Safety @ HPT

[jigs]

I thought it was really wierd,not to mention,dangerous to see an Ambulance,crash truck right on the track on the outside of turn 9-10 on the far right of the track with the rider and bike up against the fricking wall on the right.Of coarse I saw the Flag,came on top of it and remember seeing the rider,not lookin' too good,thinking this is NOT a good spot to set this shit out here.I was running in second place mid-race,tired as hell thinking,good they will red flag this sucker for sure next time around the front straight and call it a race.Much to my suprise,we did 3 more laps with that sucker out there.I was suprised to say the least.

[amy-ccsstaff]

Jason, I understand your frustration but you are only stating your side of the story.  You have to realize there are other things that all go into racing and dealing with situations like this one.  I am sure that CCS tries to do the best that they can and make it safe for everyone but what one might think is safe someone else might not think so.  CCS tries to make sure that the track is as safe as possible.  I think if you have a concern you should take it up with Kevin or with Bill Fehrman.  The forum is a great for general discussion, but to get results you need to go talk with BIll or Kevin one on one to see what is all involved when a situation like this occurs and get the first hand facts and see if there is possibly something different that they can do.  Kevin and Bill are always willing to hear what you or anyone else has to say.  You are only venting to people who read the forum which is fine, but it is not going to get to the people that can do anything about the situations.  Everyone from CCS was concerned with Brian's condition and are all praying for a speedy and successful recovery.  They do not want to see anyone get hurt more than the next person.  People who work for CCS do care.  They are not cold hearted.  They do understand how emotional racing can be and understand when emotions run high.

Please do not take offense to this post.  I just want to let you know that there are some things that go way beyond what you and I or anyone else thinks is correct or wrong.  Since none of us run the organization we do not know what all goes into track politics and what not.  Again, if you are concerned, upset, pissed off, or just want answers your best place to start would be Kevin or Bill as they are the only ones that can help with the situation. 

Please also let Brian, Mike, and the rest of the Hall family to know they are in my thoughts and prayers.

Amy

[J Farrell / Speed Tech Motorsp]

Thanks for your response Amy. Please PM me Kevin and or Bill's contact information. Like cell phone #'s please if you have them.
I understand they are busy. I do not need to explain why I'm upset that they haven't called do I?
It would have taken Kevin a few minutes of his time after the race of which wasn't done.

I hope to hear from him soon or I will call him as soon as I get his info.

I know some people don't operate or understand my way of thinking. But I'm responsible for my actions and am not afraid to let myself be heard.  I am known for running a soap box.

It seems the only way to get things to happen.

Can't wait to get to the bottom of what needs to happen to get these dangerous tracks to be safer.

[danch]

Was the wall at Alpha as much of a concern of CCS as the walls at T3 when the decision was made to use the old T1/T2 instead of the new ones?  I dont think braking is as aggressive over Alpha using the new T1/T2, at least not for me (but I'm slow).  In my opinion, we should have used the new T1/T2 which would have taken care of at least some of the problem of the really hard chargers coming over alpha hard on the brakes.

Doesn't the new T1/2 have you headed at the wall outside of 2 a lot faster than the old 1/2 did? Seems like a choice of evils and whichever way you go sooner or later somebody's going to get hurt bad.

I like the layout of that track, but there's a lot of concrete.

[Grashopr]

Doesn't the new T1/2 have you headed at the wall outside of 2 a lot faster than the old 1/2 did? Seems like a choice of evils and whichever way you go sooner or later somebody's going to get hurt bad.

I like the layout of that track, but there's a lot of concrete.

From what I saw, the wall was removed from the outside of the New Turn 2 completely in the area that would be an impact zone from an overshoot all the way down to T3.  I ASSume HPT did that in preparation for the Cyclefest, but I dont know that for sure.  The rumors in the pits was that CCS was concerned about higher entrance speed on T3 coming off of T2 making the far wall off of the exit of T3 an issue, which made no sense to me.  As T3 is so long, if you are going to mess up at the exit of T3 and end up near the wall, your entrance speed doesn't have much to do with it.  But again.. I wasn't privy to the decision-making-conversation..  I'm just going off of the pit rumors, and you know what that gets ya. 

[YellowRacer]

The new owner of HPT is working as hard as he can getting the track safer for everyone. He is bringing people in who have raced in Europe to make HPT safer. Trust me, in the next year HPT will be a top notch facility... A track that anyone would feel safe racing on. It just takes time, and money...   

[HAWK]

I was told that the ground was too soft to remove the wall sections at the drag strip crossing at the exit of the new T1 so the choice was made to use the old T2 as the new T1/T2 config would have a higher speed pointed at the drag strip wall.

[kl3640]

There was another kind of strange thing I'm wondering if anyone else noticed.  Did anyone else notice that on Friday, in the corner station at the top of the main straight's hill, before T1, on the right hand side, near the crest, there was a corner worker wearing a jacket (because the temp was only up in the high 40's, so everyone was dressed warmly) that had a large rectangular yellow patch in the middle, I think on a dark blue background?  The day was very windy, so at some times it looked like a waving yellow flag.  The dark blue kind of blended in to the background, so the yellow stood out like a big yellow rectangle...kind of like a flag.  The shade of yellow seemed almost identical to a yellow flag.  The first time I saw it I thought that it was a waving yellow because it must have been moving due to the 25mph wind gusts that day, and having been burned by that at CMP (and since it was specifically mentioned in the Riders' Mtg) I used extreme caution - but then I didn't see any incident.  The "flag" was gone on the next lap, and I only noticed a few laps later that it was likely a corner-worker's jacket when I went by, saw him standing side-ways, and noticed that the wind was making the jacket move a lot since it was loose on him.

I'm wondering if anyone else noticed this because I don't want to bother CCS or anyone with the feedback if I was the only one confused by this.

[LMsports]

The new owner of HPT is working as hard as he can getting the track safer for everyone. He is bringing people in who have raced in Europe to make HPT safer. Trust me, in the next year HPT will be a top notch facility... A track that anyone would feel safe racing on. It just takes time, and money...  

I call B.S. on this one. The new owner did a complete re-pave and facelift on the track, brought in CCS racer Mike Casey on staff and added concrete walls in impact areas. Now, I like the Irwins and Mike Casey, nothing against any of them directly. I also don't run a racetrack so I can't act like I know what I'm talking about either. But from a laymans point of view Mike knows about bike safety and I thought his presence on the staff would have made for a safer facility. Ray spent millions re-vamping the track and the concrete he put up cost more money than not putting it up. In my opinion the track was re-vamped specifically for the SCCA runoffs and caters to car events. That is where the money is. Again from a laymans point of view I don't understand why walls made more sense than euro style gravel traps. Yeah, they can be a bear to pull a car back out of, but I don't know that I ever heard of anyone getting killed by landing in a gravel trap, but walls kill riders and car drivers. Why take the liability risk???

Again, just a view from the cheap seats and only my opinion.

[TommyG]

I call B.S. on this one. The new owner did a complete re-pave and facelift on the track, brought in CCS racer Mike Casey on staff and added concrete walls in impact areas. Now, I like the Irwins and Mike Casey, nothing against any of them directly. I also don't run a racetrack so I can't act like I know what I'm talking about either. But from a laymans point of view Mike knows about bike safety and I thought his presence on the staff would have made for a safer facility. Ray spent millions re-vamping the track and the concrete he put up cost more money than not putting it up. In my opinion the track was re-vamped specifically for the SCCA runoffs and caters to car events. That is where the money is. Again from a laymans point of view I don't understand why walls made more sense than euro style gravel traps. Yeah, they can be a bear to pull a car back out of, but I don't know that I ever heard of anyone getting killed by landing in a gravel trap, but walls kill riders and car drivers. Why take the liability risk???

Again, just a view from the cheap seats and only my opinion.

Rob you hit that one on the head. When I read the quoted post I went through the ceiling! It seems every change is aimed at cars and motorcycles are an afterthought.  I love the layout but that place is F-ing dangerous and getting worse as tires and bikes become better.  I have a short list of tracks I won`t race and it just got one track longer.   

[spyderchick]

I think if you have a concern you should take it up with Kevin or with Bill Fehrman. 

Amy, it seems like Jason wanted to take it up with Kevin at the track and that Kevin did not make time for Jason. I was not there, so I have no idea why that happened. However, perhaps if Kevin had taken 10 minutes out of his schedule to address Jasons concerns, Jason may not have been so quick to post in a public forum.

We know that the CCS staff have people who have raced, have family and friends racing, so they are concerned about safety. As the sport evolves and changes, new challenges and issues arise and need to be addressed. Good communication is the best way to handle this. When it becomes difficult to communicate with those who can make things happen, racers are going to become frustrated.

Jason, I know you are really hurting and angry at this moment. I don't doubt that you want the best for everyone in the sport. Rather than posting here, I would suggest you write an email outlining the weekend as you saw it progress and the concerns that you feel need to be addressed. I know you have ideas on how things could have been done differently. Let another racer review the email for feedback, and then send it off to Kevin. That goes for other racers who feel things did not meet their expectations.

Again, I feel that if a racer sees something they feel is dangerous or an issue, it needs to be brought up to the race director and handled at the track appropriately. We as a community need to woek together to make this sport the best as it can be.

[Jeff]

kevin.elliott@ccsracing.us
817-546-1127