Originally Posted by
valygrl
Shovel - how does the free lap work? Is my chain falling off a free-lap-eligible mishap? My coach told me that I should go directly to the pit, not worry about getting the bike working... which makes sense if you get a free lap for that, but for some reason I thought I was not eligible b/c I didn't actually crash.
Under BC rules, which I think are the same as USAC rules, any mechanical - lost chain, puncture, whatever - gets a lap out to fix it until a specified number of laps from the finish. You don't have to crash. We'll typically specify no free laps once there are five or less laps remaining.