News: Sears Point to become safer for motorcyclists?

[mikeyjudkins]

Just saw this, if they do follow the advice of these guys and change turn 1 and 9 for more run-off, that would be an AFMers dream come true....

Top AMA Riders Give Input on Sears Point Safety Changes (http://www.infineonraceway.com/pages/racewaynews/amariders.html)

[budman]

That is cool...very cool. Props to the Sears Point owners.
I for one think it is going the right direction. Safety for us 2 wheel types is such a after thought for American tracks as compared to the Euro's and other major venues.

After this is done..I guess I'll be riding at Sears again!!!!! :teeth


:smoking

[Baptistro]

Sounds like they may actually listen to the riders as well, but only time and money will tell. :thumbup regardless

[MackeyStingray]

i hope they do change it for the better. they're doing all tha renovation now, they might as well add some safety features as long as they're at it and have all the heavy equipment there. :D

[JeffKoch]

Big question is, why are they only getting around to asking for motorcyclist input now? After all the work they've done and planned on doing, you'd think it would have occurred to someone to see if they're making things better or worse for motorcycle racing safety. It's a fairly scary place to think about crashing, in 1 and 9 especially, but also in 7 (loose your brakes in a tankslapper and you head for a wall at high speed), 10 or the old AFM 11 (which hopefully won't be used again for motorcycles). Mid-way through 6 would also be a bad place to go down...

I sure do like Buttonwillow. ;)

[Matt.Lai]

I recently moved to the Bay area. Early this year I was at my first-ever AFM event at Sears and was talking to some folks. I mentioned that I'd been an LRRS racer since late '97 (almost all the events are at NHIS). I remember alot of them had heard all sorts of stories regarding that track and some of them asked me if I was relieved to be away from such a "death-trap."

I told them quite honestly that Sears scared me more than NHIS. It still does. Hopefully they'll sort out some of the outstanding issues. I still remember, however, that they had Nicky come out before last season and it seemed as tho that was merely a publicity stunt. I remember he went on and on about how great and how safe the track had become, etc. BS!

[mikeyjudkins]

I was there when Nicky rode the track! Passed his ass too.