 3 seem to say the same thing, and yet conflict with each other.
7.1 bullet 5 - Why the requirement to race in 4 races when using a single bike? But if using more than 1 bike there is no minimum race/day requirement? Nothing incorrect, just seems odd. Flag it for rule review at the end of the year.
Chapter 8 formally defines roles and responsibilities, but I don't recall us ever using these roles on race days. At each rider's meeting Jon calls out our two rider reps and that's it. In particular the "Referee" is referred to throughout the rule book, but we never identify who this is during riders meeting. Do we want to consider restructuring this chapter to more closely match the way we run our race rounds?

Nothing crazy, I just wanted to see the changes that were made this year, and figured I'd write down a few things as I came across them so they could eventually be corrected.
 

411ninja

Member
Thanks for going through this, it's good to see people read the rule book!
-This year we are trying to get people to volunteer by charging a $50.00 volunteer fee so your race license is technically still $60.00 because the $50.00 is refundable.
- Pets are allowed in pits, I missed this one completely. I will change it to say that pets are allowed in pits but must be leashed and cleaned up after. Thanks, I'll get this changed.
-With the 600 superbike rules superbike must meet the rules of 600 supersport AND superbike. Just a way of saving space.
-We will change 5.6 bullets, opps.
-5.10 bullets 1 and 3 are not contradictory, we can change the wording if we run into problems.
- We do run with the roles and responsibilities listed but the reality is that we are often so short of volunteers that roles are doubled up and the race control takes on more roles. At the riders meetings riders reps are always identified because this is a rider's direct contact.
-Brian will speak to the blue plate championship. The past and current exec have tried to create the rules for the Blue Plate to include riders who may not otherwise be recognized.
I hope this addresses all your concerns, changes will be made right away!
 

SetUpSixRR

EMRA Executive Member
Regarding the blue plate, the idea behind it morphed about 4 years ago to become more of an "iron man" type of award for the person who busts their a$$ the most on a race weekend, with good results. A person who runs multiple bikes or a ton of races in a day and accumulates the highest point total in doing so.

When it was edited we decided to specify 4 races minimum per day or multiple bikes. This was to prevent someone like Knapik or Zottman from just doing 2 or 3 races in a day, winning them all and walking home with this trophy when majority of their race weekend can be spent in the stands watching the other races. Knapik won it a few years in a row and rightfully so, he earned it by doing 2-3 races a day and winning them all usually banking 50-75pts a round. But even Knapik would probably admit that a guy riding 2-3 bikes in 6-7 races a round (Neil) probably busted his ass more on a race weekend than he did for his 2 or 3 races. The rule was tailored to spread the wealth, and make it harder for the front runners to win overall it just by taking home a couple wins.

The average person does about 3.2 races a round IIRC... so if someone does 3 races and wins them all to take home the award they're not really earning the 'iron man' status, especially when they're doing less than the average number of races.

Make sense? Sound fair?
 

Nevets

EMRA Executive Member
Thanks Tricia and Brian for the quick replies. Your explanations really cleared things up.

I guess the only part I'm still a little confused on is the 600 superbike rules.
Open superbike allows unlimited modifications. But a 600 superbike is required to meet the rules listed under 600 superport, which has very specific limitations on what is allowed to me modified. When I read the rulebook, it clearly states that all these limitations in 600 supersport also apply to 600 superbike. I don't see a difference between 600 superbike and 600 supersport.

I'm also open to the idea that I am completely misinterpreting how this is worded, so I would be happy to be corrected if that is the case.
 

SetUpSixRR

EMRA Executive Member
I haven't read it recently but it should say that 600SS meets more strict rules than 600SBK. Such as no aftermarket fork tubes, lightweight wheels etc. However, being that we're still regional club racing its more important to have big grids than to be picky about the rules. Jon's bike with his fancy built motor wouldn't pass 600SS rules, and mine with lightweight wheels wouldn't either if you really want to be picky. No one really cares about it too much though, we would rather just have it open and have more bikes on the grid.
The idea of having an open 600SBK class with more laps and no rules for displacement/aftermarket bits etc is to highlight that it is a premier 600cc race. When the class was brought on board it was also to accommodate the highest demand, as we had a much larger number of 600cc riders than we had 1000cc riders or the smaller displacement bikes. Appeal to the masses right? Give the largest group of racers an extra race.

Now i'm not so sure, i feel like there's more 1000's these days at Castrol!

But yeah, i haven't read the ruling lately and honestly it could be bad wording. Because no one enforces the Supersport rules in 600SS it probably hasn't been looked at in a while. We have a meeting Tuesday and it'll be addressed.
 

Goatse

Active Member
I haven't read it recently but it should say that 600SS meets more strict rules than 600SBK. Such as no aftermarket fork tubes, lightweight wheels etc. However, being that we're still regional club racing its more important to have big grids than to be picky about the rules. Jon's bike with his fancy built motor wouldn't pass 600SS rules, and mine with lightweight wheels wouldn't either if you really want to be picky. No one really cares about it too much though, we would rather just have it open and have more bikes on the grid.
The idea of having an open 600SBK class with more laps and no rules for displacement/aftermarket bits etc is to highlight that it is a premier 600cc race. When the class was brought on board it was also to accommodate the highest demand, as we had a much larger number of 600cc riders than we had 1000cc riders or the smaller displacement bikes. Appeal to the masses right? Give the largest group of racers an extra race.

But yeah, i haven't read the ruling lately and honestly it could be bad wording. Because no one enforces the Supersport rules in 600SS it probably hasn't been looked at in a while. We have a meeting Tuesday and it'll be addressed.

You are allowed aftermarket wheels, aftermarket fork tubes, AND even a built 636 in 600SS with the current rulebook.

I don't think it's a bad thing though. The EMRA shouldn't be limiting the races a rider can race, they should be keeping them open for people to have more races to race in.
 

SetUpSixRR

EMRA Executive Member
You are allowed aftermarket wheels, aftermarket fork tubes, AND even a built 636 in 600SS with the current rulebook.

I don't think it's a bad thing though. The EMRA shouldn't be limiting the races a rider can race, they should be keeping them open for people to have more races to race in.

^^He’s read the rule book.
 

411ninja

Member
I hope this explains things. With so many modifications that can be made the rules state what you can't do more than what you can do. Just FYI Brian and Jon's bikes are both legal!
 

Nevets

EMRA Executive Member
Thanks for the reply Brian.

I don't have an issue with the classes, or even making them open to more riders. I just thought it was odd that the rulebook states that the same restrictions apply for both classes. I would have expected the 600 superbike class to have unlimited modifications the same way the open superbike does. But instead it states that 600 superbikes have to meet the same restrictions as the 600 ss.
 
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