I am reminded of a catch-prase I used to hear years ago in Champ car commentary: "Cautions breed cautions" . Coincidentally there was a salutory reminder of what that means in yesterday's World Superbike Championship meeting at Laguna Seca. Eleven laps into race two, Alex Lowes crashed at The Corkscrew causing the race to be red flagged - so that an ambulance could use the track to reach him. Loris Bas was caught up in Lowes' mishap and clearly out of control of his bike, had disappeared out of camera shot. The race was restarted but shortened to a seven lap dash. Riders took up grid positions, determined by their places at the time of the red flag, for a standing start. Bikes taking the start were tweaked, relieved of excess fuel and given nice, fresh, soft and grippy tyres. One warm up lap and they're assembled on the grid. So far so good.
Lights out and they're off. No time to settle in. It's balls out for the seven laps to grab as many points as they can get. This situation is an opportunity for some guys to get better results than they might usually expect, so a few chaps gained at the off and others didn't. One guy who lost out was Sylvain Barrier who crashed heavily after exiting the last corner on the first of the scheduled seven laps. It was an ugly and scary accident with Barrier ending up crumpled against the pit lane wall and chunks of his bike spread across the track. The result was another red flag and the race would later be restarted again as a seven lap sprint.
Sylvain Barrier is an experienced rider, with Superstock race wins, podiums and a title under his belt. His scary crash ought to have been a reminder to the rest of the pack to reign in their enthusiasm. Granted, they were ever so slightly more restrained for the second restart. However, Marco Melandri who looked good for taking the win, and Davide Giugliano who carved through the pack like a dog on heat, didn't reach the chequered flag. As it happens, both guys do have a bit of a reputation for crashing out in "Race 1's" of a WSBK meeting, but it is rare for either of them to blow "Race 2's".
The upshot of what happened at Laguna was, IMHO, that the race distance was such that there was no time for bedding in, strategising, planning moves, or studying opponents lines. Neither was there much time for thinking about and getting a good feel for the track conditions. The Laguna Seca circuit is notoriously dusty and ambient and track temperatures had increased over the course of the afternoon. Meanwhile, the mindset of the teams and riders is focussed on making the best of a bad situation. Points mean prizes, cash and steps up the championship table. For the promoters there's the worldwide TV and the track-side audience to please, so the pressure is on to provide the show.
If one is into short, sharp and sometimes shocking thrills, it did have it's excitement. If one is into watching good racing with all of the ingredients (i.e. speed, tactics, strategy, skill, endurance and tight battles through the field), well a couple of those ingredients went missing. The race action itself was like a manic shuffle of a pack of cards, with a few ending up on the deck and the rest coming out in an almost predictable order. There were no tactics, barely any strategy and the plan was a simple one. Ride like a loon and get past the bloke in front. Period. One is left with impression that everyone was having a very bad day and the quicker they got it done, the quicker they could go home and forget about it.
Unfortunately, in between the "heats", us couch potatoes heard the commentary team talk a bit about Alex Lowes whilst I wondered what had happened to Loris Bas. Lowes may have damaged his ankle or leg but he looked okay, they said. Hang on though, Loris, had disappeared out of camera shot. Did he crash? I like Loris Bas and became increasingly worried. I was only reassured twenty or so minutes later when someone mentioned on the box that he was on the grid for the restart (restart number one, that was). Then, whilst awaiting the third attempt to get a "Race 2", we were again tormented by a lack of information - this time about Barrier's condition. Of course this was all quite understandable since we know that until the guys get to hospital no-one is in a position to give use categorical news. However, the faces of the people in the pits and garages, and those amongst the crowd showed that they too were worried, puzzled and clearly upset. It turns out that Lowes was relatively unscathed, Bas had somehow not crashed and Barrier escaped with a dislocated and fractured left subtalar joint. Phew.
So in between starts my head was filled with memories of similar incidents I had seen as they happened. In August 1973, I was in the grandstand at Silverstone's Stowe Corner and witnessed 500cc GP rider Kim Newcombe's ultimately fatal crash. On live TV, among other incidents, I saw the ultimately fatal crashes of young BSB Supersport racer Craig Jones' (Brands Hatch, August 2008) and MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli (Sepang, 2011). I don't know if having witnessed Newcombe's crash in person affects how I look at things, but I can't watch something happen to a racer on the box without feeling some connection and concern. The common feature about TV coverage in these situations is the absence of replays and information. It seems that until the TV folk's are happy no-one is dead or likely to die from an incident, we get the panel chat in the studio, no real news and no replays or explanation of how the incident/s occurred. That was the case yesterday and it always makes me fear the worst.
If that kind of stuff somehow adds to the show I would really like to know how, because I must be missing something! To me, regardless of any actual threat to life and limb, it detracts.
I can honestly say that watching what was supposed to be WSBK race 2 at Laguna Seca was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. It wasn't exciting, it was nerve wracking in a bad way. The seven lap sprint lasted just over ten forgettable minutes. Oh, by the way, for us in the UK it was now late and I went to be in a very bad mood. Great.
Of course motorcycle racing is somewhat more dangerous than modern F1 and, unlike F1, there are still motorcycle racers injured, maimed or killed doing the sport every year. Restarts in F1 races certainly don't affect me in the same way as in bike sport, since serious injuries and fatalities are thankfully rare but, as well as the boredom factor, there are other considerations. What about the economics? We are constantly told that F1 has to cut costs. It seems that it will be okay to risk having cars damaged or trashed in circumstances "bred by cautions". Oh well, happy days ... at least I don't have to pay those bills.
