VOL. 54 ISSUE 46 NOVEMBER 21, 2017 P25
DAN HEGERTY
KILLED AT MACAU
GRAND PRIX
2
016 Isle of Man TT Privateer Champion Dan
Hegarty passed away following injuries sus-
tained in a crash at the 2017 Macau Grand Prix.
The 31-year-old crashed on the seventh lap at
the Fisherman's Bend corner, losing his helmet in
the accident. He was transported to hospital but
succumbed en route.
A statement from the Macau Grand Prix read:
"The Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee
regrets to announce that, following an incident
during the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix—51st
Edition today (November 18 2017) at Fishermen's
Bend, the rider of bike number 8, Daniel Hegarty,
aged 31, suffered serious injuries.
"The race was immediately stopped and Daniel
was transferred to hospital. It is with great regret
that we have to announce that the British rider
succumbed to his injuries en route to the Conde
S. Januario Hospital."
The race was immediately red flagged with
organizers deciding not to continue the event.
Ducati's Glenn Irwin was declared the winner,
Peter Hickman (BMW) second and Michael Rutter
(BMW) third. CN
QATAR RACE SCHEDULE SHAKEUP
T
he MotoGP season opener
at the Losail International
Circuit in Qatar will take on a
different look next year, as only
the MotoGP race will be held
at night with Moto2 and Moto3
both competing during the day
and early evening.
The change in scheduling has
been made to address the issue
of rain at the desert venue that
makes the venue unraceable at
night. The time at which the 2017
MotoGP race was run was right
at the time dew settles on the
racing surface, making it ex-
tremely treacherous to compete
on. This has been a problem for
many years, with rain causing a
complete shutdown of the Sun-
day program in 2009 and the
racing moving to Monday.
The new schedule will see all
three classes running free practice
sessions during the afternoon.
FP2 and qualifying for Moto3
will start late in the afternoon,
although Moto2 will see the worst
of the timing as they will be run-
ning qualifying and racing during
sunset, which may cause issues
with vision as the sun drops over
the horizon.
MotoGP practice will start at
night after Moto2, with the race
to be run earlier at night to try
and avoid the weather issues
that have plagued the event
since the switch was made to
night racing in 2008. CN
Dan Hegarty was
one of the top
privateer racers at
the Isle of Man.
The Qatar race organizers are
hoping the time change will help
avoid the weather concerns that
have plagued the nighttime event.
