Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

......., fact it's just p art o f th e big ger p icture of racing in general. It 's to ugh when you 're passiona tely involved in trying 10 prevent serious inj ury and death 10 have someone talk 10 yo u about th e econom ics of safet y im prove- rnem s. Bruce Hammer. founder of the Jo n Woo Memoria l S a fe t y Projec t . w it h a young fr iend in Ca liforn ia . Bruce Hammer's s'alety crusade By William Blears It' s been a yea r now since pr ivat eer Br uce H amm er crashed his Chevronsponsored S uzu k i Formula One racebike d u ring a W in ston Pro Series race at Elkh art Lak e. Hamm er slid in to an Armco barrier and hasn 't w alked since. His frie n d and racing part ner, J ohn U lric h, lik es to tell p eople that if everybody is supposed to be sitt in g down, it's im possib le to tell that Hamm er's any differen t. But w h ile Hamm er's spiri ts are good and h is determination strong, he's n ot th e sam e laid-back easy -go in g person h e was. So me of that willin g ness to ride w it h th e tid e is gon e, repla ced by a new fi re. Bru ce Hammer is o n a crusa de, a safety crus ade. We spo ke to him abo u t it. 20 Just what a re you try i ng to do. an y' way? First, a littl e ba ckground. It sta rted wh en I was in th e h ospi ta l reco verin g fro m m y spi na l i nj ury. Som e o ther racer s ca me a nd visited m e, a nd we talked a bo u t safety. Wes Co ol ey a nd som e o f th e o the r riders agreed with m e th at roa d racing saf ety was so mething th at n eed ed improving, a nd we figured I was in a good positi on 10 orga n ize the d eal si nce I was a fast gu y wh o was injured seriously and had a lot of cre d ibil ity. We talked about it , but didn 't d o much. Th en Jon Woo got killed whil e testing for th e Honda team a t Laguna Seca , and th at was lik e th e last straw. That 's when we de cided 10 start th e Jon Woo Memorial Safety Proj ect and do something. What we're trying to do is 10 m ak e racing saf er. Racing is inherentl y dangerous because you 're going real fast a nd the object is 10 go as fast as possibl e, be righ t o n th e ed ge witho ut fall in g down. But occasiona ll y peopl e go o ver the edge a nd th ey do fall down. We'r e tryi ng 10 m ak e racin g as safe as p ossi ble 10 prevent deaths or serio us i njuries lik e I su sta ined . Is it possible to have racing and n o t have deaths and injuries? Yo u cail ' ( eYpecftb have racingw here in n o wa y ca n a ny body be hurt or kill ed. But what should be h ighlighted is racing as a n i nteres ting sport, challe n g in g , w ith rid ers compe ti ng agai nst o ne a not her. The point is 10 see wh o ca n go th e fastest. Th e po int isn 't 10 see wh o ca n d efy death or a vo id running o ver broken bottles or razor blades o n th e edge o f th e race trac k. You don 't need th at kind o f stu ff; we d on 't hav e razorbl ad es but Armco is just a s bad. Th e frustratin g thing is th at if I had crashed so m ew here else a t a di ffere nt time o r if Jon Woo had cras he d som ewhere else at a differ ent time, it wouldn't have been that bi g a d eal. In all the years that I ra ced I o bvio us ly had man y crashes without serio us injury. It was just th e sit ua tio n o f th e Arm co or in Woo' s de ath , th e d irt em ba n km ent outside Laguna Seca' s turn tw o, th at ca us ed m y injury and hi s de at h . We're tryin g 10 prevent th a t kind of si tua tion . Aren 't yo u kind of pickin g o n Elk, ha rt Lake a nd L aguna Seca? We decided i n th e beg i n n i ng th at there a re too many racetracks 10 work on them a ll at once, a nd that we'd sta rt with a co up le o f th em . La gu n a a nd Elkhart h av e a cou pl e o f exam p les o f glaring sa fety p robl em s. L ag u na' s- tiir n 'two has a terr ible safety reco rd , tw o guys kill ed a nd two guys with broken necks, alt hough not pa ra' lyzed , in th e last four years. Th ere's no suc h thing as crashin g in L aguna' s t u rn two with ou t a ser io us i nju ry. T he n a t Elkhart th ere's that p articular fast turn wh ere I crashed, with Armco within six feet o f th e race tr ack . T ha t's wh y we highlighted th ose tw o tra ck s a nd ca lle d a st r ik e. What a bout t he strike? W ha t's th e sta tus? In th e beginning we took a real ag g ressive stance wit h the tw o tracks because Wo o had just bee n ki ll ed a nd we figured t hi ngs h ad to co me 10 a head a n d we wanted 10 d o something a bo u t it fast. So we ca lled a strike, go t a lot o f publ icity, som e o f it neg ative. We got togeth er with a lo t o f rider s, gOt th eir signatures o n age ncy ag reem ents dr awn up by o ur lawyer , in w h ich th e ri de rs made m e th eir n egotiatin g a ge nt for saf et y with th e ra ce track s a nd the AMA a n d prom ised not to ride u nless I was satisfied with the safety m easures. We d ecided we were not going 10 race a t Elkhart a nd Lag u na until they made som e cha nges. After th e initial uproar , things ca lm ed down a n d we had some co ntac t with Elkhart Lake and th ey d ecided that th ey'd m ake some safety cha n ges. We worked th ro u g h Bill Bo yce of the AMA as far as Laguna Seca went , sin ce th eir answers to our letters didn 't e nco u ra ge an y di a logue. At Elkhart Lake the Ar mco barriers will be better protected wi th add i tiona l cus h io n in g m aterials. At Lagu na Seca, accord in g 10 Bo yce, the hi ll o u tside turn two will be moved ba ck befor e th e race there. In th e future we'll work th ro ug h th e AMA, a nd so far that 's been a learning experience in itselLlt 's to ug h fo r racers who a re so cl osel y involved with the safety aspect 10 understand wh en so mebody sa ys ' Yea h, well , we'll work on it but we have other pr iorities.' In o ur min d the Jon Wo o Mem orial Safety Proj ect is more im portant tha n a n yt hi ng else, but in What about this award yo u just gave Willow Sp rings in Ca lifo rnia? Well, h er e we wer e bea ring our heads again st a wa ll try ing 10 get some tr acks 10 m ake sa fety improv em ents, a n d suddenl y we realized that Willow Springs wa s p roof th at it didn 't h ave 10 be th at wa y. Bill Huth o w ns Willow Springs a n d in the last year or so he's mad e a lot o f im p rov em ents, bulldo zed back dirt em ba n k me nts o u tside corner s, sm ooth ed runoff areas, filled in drainage ditches and, in general, has been real progressive in making his track safer for motorcycles. So we de cided 10 honor him and his tra ck and we had a plaque made up and had J erri Woo , Jon's widow , fly down a nd we gave Huth th e plaque at th e AFM Six H o u r. We ca ll ed it the Jon Woo Mem o ria l Safety P roj ect Award for Exce lle nce in Racet rack Sa fety a nd we p la n 10 g ive o ut some mo re 10 ot her except io na l tracks . T he ne x t one wi ll be Roebling Ro ad Raceway in Sava nnah , Georgia. Talking 10 Huth was rea l educationa l, 100. H e to ld us that lots of runoff room is better than Armco for cars as well as motorcycl es, but that the car guys just haven't figured it ou t yet. W itho u t Armco, ca rs aren't bounced back onto th e track and rammed bv o th er ca rs. When there's runoff room the ca rs just slide and spin until th ey stop without h i tt in g a n yth ing o r getti n g d estroyed. The sports ca r gu ys hav e been trying 10 get Huth 10 ins ta ll Arm co , but he sa vs he n ever will because it 's useless for ca rs a nd ruins a tra ck for m otorcvc les . H e a lso savs th e future o f race tracks is in m ot orcycle raci ng, because th e crowds ge t bigger every yea r. So what will your a p proach be in the fu ture? We never professed 10 have a ll the a n swe rs wh en we sta rted th is, a nd it was a learning ex p er ie nce for us as well as everybo d y else. Th e thing we'v e learned is th at it ca n ' t be unila tera l, it's got to be a jo int effort with th e racetr ac ks, th e sanctioning body, the m otorcycle fraternit y. Everybody has 10 work togeth er toward safety. That 's a n o th er reason why we ga ve Will o w Spr ings the award, beca use we didn't j u st want to be know n as negative, we wanted to stress the posirive a n d publicize Willow' s efforts 10 im p ro ve safety. We've also been researching safet y from th e engineer ing a ng le. My injury showed th at an Armco barrier with ha ybales in front o f it is n ot saf e, th at ha y bales aren 't g oo d enoug h 10 prevent necks from being broken. The AMA is a tr aditi ona l organization and hasn 't taken the ini tiative or aggressively pursued adva ncem en ts in p add in g Arm co barrier s. We found o u t th er e is all sorts of st uff out there. Vin ce Costa , an AF;\1 racer with a master 's degree in mechanical engineering was o ne o f the first riders to join the J WM P. He did graduate work in designing energy-absorbing autornar ive in teriors. H e ca me u p with thi s stuff ca ll ed H excel , a n expanded cardboard honeyco m b th at comes in sh eets tw o inches thick a nd five feet tall, and it has trem en dou s po tent ia l. If I understa nd the engi neering da ta Costa sent us, wh ich we ha ve forw a rded to Bo yce at th e AM A, a ride r co u ld fly direct ly into a n Arm co barri er prot ected by a 10-in ch th ick wall o f Hexcel at 60 mph a nd susta in n o injuries. We'r e talking about so m e stu ff here with serio us en erg y-absorbin g ca p a bili ties . Even four in ch es thi ck , H ex cel in front o f ha yba les wou ld make -a trem endous

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