Heartland Park

 <sigh>

Mladin walked this morning and rumor has it Hacking just walked as
well.

Will we ever be done with the amateurism of American professional road
racing?  A decision on whether the track was safe enough to race or
not should've been made before anyone made a commitment to race there.

On a safety related note, I have to wonder how these guys would react
to being on the British SB calendar (I notice Hodgson is pretty
quiet).  I've seen TV coverage of that series and I've visited last
year's race weekend at Cadwell Park and I have to say Heartland Park
really ain't all that bad in comparison.  What makes us Yanks so
special we gotta complain so much?  Conversely, why are you Brits so
quite on the safety side given some of the tracks you race at?

 
A decision was made.  Problem is the ones that made the decision
aren't the ones putting their ass on the line.  The track agreed to
fix a bunch of things, but *the* major problem the riders had with the
place was being put off.

There are pictures here of the wall causing the problem.

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=37533

It is just Jersey barriers.  They can easily be moved in an
afternoon.  And there is plenty of fill around to smooth over the
ditches.  So why was it agreed to put it off for a year?  Other tracks
do that much work just changing over from one event to another.  If
the track wants to be part of the big time they should be prepared to
make reasonable changes.  It's not like they need to tear down a wall
that had been poured in place to cover rock ledges, and then blast out
the ledges.


Mladin is a yank?  I'm not sure that lable fits Hacking either.

Mat is in a unique position.  He is leading the championship so what
he does draws a lot of attention.  And he has enough of a points lead
so that sitting out a round isn't likely to affect his winning another
championship.  I don't think anyone here can accuse him of lack of
bravery.  But by the same token he doesn't want to take unnecessary
risks.  So he is making a statement.  Sure, he could race and hold
back a bit to be sure he didn't crash in a bad spot.  But that would
do nothing about the problem.  I guess it comes down to, is racing
about being the best rider, or being willing to accept the most risk?

Maybe Mat should have stated his objections more strongly during the
initial track inspection.  But then he wasn't in the position he is in
now.

I was really pissed at Mat back when he was a major player in getting
Loudon taken off the series.  I thought his motive for not wanting to
race in the rain was because it took away the factory HP advantage.
It's not unusual for a brave kid, riding on the edge of control, to
take a win in the rain, while the factory guys are more concerned
about crashing and getting zero points for the race.  I have since
come to realize he has more integrity than that.

 
Some of the circuits are sketchy. Some of them have poor tarmac. But
pretty much all of them have a lot of M/C racing each year and have done
for many years. So there's been examples and adjustments for the kinds
of accidents people have, over a long time. And the remaining poor
tarmac has pretty much been upgraded now.

So while they may look dangerous, the genuinely dangerous parts have
been dealt with. But having said that, Mallory is just daft and has had
its day. And Cadwell has at least one corner where there's really not
much you can do with it. Some of them have evolved over the years out of
all recognition. When I first went to Silverstone, it was an open
airfield with two possible circuits, one of which was just a triangle
with a wonky side. Now look at it, and they're changing it again.

The impression I get of some of the AMA circuits is that they just don't
get used very often. And the teams that run them don't get to iron out
all the problems. And when they do run there's a lot more car racing
than bike racing. And when problems are found there's a lot of arguing
with nobody wanting to spend the money to put it right. But maybe that's
all completely wrong.

--
Julian Bond  E&MSN: julian_bond at voidstar.com  M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173
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