21 replies to this topic

[cosworth bdg]

Are haybale's still apropriate safety barriers for spectator protection in any form of motorsport including Histotic's? and if not, then why are they still used at the GOODWOOD festival each year ...

[f1steveuk]

Last time we used them for a demonstration, we had to have them sprayed in something for fire retardation, and much like Goodwood, we weren't "officially" allowed to time anyone, because then it became an RAC/MSA thing, and the reg't went mad. Mind you that was some 15 to 20 yeras ago!!

[Catalina Park]

The hard part about the hay bales is working out just where to hit them with the back wheel to get them to move out of the way. If you hit them right they move a couple of inches. If you hit them wrong the wheels try to climb over the top.

[Stephen W]

Originally posted by cosworth bdg
Are haybale's still apropriate safety barriers for spectator protection in any form of motorsport including Histotic's? and if not, then why are they still used at the GOODWOOD festival each year ...

I guess the answer to your question has to be YES as the MSA have stiplulated for several venues that I have sprinted at over the past year or so that Straw Bales at certain points are mandatory.

Mind you at one venue the straw bales are not those dinky little rectangular jobbies but those massive circular ones - hit one of these and it won't move an inch!

[CoulthardD]

Certainly, Aintree was using them yesterday to "protect"(!) the Grand National fences. No flame retardent stuff required, due to the rain...

David

[Bloggsworth]

What exactly does this hay bale possess, I think we should be told.......................

(Posted on behalf of The Apostrophe Police)

[Doug Nye]

My knee-jerk reaction to this thread is precisely the same as Bloggie's - what's that damned apostrophe for?

Second reaction is that yet again the one-tonne Heston bales used at Goodwood are being confused with the titchy little bales bought in a pet shop to bed-down your pet guinea pigs, or the mediaeval-style bales used around Silverstone or Crimond or Turnberry way back when. This impression is entirely wrong.

In stark contrast, the modern Goodwood bales have a vertical face fronting onto the track around 4 feet tall. And they are some 6 feet deep front to rear. They were made originally with progressive compression from soft(ish) face to really dense and hard rear half. They have also been treated with fire retardant. Tests years ago indicated that spilled fuel soaks into the body of the bale, and then only burns like a candle wick with very small flames flickering from the surface, and easily beaten down or smothered with extinguishant. Each bale is secured against hefty stakes driven deep into the ground. And they again did an excellent job of confining the mass and most of the energy of the 'FAMOSS' Aston Martin to the track area during its silly high-speed accident on FoS Friday. Their colour and texture also add a tremendous amount to the unique visual attraction of the FoS venue - which after all is temporary, three-days-per-year only - and they have performed yeoman service ever since their introduction. There are bales and Bales, and these are super...

DCN

[cosworth bdg]

Thanks for the reply . P.N.

[Sharman]

He said balefully

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by Sharman
He said balefully

LOL Strawth!!

[kayemod]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
My knee-jerk reaction to this thread is precisely the same as Bloggie's - what's that damned apostrophe for?



DCN

Perhaps the Questioner is a greengrocer.

[h4887]

I never knew straw bales could be so interesting!

[David Beard]

I noticed the apostrophe misuse in the title but I wasn’t about to comment since I have been reprimanded twice recently for misdemeanours on the grammar front. And I’m ashamed to admit that when I first arrived at TNF I was still putting an apostrophe in the possessive version of “its”.

But never mind the grammar. Why is everyone on this thread talking about hay and straw as if it’s the same thing?

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by Bloggsworth

(Posted on behalf of The Apostrophe Police)

[Mallory Dan]

Its the 'A-Word' that does it for me. Why can't we just say are they 'right' or 'wrong', or 'correct' or 'incorrect'. Sorry about the overuse of ''''''s....

[James Page]

Originally posted by Bloggsworth
What exactly does this hay bale possess, I think we should be told.......................

(Posted on behalf of The Apostrophe Police)

An ellipsis contains three dots - no more. (Posted on behalf of the Ellipsis Police)

On the subject of bales, Dad hit one on a French hillclimb last year and the car came off considerably worse. It was preferable to hitting the house behind, though. As Doug says, the right sort of bales still have a part to play in motorsport safety.

[Bloggsworth]

It wasn't an ellipsis, it was a fade to grey (Or gray if you were a colonial).

[Mallory Dan]

Originally posted by Bloggsworth
It wasn'y an ellipsis, it was a fade to grey (Or gray if you were a colonial).

Wasn't that an 80s New Romantic song?

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by James Page

(Posted on behalf of the Ellipsis Police)

[Stephen W]

Originally posted by Mallory Dan


Wasn't that an 80s New Romantic song?

I thought it was a model of Renault!

[Bloggsworth]

Sorry, I lapsed into Scottish for a moment, I have corrected it.

'ay is for 'orses - Straw is for supporting whichever Prime Minister will give him a job.

[Sharman]

I don't know why Bloggsworth but your dropping of the aspirate reminds me of the warrant officer explaining that when he talked of teak being used as piles for piers he did not mean "'emmeroids for the harseoles of the haristocracy"