Pikes Peak Race For Motorcycles Permanently Cancelled

[LowRyter]

15 hours ago, Lucky Phil said:

Yea understand docc but at some point you need to fight these people tooth and nail or they'll shutdown everything. I've been witness to 2 race tracks shut down due to "local" complaints. Tracks originally built well outside of the metro area but then over the years invaded by regional developers. Same story, build a track and then have people build houses next to it and get it shut down. Everyone that enters a race track to ride or drive it signs a waiver even on a track day. The reason the TT survives is purely down to local support, same for the Irish road racing. Dangerous as hell but the racers know the risks. 

Even riding on the road comes in for attack periodically from the "sensible people" and we have to fight them off.  

Ciao  

for sure.  The Okla State Fairgrounds built a great 1/2 mile track and grandstand in the '50s.  It was featured in the movie "State Fair" where Pat Boone built his own race car -a JAG D Type !!!!- to race on the dirt.

Anyway, the city fathers learned about the image of a "dirt" track in the middle of the City after 60 years.  So as usual, they let the place go to pot where it was "economically non-viable" to get it up to code, despite the fact that several race sponsors were building contractors and offered to do it for free.  

So no dirt track or grandstand, just a vacant lot in the Fairgrounds now.   It's quiet on Friday nights.  The track was effectively replaced by a bought NBA Franchise, The Oklahoma City Thunder.   We're pretending to be a growed up big league city now.

[Lucky Phil]

Moneys changing everything. My friend moved to a small rural "boutique" town about 20 years ago, a 6 hour drive from Sydney. Lovely town, eclectic mix of locals, it's own specific economy, tolerant welcoming warm people and great weather. I used to go there for a break on their farm from my stressful city job. Kept me sane more than once. Then it got popular with the big city folk that sold up and moved up there. Problem is when they arrive and settle in they eventually take over the local council and destroy the original charm of the place by modernising it and turning it into a suburb of the city they've recently left. A small intimate old world architecture country town now with a planned 3 story modern building with a supermarket on the ground floor right in the middle of it. Go figure. You move to a place because of the charm, elegance and lifestyle, then set about destroying it. Cashed up Bogans.

Ciao     

[pete roper]

6 minutes ago, Lucky Phil said:

Moneys changing everything. My friend moved to a small rural "boutique" town about 20 years ago, a 6 hour drive from Sydney. Lovely town, eclectic mix of locals, it's own specific economy, tolerant welcoming warm people and great weather. I used to go there for a break on their farm from my stressful city job. Kept me sane more than once. Then it got popular with the big city folk that sold up and moved up there. Problem is when they arrive and settle in they eventually take over the local council and destroy the original charm of the place by modernising it and turning it into a suburb of the city they've recently left. A small intimate old world architecture country town now with a planned 3 story modern building with a supermarket on the ground floor right in the middle of it. Go figure. You move to a place because of the charm, elegance and lifestyle, then set about destroying it. Cashed up Bogans.

Ciao     

You could be talking about Bungendore Phil. When I moved here in '87 you could stand at the end of the main drag and fire a 303 down the middle of the road and the only thing you'd be likely to hit would be a dog licking its balls in the road outside one of the pubs!

Fast forward 34 years and if you even attempted it you'd perforate three 'Yummy Mummies' in yoga pants in their Range Rover *Grocery Getters*, several besuited pinheads who look like real estate agents, (And probably are!) and thirty cashed up, bogan, Tradies queueing up at the many 'Boutique' coffee shops to get their pie and iced coffee, (What is it with Tradies and iced coffee??) before heading off the Jerry-build another two hundred identical McMansions in the flood prone swamps the developers have bribed council into allowing them to build on!

Thank all that's holy I live opposite the cemetery! I think even our council might find it hard to allow the developers free hand to build on someone else's Aunty Mavis!

At least my sociopathic neighbour has pissed off at last and been replaced by a seemingly pleasant and friendly young woman who doesn't make endless, incessant, angle grinding noises and deliberately damage our property! Hooray!

[Lucky Phil]

15 minutes ago, pete roper said:

You could be talking about Bungendore Phil. When I moved here in '87 you could stand at the end of the main drag and fire a 303 down the middle of the road and the only thing you'd be likely to hit would be a dog licking its balls in the road outside one of the pubs!

Fast forward 34 years and if you even attempted it you'd perforate three 'Yummy Mummies' in yoga pants in their Range Rover *Grocery Getters*, several besuited pinheads who look like real estate agents, (And probably are!) and thirty cashed up, bogan, Tradies queueing up at the many 'Boutique' coffee shops to get their pie and iced coffee, (What is it with Tradies and iced coffee??) before heading off the Jerry-build another two hundred identical McMansions in the flood prone swamps the developers have bribed council into allowing them to build on!

Thank all that's holy I live opposite the cemetery! I think even our council might find it hard to allow the developers free hand to build on someone else's Aunty Mavis!

At least my sociopathic neighbour has pissed off at last and been replaced by a seemingly pleasant and friendly young woman who doesn't make endless, incessant, angle grinding noises and deliberately damage our property! Hooray!

Yea Pete I'm hearing ya. The wife and I plan a rural move in the next few years. Priority is finding somewhere unspoiled, with it's own character that's not going to get invaded and destroyed. Well at least for the time I'm likely to be around. Going to be hard.

You should have to pass a test to move to a country town these days I recon, keep the Riff raff out. 

 

Ciao

[p6x]

On 8/18/2021 at 5:26 PM, Lucky Phil said:

Naturally I am saddened by the death of anyone especially if they are competing in anything. I'm more than aware of what it's like waiting anxiously for a friend to come around again at the TT with my fingers crossed. However, if we are going to ban everything that's dangerous or apply a risk matrix to everything in life then life will be a colourless, dour affair. i wonder if in reality the "car crowd" are somehow behind this? As in wanting more track time for themselves and larger car numbers and have looked for any excuse to push the bike guys out via pressure on the organisers.

The "car crowd" have been responsable for the deaths of many bike racers over the years starting back in the 60's with pressure on the race organisers to line European tracks with Armco. Fine for F1 drivers at the time but deadly to the bike racers of the day. Not that the F1 drivers association cared about that.

Ciao

       

I beg to differ; the culprit, at least in my opinion, are the entities that organize the events.

I am going back to the 70's when 125,250,350,500, were racing on tracks with absolutely zero safety, and about zero leverage to change it.

This is why we had so many death back then, simply organizers did not require the tracks to do anything to make the circuit safer.

We lost some great guys; Renzo Pasolini, Jarno Saarinen, Didier Ravel, Jack Findlay, Michel Rougerie, Patrick Pons;

I was there at the Charade circuit in 1973, when all the 500 stars, Agostini, Sheene threatened to not race because of the lack of safety for them. The FIM blackmailed the B list racers to never race again if they did not participate.  Charade hosted both F1 and Motorcycles until 1974.

I cannot speak about Pikes Peak, but I am well aware that Dorna owner of MotoGP and WSBK are mainly concerned about the economic aspect of the races. The BRNO track pulled out in 2021 invoking the 6MM Euros required by Dorna to host a Grand-Prix. Ok, they also needed to resurface the asphalt.

When you think about some of the penalties, or lack thereof, the panel of stewards of MotoGP are laughable.

Anyway, a lot of times, not all, car and motorcycle racing people share a passion for mechanical sports. Maybe not here in the USA. And possibly along the years, it has changed. But I used to go to both Le Mans races. 24 hours Cars and 24 hours Bikes and Bol d'Or.

[Lucky Phil]

18 minutes ago, p6x said:

I beg to differ; the culprit, at least in my opinion, are the entities that organize the events.

I am going back to the 70's when 125,250,350,500, were racing on tracks with absolutely zero safety, and about zero leverage to change it.

This is why we had so many death back then, simply organizers did not require the tracks to do anything to make the circuit safer.

We lost some great guys; Renzo Pasolini, Jarno Saarinen, Didier Ravel, Jack Findlay, Michel Rougerie, Patrick Pons;

I was there at the Charade circuit in 1973, when all the 500 stars, Agostini, Sheene threatened to not race because of the lack of safety for them. The FIM blackmailed the B list racers to never race again if they did not participate.  Charade hosted both F1 and Motorcycles until 1974.

I cannot speak about Pikes Peak, but I am well aware that Dorna owner of MotoGP and WSBK are mainly concerned about the economic aspect of the races. The BRNO track pulled out in 2021 invoking the 6MM Euros required by Dorna to host a Grand-Prix. Ok, they also needed to resurface the asphalt.

When you think about some of the penalties, or lack thereof, the panel of stewards of MotoGP are laughable.

Anyway, a lot of times, not all, car and motorcycle racing people share a passion for mechanical sports. Maybe not here in the USA. And possibly along the years, it has changed. But I used to go to both Le Mans races. 24 hours Cars and 24 hours Bikes and Bol d'Or.

I remember the 70's riders deaths as well and true the organisers had a hand in it but they rolled over to the F1 crowd and did whatever they bludgeoned them into doing.

The organisers never really considered the riders safety BUT they knew as did the F1 drivers that Armco was going to make an already bad situation for riders even more deadly but went ahead anyway. 

Ciao