Shenandoah - safety is our responsibility

[Thumper881]

Good Question!!!

[ajn507]

I agree w/ Art.
The fact that WERA felt that the track was not safe and rescheduled to the main course made my mind up that I wasn't going to race.  It would of been interesting if there were more available dates on the main course if CCS would of rescheduled or would of stayed w/ Shenandoah.  

Some riders I spoke with stated that they were racing because they were in the points hunt for a Championship.  In the past new tracks were run the last race of the year and weren't points paying.  If this wasn't a points paying race how many people would of raced?

The fact that there are tires or foam bails protecting "most" of the jersey walls does nothing for me.  In 2001 my friend and teammate was killed on the main course when he hit an unprotected concrete wall.  Guess what there are tires in front of that portion of the wall now.  Who knows what would of happened if the tires were there before he hit the wall.  The outcome may of been the same for him but you never know.

Eventhough no one was seriously injured or transported, does by any means make it a safe track.  It will only be a matter of time before racers push harder, ride faster and the lap times drop creating situations were someone is seriously injured or killed because of the close proximity of the walls.

I am glad that no one was seriously injured.

Alan

[Bernie]

How big were the grids?

[Rick Beggs]

i am not in the points at all, i had a blast there, i will be back, i am still scared of turn 1, but the rest of the track is so slow i doubt most accidents will make it to the wall. i am also scared in turn 4 at summit main, turn 1 ,5, and 9 at pocono, and the complete pit road at barber, i just go 9/10 at all of these.
i would really loke them to smooth out the transitions in the chicanes though, especially the sponge bob chicane before the finish line

[Rick Beggs]

grids were all small, not  even enough for dunlop money,
PS, Art did ride there, he was a participant in the first test there ever

[clutch]

Well said Art.  I was tempted, but didnt go.  I have run the entire WERA schedule this year and was glad that Shawn Clark made a descision to not race there. He did listen to riders and held tests at the track also.  I rode the track in two different configurations with Nesba as a CR to evaluate the place.  The only difference from what I can see was that there was no chicane there when I rode it, other than that the damn walls were just to close.  Foam walls...blah..they should design these damn places so there shouldnt even be a need to have foam walls in place.  I would like to see CCS move to a Main date for Oct. The walls seem so close that say you do crash and dont hit a wall..ok, suppose you get out of shape and save a potential crash, now your still on the bike and perhaps heading toward a nice fat wall with some foam in front of it and what, 15 feet between the track and wall.....

[Thumper881]

I agree with Rick. The chicanes are the worst part. And ( Sponge Bob ) should be completely removed. Who's idea was that?????

[TrophyGal]

Some statistics for ya .. (from race control)

Including the LP Practice Day ..

19 Fall Downs - of those 14 continued or rode in on their own.  5 Crash Truck rides (1 was because of a suspected oil leak).  2 Ambulances were dispatched .. but one of those was for a bicycle accident.  The other was on the track day and that guy just wanted an air conditioned ride back to his paddock.

So .. pretty clean weekend considering.

From Registration Clerks..

When we asked everybody "Did you have fun?" .. they all said a resounding YES.

The other comments were that they were exhausted because it was a very technical track and they needed to be in top notch physical condition.

Someone said it reminded them of European tracks.

[Thumper881]

European go-kart track's maybe ;)

[gpstar1]

so for those that did race it this time...what are your thoughts if nothing is changed and it is run as is for the Oct event? will you go?

Yes, I WILL BE THERE. I need all the points i can get to win the AM Thunderbike championship. Just have to get enough points to get in front of the current points leader.  ;)

[tzracer]

Part of enough run off is not limited to falling. What if you have a brake problem or ride off the track at speed, is there enough run off in those cases?

[Thumper881]

Why? Are you thinking on running here?