Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 14, 2014 P109 speeding towards an area of real turf. The Ducati bucked him off and cartwheeled alongside him. It came within little more than a foot of landing on top of him. Not much later, a carbon copy for Rossi. He was making a move on Pedrosa when the Honda rider inadvertently pushed him wide. Likewise onto a narrow strip of Astroturf. There was paved runoff beyond that, where Rossi would have been able to save the day. But by the time the Yamaha got there it was sideways on. He too was flicked violently off, he too came very uncomfortably close to having 350-plus pounds of a fuel-heavy MotoGP bike land on top of him. As it was, both riders and Mo- toGP itself got away with it. You can imagine the outcry had either of them, and especially Rossi, been hit, possibly fatally. And in each case, had it not been for the artificial grass, they might not even have crashed. As it was, mercifully, the sting was taken out of the inevitable following debate, though all the riders I spoke to said the same thing: "It is something that comes up over and over in the [riders'] Safety Commission." After that, opinions varied, though a straw poll had a ma- jority leaning towards the view expressed so forcibly by Casey Stoner, a couple of years ago, when paved run-off areas started to become more prevalent. He was dead against them, because it meant a rider could make a mistake, then just pick up and run off the track, save the situation, and rejoin to carry on. With the limit no longer clearly defined, there was an open invi- tation to push too hard, without much of a penalty other than the loss of a second or two. "I believe if you make a mis- take, you should be punished," the uncompromising Australian champion said. In other words, you should crash. A harsh view, but one shared by Nicky Hayden. "The track has to end somewhere," he said. If not, it offers unfair advan- tage. This was a particularly acute problem at the previous round at Misano, where exten- sive paved run-off offers all sorts of opportunities to exceed the limits, pay no price, and even take short cuts. Not sure how many riders had practice laps disallowed for this reason, but in the Moto2 race no less than six riders were punished by being instructed to drop back by one position, three of them losing a place after the checkered flag. The ever-luckless Jonas Fol- ger even suffered a ride-through penalty after he failed to drop back quickly enough. Well, fair enough. The track does have to end somewhere. But if that termination happens to be wet artificial grass, the penal- ties seem a little too high. There is another problem with this ersatz greenery, encountered by Stefan Bradl in Malaysia last year. He had actually slipped off while still on the tarmac, in an innocuous low-sider. He and his bike were sliding off at the usual tangent, and he could have had every expecta- tion of being able to walk away. In- stead, his sliding Honda picked up a section of the matting with a foot- peg just before the rider arrived feet first. His leg was caught under the edge of the matting, and he broke his ankle badly. Not nice... and so avoidable. And yet, that was a freak event. Many riders prefer the artificial grass to another punishing alter- native ... gravel. Hayden again. "That tends to get you flipping over and over. That's when things get broken. It's better to slide, even on paving, even if you wear through your leathers." Artificial grass has an applica- tion on sports fields. Hence the quote variously attributed to Brit- ish footballer George Best, as well as Joe Namath and baseball pitcher Tug McGraw, when asked which was preferable: "I don't know. I've never smoke Astroturf." Its main function on a racetrack is decorative rather than function- al. It shouldn't be there. Mind you, artificial grass is bet- ter than artificial trees. CN

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