Buttonwillow hot pit fueling, paddock allocation and other noobishness

Speaking as a native of the Pacific Northwest, I'll point out that The Ridge is, in fact, on the West Coast. Lemons has had hot-pit fueling there for the last few years.

Admittedly less of a problem at The Ridge. Still, under the current social-distancing requirements, I wouldn't rule out mandatory hot pits at any event until HQ makes a specific announcement for each race.

To answer Limonaid's other questions:

At races with mandatory hot-pit fueling, the spaces are not allocated. Everyone uses the same area, which is typically long enough for at least six-ish cars to be fueling at the same time without any crowding, even without anyone explicitly directing traffic for the efficient use of space. There is usually more than enough room. Each team has to haul all of their fueling gear to and from the hot pits for every stop; nothing can be stored there and no spaces can be "kept" from stop to stop. People do indeed wave signs or banners or something to draw attention to themselves when their car is approaching, so bring something distinctive. Some teams put a spotter near (not in) the hot pits, but really there's not much advantage between that location and having a spotter elsewhere with a good view (which isn't necessarily true of the hot pits). Driver, fuel, and ice only. Nothing else. If you get caught checking tire temperature you can expect to be told to stop and potentially get a black flag, as the whole idea is to minimize the number of people over the wall and the amount of time they spend there. There's no absolute rule about how many people you can use, but if you've got "extra" people over the wall either standing around for no reason or engaged in disallowed activities, expect the pit stewards to notice and be displeased.

Other budget racing series use a hotpit at Buttonwillow. Track off is before the timing loop on the west side of the tower and re-enter on the east side of the tower, and the refueling has been between those 2 spots. So if you drive off at track off into the paddock, you lose a lap I believe. But if you do a pit stop in the hot pits, you get credit for that lap (but I believe they have a minimum pit stop length if you pull into the hot pits)

but, again, that has NOT been Lemons going back to 2009 at least. But these are different times, so we'll have to wait for the official pre-race email to know what they are going to do with regards to hot pit vs in paddock refueling. I'm sure final official car count will play a factor, and they won't know that until they lock down the reg for the event.

Thanks for all the good detail, I'll watch for the pre-race email.