Exactly what I thought when I saw that - holy fuck! How could they allow that? Just because it's in Spain (aka Dorna country)? Beautiful track but shit like that should never happen. This isn't the 70s anymore.
It is normal for Cal to finish lower than he qualifies. He has the speed alright, just needs to be more consistent lap after lap.
In fairness, everyone in MotoGP, whether rider or official, has said that wall Nicky hit needs to change. The suggestion has been to pave the gravel trap area. I bet we will see that done before next year. Probably air fence too, but I am not sure that would have helped much.
It really puzzles me, that they find out there's a dangerous wall on the trackside AFTER someone has slammed into it (ok, the bike only hit it this time, while rider was thrown over it, but that's not exactly a success either, when you have to count on sheer luck to survive)?!?! Any words from Capirossi on this?
Uncini made the statement: http://www.gpone.com/index.php/en/201209308381/Uncini-Hayden-ha-commesso-un-errore.html
:huh So it was Hayden's fault because he tried to keep the bike upright and save the off? What an ass. Even if he would have tossed the bike when he hit the grass and realised this is going to hell he would probably have slid into the wall.
Hayden said he was afraid he would go head first into the wall. While the statement sounds like it is blaming Hayden, they also say they will make changes. No one is saying changes should not be made. No one imagined Dijiro Kato could crash where he crashed and that ended all too tragically. Nicky was lucky.
Yeah, but in Hayden´s case the wall is right outside the run-off area. Kato really crashed in a very bizarre place, Hayden went off where it is relatively common to go off the track. They just had not taken into account, that somebody could venture that far with the bike upright. In fact the airfence would have probably solved the whole thing, absorbed so much energy, that Hayden would not have been catapulted upwards. Sometimes it would help their cause, if they (Dorna) admitted to having made a mistake, I think. But it just never happens, according to them they´ve never made one single mistake.
These things happen most often because the wall is percieved to not be in the trajectory of a crashing motorcycle. Then they learn maybe it is. There used to be a wall on the inside of turn 2 at pit out Laguna Seca. A young rising star went into a tank slapper as he stood his GSX-R up exiting the turn and was tragically killed when he hit that wall on the inside. On the back stretch at Barber there is a little left/right kink (t9/10) with a sand trap outside t9. There appears to be plenty of room outside of t10 before the fence. Couple football fields as I recall. #2 son went off t9, through the sand trap, across the track again past t10 and sailed off across the grass. It was obvious to me he couldn't get the bike stopped when he slipped off the side and let it go. It made the fence and so did he, but barely. :eek1 I was standing along that fence and never dreamed a bike could get there. Nobody really knows where these machines might end up. A bump or something mechanical can send them anywhere. They'll get that track sorted. They seem to be quite responsible that way.
Everyone that was at Aragon has said they would not have expected someone to go off like Hayden did. If it was that obvious, I think it would have been addressed. Now it will be. But the crowd will insist on pitchforks and torches and someone needing to be lynched. Mob rules.
That´s basically true. But in Hayden´s case he went past the gravel trap and other run-off areas, and boom, he hits a tyre barrier. If there´s a gravel trap, then that is an area, where riders may go off the track, right? So it´s not like he or his bike took a just a ´random´ turn left or right, and suddenly ended up somewhere, where nobody could expect. The only unexpected (sort of) thing was that he went so far without falling down, or being able to stop.
It was worrying seeing that live. If that was British superbikes he would have been going through the back door of a hot dog van
Hayden could have been injured or killed in that incident. And an airfence would have most likely collected him and the bike relatively safely, or at least taken care, that he didn´t end up in a life-threatening situation. So it´s pretty damn obvious, that whoever was in charge of track safety, failed.
You say this like it's a bad thing, but speaking for the mob, we are easily bored and usually need something to do. Lynching DORNA brass is a relatively productive use of our collective time.
If it was so obviously dangerous why didn't the riders complain before, they sure have in the past and I thought Caparossi was a safety adviser to Dorna. I think it was an over site that will be taken care of. It's a shame it took an accident to bring it to the forefront.
I believe there are people there (other than riders) who are paid to ensure that the tracks are safe. If it was around 100 meters from the track to where Hayden went over the barrier, then maybe the riders won´t even be able to know, exactly what type of fencing is used where. But it´s the job of those aforementioned people to know.
A crash like Simo? Can't see how anyone could prevent it. But in this day and age, running into a unprotected wall isn't exactly something that should happen. Not in a run-off area. That being said, does anyone have a pic that shows the are from race direction? An overhead would be ideal. Guess it would help to understand better what happened. Perhaps Dorna isn't just playing cya.