Want to race more under green? Want the safety crew to reach a disabled car quicker, especially if it’s yours–and you’re in it? Proponents of the Code 35 rule, with its signature purple flag, say it accomplishes all of that. Code 35 paces the field at 35 mph–hence the name–while drivers maintain their on-track positions.
Virginia International Raceway helped develop the rule at the grassroots level. “VIR stopped doing hot pulls because many years ago a wrecker got hit,” explains Diana Robinson, flagger coordinator at VIR. “Somebody wasn’t paying attention to the flags under a local waving.”
Instead of attending cars under local yellows, VIR went to full-course cautions. This didn’t sit well with drivers hungry for green laps. It also had other issues.
“You still run the risk of a wayward car trying to catch the field,” ChampCar’s Dana Morrison says. “If someone gets released from pit lane, when they go through the incident area, they’re not under control of the pace car, whereas with a Code 35, it slows everybody down.”
Code 35 also offers another benefit. “To quote Darrell Waltrip, ‘Cautions breed cautions,’” Dana adds. “By having the field spread out under Code 35, when I go back to green, I don’t have 40 of my fastest cars at the front all diving into Turn 1. [Code 35] reduces the number of cautions.”
To bring out a Code 35, ChampCar first throws a full-course caution and then, 10 seconds later, adds the Code 35 flag. VIR waits about 15 seconds.
But how do you ensure that cars maintain 35 mph? Dana says you could time laps and have corner workers watch. Is it 100% effective? No, but it’s a step in the right direction.
However, Flagtronics offers systems that keep track of cars–and their speeds–while alerting drivers with warning lights. The in-car gear starts at around $250, while tracks will need to purchase the required gear.
“There’s a hard number in the system that, when a car exceeds that speed, the [in-car] unit in the car flashes,” Dana explains. “Now that we’ve been using the system for a year, drivers know that if they’re exceeding 35 mph and it’s flashing at them, it’s also flashing at my timing guy, too.” At the official’s discretion, a black flag can then be sent to that driver’s Flagtronics unit.
Ultimately, officials at both VIR and ChampCar feel that Code 35 has made racing safer, especially when time matters and safety gear is rated in seconds and not minutes. “We’ll put up a single or double yellow at all stations,” Diana says. “Then, about 15 seconds later, we will put out a Code 35. After 5 seconds, [the safety crewmembers] dispatch themselves. We spent maybe 20 to 25 seconds getting everybody slowed down and EV dispatched, where if we were waiting on the leader to come, it might be a full minute or more.”
Comments
A couple years ago at PittRace some of the guys working on this system let us borrow the in-car unit for us to try out for a day. At the time it didn't seem terribly useful- it would show yellows when there weren't any and likewise not show yellow when there was one (or show it late). It was also one more thing for the driver to have to pay attention to, instead of being heads-up and watching for yellows and such.
I could see how the tech could be developed to work well, hopefully they've got the bugs worked out. However, it was also one more piece of $$$ gear to buy, plus the monthly subscription fee. I could see it being like transponders, where you could rent them just for the race.
One more thing to make racing more expensive in the name of "safety."
Barber Motorsports Park uses it in the Lemons races we run there. The cars don't have Flagtronics systems in them. Not a fan...at all. Double yellow is more than sufficient for us, IMO.
It allows cars out front to maintain their lead, resulting in wider margins of victory. In Champcar, there were plenty of finishes that came down to the last lap. Now, margins are several laps.
We have been using this for several races in champcar. They work well.
It's pretty cool all of the info that race control gets with these devices. They can tell where every car is on track. The technology is there to replace transponders with these units.
As far as I know, you CAN rent them per race. There is no current subscription costs for these.
The data can be integrated into a digital dashboard as well.
I REALLY like these units. Sure, there is an occasional hiccup with the system, but it's pretty easy to just divert to looking at the flag stands.
Edit to add.... outside of the flagtronics, the purple 35 does have some interesting pros and cons. As stated above, nobody makes up or losses a bunch of time. Double edge sword with that. It definitely requires a different strategy to get to the front.
Racebrick said:
One more thing to make racing more expensive in the name of "safety."
A lot of race cars don't have speedometers. When racing at 150+ 90 seems like a walking pace.
Besides if I've spent most of the race opening up on the car behind me. The Yellow comes out and the guy behind closing up on me. Then the yellow goes out and he gets a jump to pass me before the checker I'd be upset.
Racebrick said:
One more thing to make racing more expensive in the name of "safety."
And with another piece of proprietary equipment, you'd think after the AMB/MyLaps subscription disaster they would've learned...this could have been done with a generic phone app connecting to a self-hosted server via trackside wifi (or optionally mobile data as a backup), or simpler yet a short-range FM station like those used at drive-in theatres announcing flags as audio. Not every car on track may have an FM radio, but they're far more common, affordable, and versatile than a Flagtronics receiver.
wvumtnbkr said:
We have been using this for several races in champcar. They work well.
It's pretty cool all of the info that race control gets with these devices. They can tell where every car is on track. The technology is there to replace transponders with these units.
As far as I know, you CAN rent them per race. There is no current subscription costs for these.
The data can be integrated into a digital dashboard as well.
I REALLY like these units. Sure, there is an occasional hiccup with the system, but it's pretty easy to just divert to looking at the flag stands.
Edit to add.... outside of the flagtronics, the purple 35 does have some interesting pros and cons. As stated above, nobody makes up or losses a bunch of time. Double edge sword with that. It definitely requires a different strategy to get to the front.
As long as the car builder doesn't put it behind the steering wheel. Sorry!
Agree on keeping an eye on the flag stands. Had a few instances of purple to a yellow (yay, speed up some) then back to yellow as we went to another zone.
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