Posts
271
Joined
9/5/2021
Location
Las Vegas, NV
US
Dear Tracks, Promoters, and Regulatory Bodies,
The recent passing of Joel Evens, coupled with a series of concerning injuries within our sport – including my own preventable track-related injury – compels me to address a critical issue: safety in motocross.
We frequently hear that "safety is of the utmost importance." However, the reality at many tracks often contradicts this statement. I have observed numerous instances where basic safety measures are overlooked: inadequate track preparation, failure to address known hazards, untrained flaggers, lack of modern warning systems like lights, combined practice sessions for varying skill levels, unclear signage, disorganized racing, poorly constructed jumps, ambiguous track exits, and insufficient grooming during busy race days. This list, unfortunately, continues.
While we acknowledge that motocross inherently carries risks, it is my opinion that many of these oversights are within your control. We all watch the very rough tracks at major events like MXGP and the US Nationals. This leads to local track owners saying "real riders like a rough track" and appears to prioritize a certain type of racing over rider well-being. The underlying motivation, it seems in my opinion, often comes down to financial considerations. In my experience, a well-groomed, albeit less brutally demanding, track is a significantly safer track for all riders.
Track owners bear a fundamental responsibility for the safety of their facilities. It's time to match the rhetoric with tangible action. If the dedication to rider safety equaled the effort put into collecting fees, the overall racing experience, insurance costs, and most importantly, rider safety, would drastically improve.
What do you consider the most important improvement needed? For me, jump faces need to remain consistent the entire race. How to do this I do not know. The only thing I can think of is some type of metal lattice support under the dirt jump face, but I expect that would have significant cost involved.
The most important improvement is skilled track managers. They should be monitoring the track like a hawk and when they see a problem get on the radio and have the issue addressed right away. A good manager will plan, learn, and build the facility to eliminate as many risks as possible.
I agree, skilled and experienced management that is monitoring and addressing issues would be a huge improvement. Most tracks on a regular practice day have one 17 year old flagger and a gate girl….
Overwatering with ruts everywhere needs to stop. Look at pictures of tracks several years ago and they have a certain character, while now they truck in dirt so they are the same cookie cutter rut o cross style. Red Bud from the 80s is nothing like it is today as far as dirt composition. Rough is ok, but ruts with kickers on jump faces needs to go!
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Free shipping: VITALMX
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
You guys should have raced in the 80’s. They were great at building jumps but were absolutely horrible at building landings! The only improvement that is realistic is better flaggers and communication to the riders. The rougher and more beat up the tracks are the safer they become as they slow down the riders and stop riders with marginal ability’s from doing things that are at their limit when the track is smooth. Racing is dangerous weather it is dog racing, horse racing, boat racing, road racing, drag racing etc they all crash and cause injury. When ever one pushes their ability to the limit crap is going to happen.
lol I actually want the skilled manager there to identify areas that were not watered enough to get them wet for more ruts!
Go race off road. I just solved it for ya.
I bet you do all the jumps. Is your bike number 69 or 420?
Go open a track and run it your way let us know how much money you are making to keep the gates open. It's not going to be long. It's not easy to do. If you want a place to ride sometimes they have to fight and scratch just to get by.
You make valid points. Sounds like you need to start a safety underwriting service.
lol you seem to like me
As the tracks are built they need to pack them multiple layers, I’ve been around when SX tracks are built and they dump the dirt, shape it and roll over it. If they build it up in stages and packed it as they went the dirt would be packed way harder deeper down, if you only pack the top, once you break through that hard crust it’s soft.
AMA is a shell so the below is pretty much just academic. FIM? Im not sure.
To implement guidelines you need data to see patterns in accidents, or at least a consensus on common-sense stuff that is causing unnecessary close calls. it will never be 1:1 with road courses for obvious reasons where safety guidelines can be uniform. that said, how many ruts is too many. when is a kicker a skill issue and when is it a hazard? how much should reasonably be policed? ramp angles, track widths, dust levels, tree and fixture proximity. there are so many variables. its a chaotic sport. its easy to be reactive, but where are there actually actionable holes? how high of a barrier do we want for entry on the enthusiast side and on the promoter side? where is a reasonable balance? mandatory safety courses? graduated licenses? skills tests? license point systems? what are we asking for?
I'm not saying you're wrong to question OP, but how much centralized mandating is really feasible. it sucks common sense aint that common, but what is the realistic solution?
Smooth and well prepped tracks just means higher speeds. Higher speeds are less safe. In the 2 stroke days you had to have a certain level of skill to send it so things were somewhat self limiting. 4 strokes ruined that and now anyone can attempt to hit anything and the bike will probably get them off the jump.... landing it is a different story.....
All the things we all love about this sport remain true on bikes with far less power than what modern 4 strokes provide. Every motorsport there is scales back the power at some point.... drag racing doesn't even go quarter mile anymore which would have been blasphemy a generation ago.... less powerful bikes are the only thing that will bring some improvement in safety to moto.... it's just a matter of how many wheelchairs and caskets it'll take before people accept this truth.
and less supension travel imo. lower cg. 15kg lighter format.
200s and 350s
I think current tracks and bikes have gotten too fast. I think the sport has evolved beyond it's own good
Although I like the idea in SX that the rider can't verbally communicate with their mechanic over a radio comm, I do think riders should still be given a 1-way radio directly with officials for when a bad crash happens. A rider not seeing a red cross flag because they're too locked in would no longer be an excuse when an official announces over all rider radios that there is a red cross and to be careful. Would make things a little safer over blind jumps while keeping the novelty of the mechanics boards, and making it so the on-track flagmen aren't always the only thing to be relied on.
Pit Row
Mandating most of that stuff becomes a practical impossibility.
Also here's the question that everyone is afraid to tackle - where is the rider's responsibility in these incidents? Duty of care has two sides. When you only ever question one side you end up with an imbalance of unrealistic duty of care and expectations of "safety" that are unsustainable.
Thanks for that man. Almost brings a tear to my eye. The big bore smokers, that beautiful sounding CCM, real hard pack, did Brad and Hiekki say 100K crowd size (normal for back in the day). Almost a different sport nowadays.
This sports has always been brutal… more brutal now as bikes are ultra fast and easy to ride, obstacles are bigger and more technical….if you want safer then use your judgement, ride off road or patronize tracks that are are on the safer side of design. I do agree that hazards can be minimized with a track manager/ owner who recognizes eminent dangers and corrects them accordingly…
Where does it end? It's dangerous, don't do it.
wet and rutted makes the track lower speed. Sorry your lack of skill is biasing your opinion here.
"Track owners bear a fundamental responsibility for the safety of their facilities."
That implies people don't bear the responsibility for their own safety.
If the facility isn't up to the individual's standards, couldn't the person leave? Or roll a jump? Or go slower through a section?
so let me see if I understand this correctly. you are on the track and a rider crossed from left to right to exit and you hit them, and somehow that is the promoter's fault?
As a former promoter that has worked around a thousand race days for other promoters since 1987, and has run 400 races and countless practice days of my own I have dealt with the stress of trying to make events a safe as possible. There is nothing like the satisfaction of running a well-attended event where things run smoothly and there is not a single rider transported.
The majority of promoters I have dealt with are very conscious of safety issues.
The issue as a see it is more of a sociological one that is just an example of society as a whole.
I don't think people have as much common sense or situational awareness as they once did, and many have a sense of entitlement that borders on pretentious.
Take a look at a lot of the things discussed here all the time.
If you bring up splitting practice groups there will be those that swear they will never abide for that. If they show up to pay to ride, they are going out when they want, and as long as they want. Those that demand split groups then complain they don't get enough ride time or that the days are too long.
Same goes for combining classes. they don't want combined gates, then complain about the race days being too long.
Flagging, forget about it. You can spend a lot of time and effort training flaggers only to see bad wrecks occur when riders obviously ignore safety flags.
How about something talked about here recently? People practicing track sections on practice days. Really hard to eliminate because simply asking people to not do it is futile. Little johnny has a trainer that says he needs to practice this rhythm section until he is dizzy, so that is what we are going to do. Yet when little johnny cuts someone off entering or exiting, it will be blamed on the promoter.
Maybe the best example would be pit vehicles. Asking people repeatedly to maintain a safe speed in the pits is not enough. You have to put people out there like traffic cops and you can never seem to have enough to keep some idiot from absolutely flying or doing donuts. Now insurance companies are cracking down, and people blame the promoters for not allowing them.
If the promoter cracks down on this by enforcing rules, he is the asshole.
On top of all this the promoter has probably come too the realization at some point that this sport has become increasingly stupid. The bikes are ridiculously fast and are way to advanced for amateur racing. 4 years old on 50cc bikes producing more power than 85cc once did, 13 year olds on 250Fs up there with what 250 two strokes put out, with much better tractability, and an electric bike now being offered that puts out 80 hp with unlimited torque. All the sheep lining up to buy expensive "factory edition" bikes that are only going to spit them off more often, and at a much higher speed.
Our sport is a risky one with a lot of issues piling on it that make its survival questionable.
Nobody is more aware of this than promoters who invest capitol, time and sweat into keeping it alive. Most are making a serious effort to help it do so with a fraction of the return a lot think they get.
I think it is time for a lot of participants to stop pointing fingers and take a look in the mirror, and at their fellow riders.
Not sure a lack of skill would be the case here.
If jumps are so close to dangerous that they need to be monitored all race, then the jump is bad to start. There is nothing you can do to prevent a 450 with an MX14 (or any other tire) from moving dirt and causing lips to form on takeoffs. Bikes are bigger, heavier, have a lot of torque/HP, inertia, they go fast, etc. Tracks with elements that get riders out of control more frequently are going to be unforgiving. I went riding a couple weeks ago and the track was deep and full of ruts. Rode two laps and packed up. I know I suck in ruts and the odds of getting it wrong at some point are high. Not for me.
The objects near the edge of the track should be looked at. That is something that was bad in the past, and bad today. If someone is running off track they are, by definition, out of control. If they could avoid hitting something, they would. Poles, ditches, concrete objects, whatever, should be moved. Give the rider a safe-ish place to get his shit together after going wild and running off track. During a first lap battle in a pack I was run off the side of the track on a jump face and landed 5-10 ft off track on a ditch they dug to drain a big puddle on the back side of the jump. Broken skull, arm, bent bike and a night in the hospital.
I grew up racing in an era where tracks were rarely prepared much at all. Never would a track be touched up during the day other than a truck spraying some water. But there was nothing about the track itself that was suddenly going to become dangerous. I don’t recall ever having ruts. I don’t believe for a second that racing can be totally safe. A slight shift from bravery jumps to technical elements, not tilling quite so much, and cleaning up around the tracks would help in my opinion.
Old age might be lol!
“This leads to local track owners saying "real riders like a rough track"
This made me LOL a little bit because one place locally that is currently not open at this time literally told us he wouldn’t rip the track deep because his regulars would complain that the track was too rough and would not return until they stopped ripping deep.
Ahah! Here are some interesting questions that bring in an important, maybe the most important controllable variable - Rider skill level and preparation for competition. Both rider and bike.
3strokemx asks - "If the facility isn't up to the individuals standards, couldn't a person leave? Or roll a jump? Or go slower through a section?"
Absolutely!
It is common sense that a rider make that mental adjustment to the track either while on the site lap or during a race, if one struggles with a section it's ok to back it down and learn that section, or figure out why it isn't working, there are so many variables in this sport however to me, the number one reason we have rider issues at the local level is lack of rider and bike preparation.
I've been a squid, so I know firsthand, the times that I got out of shape or ended up on the ground, more often than not, I was either not fit for the event/was riding over my head or my bike wasn't set up for that track - or a combination of the 3.
Prepare!
Post a reply to: Safety is not of their concern!