Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1205265
VOLUME 57 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 28, 2020 P109 the front of one hits the side of another. T-bones are dirty. Moto, in general, is dangerous, but T- bones make it more dangerous unnecessarily. If the racer on the inside of the corner is in front when their two lines come together, that racer is Racer F at the point of impact. So see above. Racers are expected to an- ticipate what's going to happen before it happens. This is true of all levels of racing, but it's the most true at the professional level where speeds are highest and racers are the most experi- enced. If a C-class racer fails to properly anticipate what's going to happen, it's more understand- able than if a Pro fails to do so, and it's also less likely to lead to an injury, as C-class speeds are much slower. Dirty/Unacceptable Besides T-bones, the other two big no-no's are cross-jumping and drifting into another racer's line while you're both skimming whoops. Cross-jumping is when a racer intentionally jumps across the track into another racer's line while they're both in mid-air. This is a no-no because you can't hit the brakes or turn in the air, and the likelihood of injury is very high if mid-air contact is made. This happens on accident sometimes, which is just a "rac- ing incident" with nobody at fault, but the trained eye can spot intentional cross-jumping, and it's never okay. The same goes for skimming whoops. Sometimes, guys will just be out of control in the whoops, so that's just a racing incident if they hit someone else. Sometimes it's the line a racer has taken every lap, which is also not a problem, as anybody behind him should see it, and Racer F has the right of way. If the racer behind doesn't have time to see it, and they hit, it's just a racing incident because, again, Racer F has a right to their regular line. But it's dirty if a racer intentionally moves over while skimming whoops for the same reason cross-jumping is: You can't hit the brakes, or even let off the gas, while skimming whoops, and crashes due to this lead to a high likelihood of injury. You'll notice the common de- nominator here revolves around how much we can expect Racer R to adjust to the behavior of Racer F (who, again, always has the right of way). This is Moto Etiquette: 101. Now, let's apply this to the incident that led to 35,000 "race fans" booing Dylan Ferrandis at Anaheim 2, after he and Chris- tian Craig crashed together, causing Craig to DNF, shall we? Dylan Ferrandis was faster than Christian Craig. Christian Craig may or may not have known it was Ferrandis behind him, but he definitely did know there was a faster racer on his tail. In the corner after the finish-line jump, where they fell, Craig (Racer F at the time) could have chosen to take the inside line, which would have caused him to drift wide on corner exit and given Ferrandis an opening to possibly rail the outside berm and challenge Craig on the inside as they crossed the start straightaway. Ferran- dis (Racer R at the time) chose his lines based on where Craig (Racer F) went. Instead, Craig chose to go out- side in the corner, leaving the inside wide open, and Ferrandis took that opening (which is his job). If Craig saw Ferrandis com- ing, in that split second, he had a choice: 1. Check up and try to dive back under Ferran- dis as they crossed the start straightaway where Craig would have the inside line. 2. Keep it pinned and race Ferrandis for the intersection where their lines were bound to converge. If Craig got to that intersection before Ferrandis, Craig had a chance to stay up (not completely un- touched) and keep his position on the racetrack, and Ferran- dis would've been at fault for the contact (he would've been "Racer R") and likely would've crashed anyway. Both Ferrandis and Craig had a duty to anticipate whether Fer- randis could get to that intersec- 101