??Why do they asign us A starting lineup number?? I was in the 2nd group (#58), I went to the line in round 2 after they called the 1st group and "WHAT A KLUSTER F**k!!" The pre stage officials said the gave up because everyone was just snaking in. I saw the mess and packed up and went home. Good thing I didnt wait beacause it sounds like they didnt get to run. If they are going to make it a free for all they should have announced it like they have in the past. Im not a snake, I follow the rules that the SCTA put in to place, but I guess some dont. Anyways, we had a great time and ran our all time fastest in round 1. thanks for listening, sorry for the rant, see you guys in Nov.
According to the El Mirage procedures:
Pre-Staging Operations and Assignments
If your entry isn’t pre-staged in the correct number order in your group, you may run at the back of
your number group. If a later sequence group has finished pre-staging and is starting to move ahead
into the staging lanes, you will stage at the end of the group. You may trade your starting positions in
your number group.
Okay, my interpretation:
Let's say your starting position is 60. 50-75 are called to pre-stage and when you get there 50-70 are already there. From the way it sounds, you can either A) line up as you show up or B) "trade positions" within your number group to be in correct (or nearly correct) starting position order. The one thing you can't do as 60 in line is show up when 75-100 is about to leave pre-stage and move to staging/starting lanes and jump to the front because you have a lower starting position. So it sounds like if you show up late after your group has already been moved to the staging/starting lanes then you go to the back.
I'll admit, some racers act like they're out for blood when it comes times for second round to pre-stage. This is especially true on weekends like this last race because there was a good chance the meet would be called early. There are also those who camp out (not literally camp but hook up race vehicle to support vehicle and then tow over to pre-stage area and sit and wait) near pre-stage so they can jump in as soon as their number group is called. If their number is higher up in the number group, anyone who shows up after them with a lower starting position is allowed to jump in ahead of them (if my above interpretation is correct) so long as their number group is still in pre-stage. Then there are those who show up late with a low position number with the expectation that they can just jump in which I guess they can. Then there are those who show up waaaay late and want to try and by-pass pre-stage completely and try to jump into the regular staging/starting lanes which looks to be a no-no.
The pre-stage workers have my sympathy.