After the tragic event Misano one only has to look back earlier this year for another near fatal Moto2 accident at Catalunya. A huge pileup occurred at turn 1 and included Shoya Tomizawa, Sergio Gadea and many others.
It’s been a bad few weeks in terms of deaths in motorcycle racing. The accident attracting most attention is that of Shoya Tomizawa who died racing in Moto 2. Just as sad, but less well publicised, were the two deaths in this year’s Manx Grand Prix - the amateur version of the
Isle of Man TT races.
Riders participating on purpose built circuits are vastly, immensely, safer than they were during the classic era of Grand Prix racing. This is how it should be.
Motorcycle racing can be many things: a sport, profession, or way of life. It should never be a fatal activity - but it can be and this is something that the wider world struggles to understand.
The Isle of Man is within our local TV area - although offshore from mainland England. When the earnest TV reporter commented on the deaths of Chris Bradshaw and James Adam, effectively in the same accident, he pressed the organizers regarding what measures they were taking to make the Manx Grand Prix safe. The absolute and utter truth is that no one walking this earth can make the TT circuit - or any other road-racing track for that matter - safe. Riding a motorcycle at 180 mph on a public road is extremely dangerous and nothing anyone can do will make it as safe as a purpose designed race track with run-offs and gravel traps.
Steve Plater managed to survive a potentially fatal accident with only a broken arm. To Plater this is a small price to pay for the thrill of professional road racing.
Equally, there is nothing in the world to compare to racing on the roads. I have never taken recreational drugs of any kind but road racing has the same degree of attraction as I hear that crack addicts have for their substances. Once you have raced on the road, every other motorcycling experience pales into insignificance - and this is the absolute truth.
I was chatting to Steve Plater at Brands Hatch last month. Steve is still recovering from an accident at the
North West 200 road race, which at best could have crippled him for life and was only inches away from killing him. Incredibly, neither happened and Steve is now well on the way to being fit and well.
Steve is already a double TT winner and his face lit up as he described riding the TT course. “Yes, of course its mega dangerous but it’s just a fantastic place to ride a bike. There’s nothing like it anywhere else in the world.”
I am certain that these thoughts are what went through the minds of the riders who died in the Manx.
With riders passing by 80mph, there is little between those watching and the racers.
I can certainly empathize with them. I am old enough to be the Dad of many an MCUSA reader and, by any sensible standards, the only road racing I should now be doing is on “Play Station”. Yet, last weekend I was at the Belgian Classic TT at Gedinne racing a Manx Norton. The “Manx” is the iconic classic road racing bike and hammering it along between the barbed wire lined fields at 120 mph was a near spiritual experience. Yes, it is horrendously dangerous but the experience is, in my eyes and those of other road racers, worth the risk and in the final analysis, this is the evaluation we all have to make with so many parts of our life.
Accepting the risks of road racing is one thing - being stupid is something quite different. I don’t crash motorcycles very often but at the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club’s recent event to celebrate the re-opening of Donington Park I did. Worst still, I came off our beloved
G.50. Somehow, I either hit a patch of oil on the track or oil from a split breather pipe got on to the back tire - we’re not sure which. Regardless, a fraction of a second later I was sliding down the track at 75 mph - head first.
The major impact was taken by my beloved Arai RX7 and the chin guard, visor and front of the helmet were all severely ground away. My Weise race gloves have slider pads above the scaphoid bone and on my right hand this pad disappeared. The rest of the impact was taken by the armor inside the race leathers.
The result was that I never lost consciousness, broke no bones and suffered only a bruised nose and leg.
While these folks up front are wearing what resembles helmets, I can't say much for their casual beach wear while riding.
Of course, there was the post traumatic shock of seeing the gas tank on the G.50 scratched, and the clip on bent, but I suffered this horror from a standing position - although the tears streaming down my face did stain my leathers.
So, I would urge all of those readers who ride round with bits of kitchenware tied their heads with string - or even no kitchenware at all - to think of the consequences. Modern riding gear will protect you to an utterly incredible degree in the case of an accident - but bandanas and t-shirts will be just as good as they were 50 years ago. Cool is great: dead not so good.
