After a season of optional use during the Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA® Super Tour, all drivers will be required to use the Flagtronics electronic flagging system in their competition vehicles during the 2024 SCCA National Championship Runoffs® presented by Sunoco.
Flagtronics works by creating a digital communication network covering the track that passes information back and forth between each corner station, race control, and race vehicles.
Inside the car, the Flagtronics display lights up to show specific signals for local flags in each area controlled by Flagging & Communications workers at the corner stations, or full course conditions as decided by operating officials.
Up in race control, the information provided by the system will enable better incident response and cleanup.
“Flagtronics gives the officials a real-time comprehensive view of everything happening on track,” said Eric Prill, SCCA’s Vice President of Road Racing. “The system allows race control to see where each car is, and where each pace car or emergency vehicle is, which provides more information when critical decisions need to be made. All of this goes toward making for a safer environment while maximizing track time for the drivers.”
While the primary purpose of the electronic flagging is to back up and assist the standard flag conditions, it also may be used for a new procedure for responding to incidents during practice and qualifying.
“During non-race sessions, officials can opt to use a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) procedure to reduce clean-up time of incidents,” Prill noted.
Like a full course yellow, the VSC prohibits passing and requires all cars to slow down, but does not necessitate the “bunching up” of the field behind a safety car.
“By reducing the time needed to get the field under control, emergency crews will be able to respond to, and clear, incidents faster, maximizing green-flag time,” said Prill.
When the officials choose to use the VSC, all corner stations will be instructed to display a purple VSC sign. Simultaneously, a signal will be issued to the in-car Flagtronics units showing the purple condition, instructing drivers to slow to a prescribed speed limit.
Once displayed, drivers will have 10 seconds to slow their cars to 45 mph or less. When a vehicle violates the speed limit, race control will be notified, and those drivers may be subject to penalties.
When the racecourse is clear, each corner station will wave a blue flag as a “going back to green” warning to drivers before all VSC signs and flags are dropped and the in-car Flagtronics display goes from purple to green.
While it will be used during practice and qualifying sessions at the 2024 Runoffs, the VSC procedure will not be used during Runoffs races this year.
“VSC is a new procedure for SCCA, and we want to make sure it doesn’t impact a National Championship,” Prill added. “For this year’s event, we will stick with the traditional full course caution procedure with a safety car, if needed. However, we anticipate using VSC during races in the future once the drivers and officials have had more experience with it.”
Photo by Philip Royle
