Safety at PBIR

[Toy Store]

As Many of you already know PBIR has some serious safety issues to deal with. Last month, Isidro Castillo died at this track when he hit a wall. I didn't know him, but I hope that his death will cause us to take action to get a safer race track.
As if it isn't bad enough to have to deal with a track lined with walls, the corner workers (at least this one) are sporting a used-up fire extinguisher!

[F2RGK]

Not Good....waivers or not!   

[d-wire]

They are workin on it, we don't race there for 6 months.

[DEVINC]

d-wire. is there any way you could keep us posted on the progress?

[MELK-MAN]

Between this forum and the JGP forum im sure any updates will be posted. If not, just ask.

[DEVINC]

thanks guys.

[d-wire]

I doubt there will be any updates for a  little while. 

[Toy Store]

At the risk of sounding like a dick, I crashed a couple months ago in the same turn the picture was taken. If my bike caught fire and the corner worker responded with this fire extinguisher, I'd have had problems. Considering the poor kid that got burned-up on the carting track, I would think there would be a bit more precautions being taken.

There ARE serious safety issues at that track, but that aside... corner workers with depleted fire extinguishers is just plain complacent and reckless.

Seeing how there are so many challenges at this track, what can we do about it? Would it make sense to form a fund to help the track get things right for motorcycles? I don't know, I'm just throwing it out there.

[d-wire]

Just a hunch, but I would guess CCS and PBIR are going to look at ways to improve safety during this break in action.  I'm always in HD's ear about safety stuff and I'll let you guys know what they come up with.  Let's see what they are going to do before we get to that level Pat. It looks like they pretty much have to get some sections sorted.

The fire extinguisher is completely unacceptable.  I'll see what's up with that for sure. I'm perfectly capable of burning down a bike, it would be nice if they were capable of putting it out.

Just for clarification....I don't hold any kind of position with CCS.  HD seems to listen when I have a suggestion, which is nice.....he listens to the riders.  Any rider that wants to talk safety with HD or Steve Servis either at the riders meeting or otherwise can do so.  Lars Remsen suggested placing a barrier in July in a specific location, and later that day a guy made contact with it and saved him some trouble.

There are reasons behind the walls, from what I understand, which will keep them from being moved.  But IMHO there are ways to improve barriers and stuff.  Maybe they could double up barriers in the two real high impact areas in Turn 3 and Turn 10?  That would be awesome.

If they can sort out a few spots, the track will be awesome.  It is real fun to ride.

[Toy Store]

There are some guys out there looking to boycott the track; I'm not even close to that. I have fun on the track, and will continue to do so next season. The walls suck, but I probably accept them more so than many others. It's just scary to me about the fire extinguisher. Not completely because of this, but because of all the little things I'm sure I don't know about.

[d-wire]

Yeah, I don't think the riders will have to boycott the track.  I think they are going to improve it enough that most will find it acceptable.  There will be a few that make their own decision to not race there.  I feel that way about a different track. 

For me, there are a few spots that need attention, but people find the wierdest ways to crash and they have to consider those.  I saw a guy crash there the other night 1/2 down the backstretch after his front brakes locked while he was wide open.  Freaky stuff

[roadracer162]

Patrick,

You do have some legitimate concerns about safety and I must concur with your thoughts on safety. I have been contemplating a response to your first post for some time now. I think that some of your statements can be a little misleading unless you have specific details confirming the results. I don't have all the details and what I do have I would not be able to confirm with any accuracy.

The facts we do know is that he did hit a wall and there was a death. The death didn't happen at the time of the incident but later at the hospital. Yes a wall was involved but unless there was an investigation done of the incident I can't see a formal concluson being drawn.

The fact is walls and motorcycles don't mix well, even worse a motorcycle running head on into another motorcycle. A track being shoehorned into the space available makes for a track with lots of walls. For some of the bikes(slower bikes) it isn't as much of a factor. On the big bikes stuff happens faster.

The discharged extinguisher is something worth complaining about and I would say the first person to go to is the leader of the organization. I am sure he will then either investigate it himself or go to the person in charge of the corner-workers and safety in general and make the concerns known.

I am not happy about t incident with the kid on the Kart-track , but there is more to it. What we as participants of motorcycle racing should be concerned about is how it did affect our own safety which could have been very detrimental to us-not taking anything away from the child that was hurt.

There are some serious concerns with some of them being addressed as we speak. What can we do? Voice those concerns to Henry. I know I have with some of mine. Pass the hat? Not just yet. How about we form a safety committee that represents the riders? There are some riders now that are speaking up that have been invited by Henry and PBIR and they have been instrumental in improving safety before we ever ran there.

As far as the T3 incident I would have never expected the outcome on that fateful day. I think that anyplace on that track could have the same dire consequences given an ontrack incident that led to that. What we mostly look at is the typical single vehicle incident as in a high-side or lowside crash. What about going into T6 with your normal speed, someone comes by out of control or just plain 'ole misjudged the turn and clip your right clip-on and front brake lever? Where will you go then? Is there enough room to ride it out? I know many didn't like the gravel traps at Homestead but I must first hand experience that it did work for slowing me in an off-track excursion. It's not that I panicked and just ran off the track but instead the rider that had just mtorored by me parked it mid-corner and I had to maneuver to avoid.

Patrick, I am up for getting riders together and forming such as committee if needed. I just don;t know how to go about it.

Mark