Hampton Downs: is there an issue?

[Gwinch]

its not motoX. its superbikes. There shouldnt be jumps on the track. Cost shouldnt be an issue in fixing it. It needs to be fixed. Simple as that.

Tell that to this guy.



... but seriously, the jump isn't altogether that much of an issue. The tragedy on Friday was just a case of all that could've gone wrong going wrong all at once.

[jellywrestler]

Clearly, like many other people, you have no fucken idea what civil engineers actually do for a crust.

I've heard that they leave the same undies on for about five days, two to three if they're currie eaters!

[cowpoos]

its not motoX. its superbikes. There shouldnt be jumps on the track..

Have you seen brands hatch?

[cowpoos]

Tell that to this guy.

Didn't see this post....thats brands hatch.....the bikers love it!!

In saying that...I would like to here what the fast guys think of the bump....

[DEATH_INC.]

Not that I'm super fast, but I kinda like the 'hump', but like Quasi (and others) I have a real issue with the combo of hump, speed, corner and wall with no runoff.
Also, with my crap MX type lines, I'm going over it fairly straight.
I know that some of us sadly predicted this would happen sooner or later.

[Mort]

Didn't see this post....thats brands hatch.....the bikers love it!!

In saying that...I would like to here what the fast guys think of the bump....

Thats Cadwell Park actually...... and it aint no bump !

[youtube]HRnFPgxj2BY[/youtube]

[TOTO]

Thats Cadwell Park actually...... and it aint no bump !

did you see a wall there ?

[lostinflyz]

from what ive seen the walls pretty close to the outside, where the camera man is behind it. That jump their is pretty straight though. If you wanna talk about walls and trees near a track watch a whole lap of cadwell.

Me i like the bumps and kicks, still kinda gutted they took the one outta levels. Sure it means you can't take it as fast a physically possible but it adds character. The ramp at hampton downs is one of the few entertaining points on the track.

[Kiwi Graham:Me]

did you see a wall there ?

Yep, there is a steel 'wall' either side with about 4-5 metres run of on either side.

It is Cadwell park and as mentioned just a few hundred meters from this spot is a tight right hand hairpin with about 2 feet of run off to the outside.

The speed your doing by the time you hit 'the Mountain' is far less than the jump at HD, prob doing about 90-100k's

[lukemillar]

did you see a wall there ?

Actually Cadwell is one of the UK tracks that constantly gets a bashing due to it's narrowness with a lack of run-off areas.

[jasonzc]

Clearly, like many other people, you have no fucken idea what civil engineers actually do for a crust.

But shouldnt Engineer as proffessionals seen this comming? Afterall i think the modern engineer should have a wider perspective on things. And one of the key ethics to engineering is to protect safeguard human life as defined by IPENZ?

hahahah im sure the real world will prob work differently than what the stupid uni tells us though.

[p.dath]

I'm not a racer, so please excuse my naive comments.

The "features" of a track are what make it interesting, and hopefully provide the challenge to the riders. And those "features" help separate the good riders from the great riders, and give spectators something exciting to see.

Unfortunately "features" are not forgiving on riders if they have an attention lapse, get distracted or experience a machine failure of some kind. But that is part of the inherent risk - a risk I'm sure every racer knows about before they line up. And every racer has the choice to pull out if they feel the risk is greater than they can accept.

Consider a drag strip. Very fast. Straight. Very predictable. Accidents still happen. I can only watch drag racing for a little while. I get bored of it quickly.

Consider Nascar. Very fast. Very predictable corners. Throttle flat to the floor. Lots of accidents happen. I find Nascar boring.

It simply is not possible to create any high speed zone that you can guarantee will result in no accidents. And for me, those features that cause a variation in the racing are what make it interesting to watch.

And I guess part of entering a track with features is recognising your own skills. For me, with poor skills, I'd be acting like a nana. I recognise I don't have the skills to race, especially on such a track with such challenging features.
But racers do have practice sessions ... to allow them to work on improving their weak areas.

With the greatest of respect for recent events, and accepting that we don't want unreasonable risk present (risk that can not be planned for or mitigated), lets not over-react to the track design and remove the excitement.


As I say, I'm not a racer, so please excuse my naive comments.

[MSTRS:Me]

I'm not a racer, so please excuse my naive comments.

The "features" of a track are what make it interesting, and hopefully provide the challenge to the riders. And those "features" help separate the good riders from the great riders, and give spectators something exciting to see.

...

And neither am I. But I do a fair bit of marshalling, so see a lot, trackside.
Features, as you put it, are great for everyone, BUT...
No-one can protect from everything that can/will go wrong, but putting something that is almost guaranteed to kill you, adjacent to such a feature, instead of something less dangerous like a runoff, is just irresponsible.

[FROSTY:Me]

Guys you are all using old established tracks as your examples.Cadwell for one has a similar reputation in the UK as Pukie has in NZ for being unforgiving.
Dpath -lets put it this way. Hey crashes are all part of the deal when racing. You accept there is an element of risk you might get hurt,your bike trashed and hey we all know people die. NO racer is naive enough to think there isn't a risk.
However when desighning a brand new track you need to remove all the "this IS going to kill someone" elements.
You may or maynot recall the fuss that the then head of the AMCC road race committee kicked up about T14 at Taupo where a rider could possibly punch out a corner of the pit wall if he got things badly wrong.
Taupo management at the desighn stage did what they could to reduce the risk by reshaping the corner from a fast (200km/h) sweeper into a chicane.
Perhaps a solution for HD is a bike chicane sort of like at Levels (without the solid barrier) or maybee bikes need to run reverse direction so the bump isn't so critical.

[BoristheBiter]

I'm not a racer, so please excuse my naive comments.


As I say, I'm not a racer, so please excuse my naive comments.

Im not racer and like you do not have the experience to go that fast on the track.

I use the track days that i attend to better my riding skills. sometimes i push it a little to far but stay on track but if i lose it completely the last thing i want to be looking at is a concret wall.

I have hit that bump before and felt the front lift so if I can do it it mustn't be all that hard.

I know there is risk involved with any sport but some can be avoided.