Road Racing cancelled in N Ireland

Dogsbody · Feb 10, 2023

Sad day for road racing

Most motorcycle road races in Northern Ireland cancelled

It is due to soaring insurance charges but organisers of the flagship North West 200 are still hopeful it can go ahead.

www.bbc.co.uk

Seeley920 · Feb 10, 2023

Dogsbody said:
Sad day for road racing

Most motorcycle road races in Northern Ireland cancelled

It is due to soaring insurance charges but organisers of the flagship North West 200 are still hopeful it can go ahead.

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC will obviously only report on NI. It's actually all of Ireland, North and South

baz · Feb 10, 2023

What a shame

concours · Feb 10, 2023

Cancel culture legislating, litigating and pricing everything out of business.

jan nelder · Feb 15, 2023

a friend here in UK is involved with southern Ireland racing at Kells, and they had a big problem last year with the hike in insurance premiums: having to have a special fundraising event to try to raise money, so I am not surprised.

acotrel · Feb 17, 2023

It is probably not about 'cancel culture' - that is just an excuse for bullshit. - Insurance companies are gambling syndicates - 'the house always wins' I was involved with Standards Australia in writing the 'guide to managing risk in motor sport'. In it I wrote that in Australian states the 'competent authority' is Workcover. They are responsible for investigations into fatalities in workplaces. After the guide was released as a public document, we had a fatality which Workcover investigated. It ended up with a court decision that motor racing is a sport, and a race circuit is not a workplace - and that decision was always going to happen. That decision has affected the insurance situation. Decent insurance is usually underwritten by Lloyds of London. But in Australian motorcycle racing, it is not. The underwriter is a shelf company in the IOM
. So when the rellies sue the race circuit and organisers, who pays ?
Legally, in Australia you cannot sign away your common law right to sue.
So the story is 'controlling bodies' should not get schonky.
Back when motorsport began in Australia, the 'controlling bodies' were competitors' unions. They are now profit-making corporations. All of you guys who race motorcycles should have democratic rights. Where is the enabling structure ?

acotrel · Mar 16, 2023

One of my friends has raced in the Ulster GP. He is an A grade rider. A guy was killed in front of him. I think that the guys who race on those types of circuit, think differently. On the outside of every bend, there is a row of posts.

gortnipper · Mar 16, 2023

concours said:
Cancel culture legislating, litigating and pricing everything out of business.

Damned Tory insurance underwriters!

acotrel · Mar 17, 2023

I was involved with Standards Australia and the venue owners, in writing the 'guide to manasging risk in motor sport'. It is a public document, so no single entity owns the intellectual property. The document affects motorcycle road racing and insurance costs. Most motorcycle road racing is inherently safe - in the sense that the risks are usually minimised to a tolerable level. However road racing on closed public roads is often not safe, and when there is a fatality, we all pay.
In Australia under common law, we cannot sign away our right to sue. But what happens in Irish racing affects all of us. When insurance companies are based in the IOM, and not underwritten by Lloyds Of London,a payout might be less likely.
This has nothing to do with 'cancel culture' or 'woke'. It is about 'duty of care'. In Australia, we have had a race fatality since that document was created. The outcome in court was 'a motor race circuit is not a workplace'.

acotrel · Mar 17, 2023

When you are competent and the risks are all minimised to a tolerable level, you are safe - but you can still die. Just do not do it while I am still racing. Neoliberalism is bullshit - there is no fun in getting killed. This 'cancel culture' crap really irritates me. When you go down that path, you encourage exploitation. I love motorcycle road racing but there are places where I never race. In Victoria the controlling body owns Broadford Race circuit. One look at it should be enough to deter anyone. I learned to road race by crashing. You do not have to be stupid.
In the old days Hume Weir and Mount Gambier were equally bad. Hume Weir has gone, and our modern methods have improved Mount Gambier immensely. It is now a beautiful place in which to race.

I know about safety. In my lifetime, I have worked making nitroglycerine by the batch prosess, and I have worked with initiator compounds. You can become a plume of smoke and feed the birds, in an instant. However, in my job I never lost anyone. It is a strange feeling when you think about being vaporised - would you know you had ever been here ? - I think there would just be nothing. So why worry ?

ashman · Mar 17, 2023

On my Triumph Rat forum they have reinstalled the racing, it was cancelled for insurance hike but they got donations and they will be racing again for all clubs and advents for this year, so no longer cancelled.

Chris · Mar 17, 2023

Supposedly the go fund me is only going to be used for the Ulster. Someone put a lot of work in with the insurance company's to get a reasonable quote that all the events could afford. However outstanding claims still to be sorted run to millions! No wonder the premiums have been increasing so much over the last few years. The real rub of the matter seems to be that the MCUI (The governing body) knew all this but didnt make people aware of it. Quite the news item " all racing cancelled in Ireland" A bit in their own world me thinks.

acotrel · Monday at 1:31 PM

In Australia, historic racing is run by sidecar guys. They were talking about indemnity waivers. However you cannot sign away your common law right to sue. Until I got involved with Winton Raceway, I had never heard the size of the insurance payouts for fatalities. There was one guy who had a heart attack while driving a racing car. He pulled off the circuit into the middle, stopped and died. The payout was tens of millions of dollars. These days we need to be able to demonstrate that we have been proactive and have minimised the risks to a tolerable level. When we race we sign a sheet which lists our medication. For me, that can be a problem.
But road ricing in Ireland is a whole different ball game. I have been involved in track inspections at Winton with reps from the controlling bodies. Even the minor drop off the edge of the bitumen must be fixed. When you look at the Ulsterr GP, there are rows of posts down the outside of the circuit. What is the likelihood and potential consequences if somebody spears-off ?

acotrel · Monday at 1:32 PM

acotrel said:
In Australia, historic racing is run by sidecar guys. They were talking about indemnity waivers. However you cannot sign away your common law right to sue. Until I got involved with Winton Raceway, I had never heard the size of the insurance payouts for fatalities. There was one guy who had a heart attack while driving a racing car. He pulled off the circuit into the middle, stopped and died. The payout was tens of millions of dollars. These days we need to be able to demonstrate that we have been proactive and have minimised the risks to a tolerable level. When we race we sign a sheet which lists our medication. For me, that can be a problem.
But road ricing in Ireland is a whole different ball game. I have been involved in track inspections at Winton with reps from the controlling bodies. Even the minor drop off the edge of the bitumen must be fixed. When you look at the Ulsterr GP, there are rows of posts down the outside of the circuit. What is the likelihood and potential consequences if somebody spears-off ?

Every time somebody dies on a race circuit, the cost of racing increases. However, in most places, motorcycle road racing is inherently safe. It never worries me, but I have worked where nobody should.
I was asked to apply for the job of Safety Manager at a nuclear establishment. I did not apply, because somebody always has to carry the can. Some things are psychologically very bad.

acotrel · Monday at 1:39 PM

In Australia Covid has made many people much more risk-conscious. In modern society, our achievements are only limited by our mindsets.

baz · Monday at 6:23 PM

Does anyone remember when a racing event was cancelled a few years ago ?
When a woman spectator tripped up in the carpark and claimed against the circuit
Nothing to do with the racing but the insurance was too high
It's a vague memory so I can't be sure

acotrel · Tuesday at 1:45 PM

Insurance premiums are a normal business expense. Life is a gamble, and insurance companies are gambling syndicates - the house always wins.

Chris · Tuesday at 1:56 PM

Lady fell off turning into a field at a vintage event. Tractor tyre ruts. She sued & won! Obvious to see, you are parking in a field. Common sense should prevail.

acotrel · Friday at 10:56 AM

I like to watch videos of Irish road racing, however I would never do it. Just as I would not race on the IOM. I love road racing, but we do not need to be silly. When you first race on any circuit, you need to learn where it goes, before you speed up. YOU CANNOT RIDE ON YOUR REFLEXES. - If you do not remamber where you are, your reflexes can send you the wrong signal, and you might turn the wrong way and bring yourself undone. In Victoria, I only ever race on two circuits and they are similar to each other. That way I do not crash. The guys who are really good, can usually catch up with the circuit quicker.

Dogsbody · Friday at 11:48 AM

Well you would not have enjoyed racing in Ireland in the 60s then. The first one I did was the Mid Antrim 150 in 1966, no practice, no warm up lap just straight out of the paddock onto the grid. And it was raining. Two more that year then Tandragee in 1967, same thing no practice with the inevitable fall on the second lap resulting in a broken collarbone. Didn’t learn though did several more years over there but they started doing two warm up laps as a concession.