It's been a bad week in racing. RIP James Cowton

[Monarchjock]

In one incident at the Southern 100 one rider fatally injured and three others seriously injured.

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/rider-dies-and-three-injured-after-s100-incident/

[seth]

Sad indeed .
It's dangerous and they know the risks .
Still very sad when it goes wrong .
They are doing what they love and I guess that's the only comfort .
Rip James

[VladTepes]

Bloody hell, terrible.


Out of interest is there much of a call in the UK to have 'road racing' banned / stopped?

If this were happening in Australia the 'wrap 'em in cotton wool and keep 'em compliant' politicians would be all over it....

[T 24]

R.I.P. James

[Monarchjock]

Bloody hell, terrible.


Out of interest is there much of a call in the UK to have 'road racing' banned / stopped?

If this were happening in Australia the 'wrap 'em in cotton wool and keep 'em compliant' politicians would be all over it....

William Dunlop was taking part in a race in  the Republic of Ireland. Street road racing is very big in the whole of Ireland so there would be little call to ban it.
James Cowton's incident was on the IOM. Mainland UK has little influence on the general running of things there. The IOM  gets most of its income from tourism and being a tax haven. I dont think the IOM government (Tynwald) would want to lose the income that it gets from all the visitors to all the road racing events.

[Mister Fishfinger]

Bloody hell, terrible.


Out of interest is there much of a call in the UK to have 'road racing' banned / stopped?

If this were happening in Australia the 'wrap 'em in cotton wool and keep 'em compliant' politicians would be all over it....

Good question - actually the reason that road racing is possible on the Isle of Man and in Ireland (both parts) is because their laws are separate from mainland UK and they allowed it. In most of the UK it has been illegal for most of the time, but there was a change in the legislation last year:

https://www.acu.org.uk/news/2017/04/closed-public-roads-road-racing-in-england/

So if anything, it's going the other way here. There was an attempt to set up a road race in Wales last year but I think that didn't happen - maybe for financial reasons.

[Tony Nitrous]

Oliver's Mount (the UK's only street circuit?) are cancelling races due to not meeting safety specs.

https://oliversmountracing.com/2018/2018-olivers-mount-spring-cup-cancelled/

[black14]

Yes -very sad. RIP James and hoping for a full and speedy recovery for Ivan.

There is one "road race" in Wales - at Aberdare Park - see here - http://www.aberdare-park-road-races.co.uk/

There was also a racer killed at Brands Hatch this week - Kyle O'Donovan - RIP Kyle.

Racing is dangerous - people do it because they want to and some of them pay the ultimate price for participating in a sport that they love.