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In my opinion, NO ONE, even if the riders are all on the other side of the track, should even cross near the landing of a blind jump. Period. That's just a gamble no one should take. It's like jumping with a badly damaged bungy cord. A lapped rider can come out of no where or a rider may have been down in the corner before and gets going again. From that view, you don't see the corner before it. So, a very sketchy spot to be even thinking about crossing, when the track is hot or not.
For that section, I walked all the way down to the next small double jump into the S turn to cross, just so I can see the entire section 100% before crossing. And I seen other seasoned photogs/video guys do the same thing. It's just smart, common sense, and respect to the racers, track officials, etc.....
Whenever I have to cross, it's a visible area. Usually it's an area where I can see about 20-30 seconds of the track or more and I always do a double/triple look to make sure and follow the last few riders that come by. I would do this early in the race when most/all of the riders are grouped closer together and on the other end of the track from where I have to cross. Also, if media needs to cross a section, they should alert a flagger/track official to see if the course is clear. But I don't make it a priority to cross the track. If I have to/need to, then, I'm extra cautious and aware. Again, common sense....
We all know riders walk the track to check it out. Maybe the media (especially new or local) needs to do the same thing?
Just my .03 cents and my view from being out there.....
The Shop
As far as the distraction.......JS needs no excuses, he got gobbled up in those frigen ruts and was tossed out. Remember ....slow down to go fast!
That's a mess of rut's, and if you choose to gamble on any one of those lines, then there is a good chance that you may be in for a big surprise.
It's called racing. And sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.
Do you think anyone on this board would blame a photographer for distracting James if no photographer ran in front of him? No.
It is a legitimate reason, Did he crash there the previous laps? No. No one is in love with him, take all the emotion and fanboism away and what do you have left, someone crossed in front of a rider on an mx track right after a jump and before a highly technical area of the track which requires a lot of concentration, then the rider was distracted and crashed.
Knowing James can do 24-0 season, knowing he had been 4-0 so far, knowing he was in the lead with no pressure, and James said what happened and it did happen that someone crossed the track. I am going to give the benefit of the doubt to James. Any reasonable unemotionally attached person would. Which suggest you are emotional persuaded by your dislike for James.
Honestly, you seem to be the one that is being emotional about this incident. It's racing, and James was busy with his game plan of putting as much time as he could on the rest of the field early in the race, and it didn't work out so well.
As I have said, it's racing, and I wish James, and the rest of the riders nothing more than my best of wishes.
If you are driving down a road with no cars in front of you and as you get 100 feet or so from a drive way, a car pulls out into the drive way, not in front of you but right up to the edge of the drive way. What do you do?
You will either let off the gas, hit the brakes a little or move to your left. Not even really meaning to, those are just second nature things you do because of what is in front of you and what could happen. And it only takes a split second of your concentration away from what you are doing.
Same thing in this case. The guy didn't cause the crash but if it caused James to switch lines its part of the reason.
And that's all it took, going that fast into a section of ruts like that takes full concentration and if you aren't fully committed and concentrated those types of crashes happen.
Tough luck and I really hope he isn't hurt. It looked like he was hurt to me but who knows.
Cause i expect a couple of ruts!
After attending the MXDN at this track, my son and I talked about how difficult that track would be to go fast on. Hard to get any flow, and just plain nasty.
There's only one person that knows if that photog created a hazard. NO ONE else has a clue. I hope James is healthy and can get back on that Zook. The racing will not be nearly as intersting if James can't compete.
Pit Row
Don't you think it 's just "possible" that his confidence is running so high that a crash was inevitable and this just happened to be the place? That IS his own self described MO, hero or zero. I personally think JS did what JS does, rides insanely fast and the smallest of errors caused the crash. And if you are going by what James "said", he also said last week he's been getting pressure by RD, maybe that's the distraction. Ya just don't know.
tm
I said "Maybe Stewart might've wrecked without that happening, maybe not." ...might've....maybe...
It means I AM NOT SURE. And, neither are you. I'm saying it might've had something to do with it, it might not've, but regardless, CROSSING THE TRACK when guys are on their bikes is wrong, stupid, and should not happen.
i was sooo bummed to see james go down...i didnt even want to finish watching the race..
looked like bad prep and shit dirt to me...i guess im spoiled cause my local track is world class with excellent dirt/prep/elevation changes....
ps i hope the dungey fans are savoring this moment because the only way the pumpkin is going to get a moto win is if james crashes or doesn't line up..
22-2
Post a reply to: Those ruts where Stewart went down....