508 replies to this topic

[Vitesse2]

I'm not sure the NW200 is less dangerous than the Isle of Man TT...

With only 19 competitor fatalities in its history the statistics would tend to disagree. Motorsport Memorial also has records of 31 bike-related fatalities at Dundrod, at least one of which was a spectator.

[AlexPrime]

5 or 6 this year, I'm not sure, too much. Not in favor of banning, but something must be tried to decrease fatalities. Sidecars seem particularly vulnerable.

[William Hunt]

I wouldn't pick out sidecars because if you look at previous casualties: it's a bit all kinds of bike classes really.

 

Side question: a long time ago sidecars were part of the world championship, why was it removed? It was a spectacular class to watch, what is their most important championship today?

[flatoutflatbroke]

We clearly can't remove all risk. The sport is inherently dangerous.

The point is that the organisers have over the years increased the safety of the event to a point were drivers can shake off crashes at 150mph and then race 48hrs later. See colton herta this year.

Bringing it back to the TT. Safety improvements, appear not to have been made, and the sport is still in its gruesome death years, compared to other forms of motorsport.

 

Almost impossible to make the circuit safe unless you bought up large parts of the road route so that SAFER barriers and airbag barriers could be installed each year. I believe that medical provsion has been increased, but sadly most riders seem to be killed in the accident, which negates whatever medical care you have.

 

Ultimately it won't be the Manx government or the promoters that determine the future of the event, it will be their insurers, no insurance equals no event.

[Alan Lewis]

Side question: a long time ago sidecars were part of the world championship, why was it removed? It was a spectacular class to watch, what is their most important championship today?

The Sidecar World Championship still runs, it just isn't on the Grand Prix calendar anymore.

They support some FIM Endurance World Championship rounds (Le Mans 24 Hours), have some standalone events (Grobnik, Pannoniaring),...

https://rkb-f1-sidec...d-championship/

[Ben1445]

Isle Of Man TT Boss: Race Has To ‘Keep Changing’ To Survive (The Race) 
https://the-race.com...ing-to-survive/
 
The whole piece is interesting and very relevant to the thread with lots of in depth quotes, but a bit of a flavour of things here: 
 

Isle of Man TT boss Paul Phillips says that the event has to continue to change if it wants to survive, following the conclusion of a particularly painful 2022 edition in which five competitors lost their lives.

That was the worst figure since 1989 even after the event relaunched following a three-year absence with a whole new onus on safety and risk management.

Speaking exclusively to The Race only hours after [the Senior TT race] concluded the two-week long festival, Phillips admits that he and his team cannot be happy about any of their hard work given the huge human cost of this year’s event.

That is despite their considerable efforts, as part of the Isle of Man government’s department of infrastructure, over the past year to revolutionise the race.

“It can’t be described as a good TT when we had so many serious incidents,” Phillips, a Manx native, explains.

“But we’ve got to do more and more and more. I’m convinced at the moment that we’ve got the support to do it.”

“We need to think about how we would deliver it if we were starting from scratch, and use that instead of normalising how we have been doing it.

“That will be conversations to have over the next few weeks. We need to embrace the idea of hot debriefing, warm debriefing and cold debriefing.

“We need to not wait for ages and ages – we need to be having those conversations this month. We need to start talking early about the further changes we want to make.”

Edited by Ben1445, 15 June 2022 - 13:41.

[HeadFirst]

I had absolutely no idea that "Mad Sunday" was a thing. OMFG!!!!!

[LittleChris]

Possibly not for much longer

 

The last Mad Sunday: major changes due for 2023 TT | iomtoday.co.im

[F1matt]

Road racing in Ireland is at risk this year due to rising insurance costs, this has been touched on in the bike thread but I thought it was worth mentioning in this thread as it eventually could affect all road racing. The cost of insurance has risen dramatically to the tune of around £400,000 for the organisers although the event generates millions of pounds for the local economy I am unsure if the local pub and hotel owners are willing to contribute to the insurance costs and it is unlikely that they can charge spectators to watch the event.

 

I couldn't find a breakdown of why the insurance costs have gone up, I am not sure if the families of competitors who have been serious injured or killed are making claims against the organisers or if property owners are suing for damages but either way it could be a dilemma for road racing in years to come. 

 

Link to the BBC article below:

 

https://www.bbc.co.u...reland-64591498

 

An update to the story that might keep the North West 200 going; a local MP says the local authorities may be able to help or even the FIM. 

 

Link to the Crash article below: 

 

https://www.crash.ne...-still-go-ahead