Safety @ HPT

[motobenco]

Post here and write an e-mail.  No reason to leave everyone in the dark about the situation. It might save someone from being injured by choosing not to race there. It also may save someone their gas money and time going there in the first place.

[amy-ccsstaff]

Bill Fehrman can be reached at 920-585-1265 - cell phone or 920-733-8256 - home phone.  Hope that helps out some.  I see that Jeff already posted the contact information for Kevin.  If you need anything else let me know.

Amy

[J Farrell / Speed Tech Motorsp]

Thanks for the info everyone. I just got home & I have had a long day on the road. I have had many conversations with riders / teams / family members all throughout the day. I personally logged on over 9.5 hrs on my cell phone today just talking about the events about this past weekend. It's has been a long day for me personally and my last month has been probably the longest I've lived.

I really do feel a need to step up to the plate of safety concerns with this racing series. I have never been one to keep my mouth shut about safety issues in racing. I've been racing for 28 yrs in my life and I'm 32 yrs old now. I've got some expirience and I know better unlike new racers when to speak my mind about safety.

I'll make some calls tomorrow and hopefully we can make some forward progress on this situation.

I agree with Ben Clause in sending emails & also posting on this forum. I feel things get done when people are held accountable instead of keeping it in the dark.
This forum is on the internet to voice opinions about anything to do with CCS racing lets keep it that way.

By the way it wasn't me who fabricated the whole thing about CCS not calling Brian or his family. The first thing out of Mike and Brian & family when I went online to this site was "Did CCS say anything?" or "Did CCS call, text or send you an email?"
They were concerned that CCS hadn't called them. It wasn't me who was looking for a call to me. Brian who hit the wall was asking the questions.
Honestly if they would have called or contacted us in anyway or even talked to me at the track feelings would be much better than they are now. Just for future reference I'd take these feelings in consideration.
Later,
Jason

[Court Jester]

I've always been concerned about safety. Blackhawk has always freaked me out because of the trees, so I just don't push so hard and have a 1:18 best. Alpha, 13 and 14 have always made my butt pucker at HPT so I'm slow there too. Putnam, turn 10's the only one I'm cautious on and can run respectable 1:18's and pulled 1:16's a few times. I like Brian a lot. I have a shit load of respect for him, his dad, his talent, and his reputation in the CCS community. Hell, I bought two of his bikes (a lot of that had to do with Speed Tech's reputation) His insight and suggestions have been helpful to me on the track and helped me pick up a second or two at most of the tracks. I truly look up to him (and you Jason), so absolutely no disrespect here, but everyone has the right to take a lap and say "This is stupid. I'm not racing here." 
Personally, I'm tickled to death to battle for second to last place. But when it comes to people that are at Brian's level, they're not thinking about walls and trees that are close to the track. They're thinking about the track, break points, lines, and the guy in front of them. In fact a really cool guy that I always see on the front straight with a stop watch, told me in his garage one night "You never think about wrecking. You think about how to go faster without wrecking." I think you'd agree with that.
Just a guess, but I think if there'd have been 10 more walls around the track, not one single person would have packed up and left. Not one. Damn, I'm a puss and I wouldn't have left. I quit smoking for 2 months until I did my first practice session at Gateway last year. That place is retarded and the nimrod that sat back and said "Yeah, lets put 20 motorcycles out there to race." needs dragged out and beat half to death. But I still did it and as freaked out as I'd be by it, I'd go there again. So arguing about something within our own personal control, after the fact, solves absolutely nothing and honestly makes us look bit childish and really downplays the true seriousness of the issue. 
I totally agree that something needs to be done. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to make people or organizations act to save their own ass when they aren't will to save their supporter's ass. But for that to happen, it's going to require the top notch racers (like Brian and several others) to show up at the tracks and make it loudly known that they aren't racing unless particular things happen. But more than that, it's going to require that the majority agrees and follows that lead. And unless that happens, the money will continue to roll in and no organization will have the motivation to step up and do anything.
And why where there three air fences laying on the floor in the tech garage during the rider's meeting Saturday afternoon and did they ever make it out to the track??? Just curious.   

[CCS]

Jason,

I had two people no show for the event and I was covering their positions, both video taping the ASRA races and announcing in Victory lane. By the time I was free, you had packed up and left. I had ever intention of coming to see you and Brian's family. (Contrary to what you heard, I was not in Scoring, I was on the course with a video camera on my shoulder when they asked me to come see you over the radio. I told them Id be there as soon as I got finished.) As far as contacting the family on behalf of ASRA/CCS, our MRO Chaplin, Luther Allen, was in contact with them and gave me an update at about 7:20pm on Sunday and promised to keep tabs on him for us.

Press releases are not the same as journalistic race reports. Roadracing World choose not to send anyone to cover that event since they were in CA with the AMA, and our PR man only sent out the bare minimum facts he had at the time. When the release was sent we had nothing but speculation about Brian's condition, and as we've been told over and over from our insurance company and attorneys, do not speculate, only report facts.

I can assure you that the track and CCS are very interested in track safety, that wall is there protecting a drainage ditch that destroyed several motorcycles and cars in the past and the track was/is looking at options to movie it. The angle of the wall (less than 30 degrees to the track) made it unsuitable for air-fence and all the soft barriers HPT had were in other positions that couldn't be left unprotected. We were told by several respected riders who had ridden the track that the configuration was much safer and we didn't need to bring our full compliment of air-fence. They were wrong. (The airfence in Tech Saturday afternoon was the MCRA's sections being repaired by Eric Kelcher for the up coming season, they were not able to be deployed.)

To run the "new" 1-2, speeds going into turn 3 would have increased by 30-40 mph without adequate runoff and I have to back the decision my Race Director and Director of Competition made to not use the new turn 2.

We are in a unique position in this industry, even though we sanction the most races at the largest number of tracks, we do not have the clout to get major changes made like AMA, World SuperBike or Moto GP. (Barber refused to act on our suggestions until AMA mandated the changes. Road America didn't care to make changes until they thought they were getting a World SuperBike event and had FIM assurances before they made changes for example.) If we refuse to run at say Blackhawk until they make a change, Blackhawk will just turn the dates over to either another car club or WERA. We can work with them and ask for changes, but we had better be prepared to ante up part, if not all, the money needed. Welcome to the business side of this sport.

We have always been open to input from riders regarding track safety, ask Jeff Kufauk, Alexa, Dave Rosno but someone needs to come to us with their concerns because if you don't we have no idea that something is bothering you or your rider.. The Race Director is always available, so is the Referee and they take great pride in trying to make things better. Please do not hesitate to contact me directly if they do not listen to your concerns.

We are all concerned about Brian and his recovery here at the office Your updates are keeping us well informed on his progress and we are keeping Brian and his family in our thoughts and prayers.


If you wish to continue this discussion, please contact me directly