Safety @ HPT

[J Farrell / Speed Tech Motorsp]

I've had some conversations about the length of time the on track paramedics took to get him transported to the local hospital. After seeing the extent of his injuries once he got his leathers off and all the blood he was loosing I told the paramedics that he needed to get to a hospital right away. They told me to sit tight and that they had another ambulace on the way to pick him up.
After another 15min wait? the other ambulance showed up and they basically did a transfer to the other ambulance and the new ambulance gave him a ride to the hospital.
My question is with internal & major external bleeding why did they wait for another ambulance to take him? What is the point in having an ambulance at the track then?
Once he got to the hospital they immediately determind that he needed to be air lift out to where he is now (University of Kansas Medical Center).

My evaluation on the whole thing is that they did a poor job of taking care of his needs at the track. Even when they pulled up to him on the track there was no rush whatsoever. I understand I was emotional at the time but they were just walking along doing their thing.

Then the race continued on for 1-2 laps while there was an ambulance parked on the track at the turn in point to turn 1 just after a blind hill before it was red flagged. Is a race so important that they need continue it for 2 laps to figure out that it is unsafe?
Some people at CCS & the race tracks we ride at need to take a serious evaluation on their roles at the track. Someone at CCS needs to stand up and tell the tracks that changes need to be made & what we require to make a safe racetrack.
I know the sport of motorcycle roadracing isn't safe in itself but we shouldn't make it worse than it has to be. We race in a controlled environment. Lets do our best to control safety much better than it is.

Either way if we would have run the track in new or old configuration it is still dangerous either way. The wall needs to be protected by air fence or removed completely.
The race tracks we ride on were built long ago and bikes were nowhere near as fast around corners as they are today. Our Lat G forces are way higher than they were years ago which pull us to the outside of turns much faster when we loose traction. But the tracks were designed with the runoffs & walls in mind of bike going half that speed we do now. New tracks being built today are much safer than the old tracks we run on. There are only a few tracks that made changes to accommodate for the extra speeds like Road America, etc..
If they can't or won't change the track to make it safer because it cost too much then we shouldn't run those tracks.

I'll be more than happy to join or start a safety committee for CCS.
More updates soon to follow as he should be done with surgery soon.

[vale46]

I've had some conversations about the length of time the on track paramedics took to get him transported to the local hospital. After seeing the extent of his injuries once he got his leathers off and all the blood he was loosing I told the paramedics that he needed to get to a hospital right away. They told me to sit tight and that they had another ambulace on the way to pick him up.
After another 15min wait? the other ambulance showed up and they basically did a transfer to the other ambulance and the new ambulance gave him a ride to the hospital.
My question is with internal & major external bleeding why did they wait for another ambulance to take him? What is the point in having an ambulance at the track then?
Once he got to the hospital they immediately determind that he needed to be air lift out to where he is now (University of Kansas Medical Center).

My evaluation on the whole thing is that they did a poor job of taking care of his needs at the track. Even when they pulled up to him on the track there was no rush whatsoever. I understand I was emotional at the time but they were just walking along doing their thing.

Then the race continued on for 1-2 laps while there was an ambulance parked on the track at the turn in point to turn 1 just after a blind hill before it was red flagged. Is a race so important that they need continue it for 2 laps to figure out that it is unsafe?
Some people at CCS & the race tracks we ride at need to take a serious evaluation on their roles at the track. Someone at CCS needs to stand up and tell the tracks that changes need to be made & what we require to make a safe racetrack.
I know the sport of motorcycle roadracing isn't safe in itself but we shouldn't make it worse than it has to be. We race in a controlled environment. Lets do our best to control safety much better than it is.

Either way if we would have run the track in new or old configuration it is still dangerous either way. The wall needs to be protected by air fence or removed completely.
The race tracks we ride on were built long ago and bikes were nowhere near as fast around corners as they are today. Our Lat G forces are way higher than they were years ago which pull us to the outside of turns much faster when we loose traction. But the tracks were designed with the runoffs & walls in mind of bike going half that speed we do now. New tracks being built today are much safer than the old tracks we run on. There are only a few tracks that made changes to accommodate for the extra speeds like Road America, etc..
If they can't or won't change the track to make it safer because it cost too much then we shouldn't run those tracks.

I'll be more than happy to join or start a safety committee for CCS.
More updates soon to follow as he should be done with surgery soon.

Very well put. I was not trying to take away from the thoughts and prayers that go out to Brian in this thread but if it was it's own topic It would get overlooked. If HPT had some better safety measures Brian's injuries may have been less.

[Spooner]

I seem to remember before the track was repaved that there was no wall there-anyone else remember that?  I am very happy that the walls have been moved in many other places, but I agree-why put ourselves at unnecessary risk?

I know I have heard from a few people that "all tracks have walls so whats the big deal?"  I think that is a total BS answer to any of the track safety stuff and we should be doing everything we can to make the tracks safer.  Personally I think the entire turn alpha at HPT is a VERY unsafe design.  Yeah its fun when you are just cruising around but when really pushing it, its extremely sketchy through there.  If you got bumped to the right going up the hill and couldnt' make the turn that little section of airfence isn't going to do squat at 150 mph...

[kl3640]

Just having come back from HPT myself, and having crashed there, IMHO the wall locations are very unsafe.  It's clearly a car-track that's being used for bikes as well.

I also crashed in a race, highsiding coming out of Turn 7, near the end of it, so I was going about 90mph or so.  I laid on the track for a lap or so, and the ambulance was on the track for two laps.  The bike was off the track.  Fortunately I was able to pick up the bike and finish the race after the shock wore off, since the bike wasn't too bad, but other riders said that they were surprised that the race wasn't red flagged at that time since both a rider and bike were on the track itself.  Granted, I was off line, but another incident would have had a good chance of interacting with me or the ambulance.

There was also an accident in the chicane, and for a couple of laps the rider and bike were where someone else would have been had they overshot the chicane.

[funsizeracing]

I know in the GT lights there was another incident where a rider hit the wall over alpha.  They parked the ambulance and 2 other vehicles right in the impact zone for over 2 laps before it was red flagged.  Last year they parked emergency vehicles in an impact zone coming out of 7 for the entire race.  Maybe someone who knows could chime in on how long it takes to get a race red flagged?

[spyderchick]

A race can be red flagged immediately if need be. Corner worker calls over to control and control responds.

I think these questions need to be answered by those who were there, as speculation can be a dangerous thing.

However, in the future, if you are a rider with legitimate concerns, never hesitate to voice those concerns to the Race Director, as that is their role. If several riders feel there is an issue that needs to be addressed, then a review of that issue is in order. The only way things can change is if needs are identified and addressed.

[Grashopr]

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.

[TommyG]

I learned real quick while at HPT this weekend that when the ambulance flag was out you could expect to see two additional vehicles on the track other than the ambulance.  I`m not sure WTF was going on but it quadrupled the possibility of someone hitting a safety vehicle in my opinion. They would line the cars and ambulance up three long on the track. Could have been ugly.....   

[J Farrell / Speed Tech Motorsp]

I along with Brian & Mike are a little upset about Kevin Elliot not coming down to even see how things were. I asked Bill Ferhman to tell Kevin to come down to Brian's Pit which was just a short walking distance away from the scoring tower. He said he would go get him right way. After about 30 minutes I again asked another CCS official to get Kevin Elliot to come down and see the damage & blood in Brian's leathers. I wanted him to see for his own eyes the reprecussions of crashing in turn 1. He never showed up or called us yet. No call from nobody.

Then we see a press release with no mention of Brian whatsoever. Even on his 3rd place podium finish in the Superstock race. That is just plain old not cool. I recall a series called GLRRA of which I used to race where Eric Nanke the series director came out and talked with everone and he ran a great series. Why can't CCS be more appriciative of its racers? I mean were the ones as riders who make this series happen.
That's basically like saying one of your employees gets seriously injured at work because of a safety negligence by your own company and you don't even see how he's doing.

We have been stand up riders & team for CCS Midwest region and this is the treatment we get?

Something needs to change in this series or I can't see running it in the future. There needs to be an attitude adjustment about their jobs.
Many problems I have brought up in the past have been blown over. I guess this crash is the last straw for me. It's time for something to change.

I've seen too many ambulance close calls. Races that should have been red flagged. Combined races where they shouldn't be. Bad judgement calls by paramedics. There needs to be a procedure in place for when things like this happen. Maybe its attitude adjustment. Maybe they are just bored of their jobs. Maybe they have unqualified-untrained people working at the track. We have raced on unsafe tracks for too long. It's time to do something about it.

Just so you know. I hate it when people say we are crazy for racing motorcycles. I say were crazy for racing in dangerous environments not because we race motorcycles. Racing motorcycles can be much safer than it is, if the right people are running the show.

There will be more to come. I'm just getting started.
Maybe if the people in charge were sitting in the hospital with us they might have a different view on it all.

[Mongo]

Just keep in mind that you're not exactly unbiased with your friend in the hospital either.  It might be better to concentrate on him and leave this until you can think more objectively - your concerns will come across better that way.

[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 left 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.

[vale46]

Last year at HPT there were 64 riders in the middleweight supersport race. The middleweight race is by far the most enterd race and it should not be combined. WEhat does it save 20 min. Saving 20 min is not worth having 64 bikes on a short unsafe track. For Kevin not to come and see you after you requested to him is not right. It' is a slap in the face. The severity of the incident at least is worth ten minutes of his time or any other CCS official at the track. As far as medical staff present at the track are those people capable of handling critical situations or are they there just there as transportation to the local hospital.