Check out all these threads with people taking out other people. Talk about a bad week.

http://tracktalk.nesba.com/showthread.php?t=15344

http://forums.13x.com/showthread.php?t=263459
There was actually another Fastrax racer that took out someone else to that weekend.

http://forums.13x.com/showthread.php?t=262835

http://forums.13x.com/showthread.php?t=263226

http://forums.13x.com/showthread.php?t=262875
This was a mechanical but still sounds scary check post 19.

And of course the big one at VIR which makes it a very sad week (and more) all by itself.

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Ben
#535

Yeah, it has been kind of crazy lately. I've already decided to wait until next year to possibly try racing, but the more I see the recent events and the extra money racing is going to cost, I am shifting towards not doing it and just staying with TDs. I understand the same stuff can happen at a TD, but the odds are more in my favor of it not.

It has been rough out there but I still feel "safer" at the track than on the street, particularly at speed.
I thought about getting a WERA license but I think I've gotten to a point in my riding where I am at the track just to have a good time and run my own pace.

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I agree completely that the track is safer, just not sure if I want to get into racing at this point.

i think getting your license and going out at like beaver or summit would be fun every once in a while. its a whole different type of riding compared to a trackday. that was what was so fun about it for me, it was fun to just go out and push everylap, stuff people, make passes you wouldnt dare to at a TD, but with all that comes higher risk.

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WERA & NESBA #45

I am sort of in the same boat. My plan was to upgrade my suspension and then get my race license toward the end of the year. But I'm more hesitant now than I have been.

And Jr. all the reasons you like the racing vs. track day are exactly what concerns me haha! I'm sure there was no malice in any of those situations, just a weekend warrior pushing his limits a little too far a little too often. I still plan on getting the race license and just doing a couple races a year; but the question of "is it worth it" will be one I'll be battling with.

Interesting note though, 3 of the incidents I posted were track day incidents, not races (and again the one was mechanical failure).

As it goes though, I'm going to chalk this up to just a freaky week and hopefully things (people) settle down a little bit the rest of the year. I think I'm going to leave the lap timer off my next time out just so I'm not tempted to push it.

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Ben
#535

The Nelson one was a serious bone head move. I'm not gonna say it........
The one with RL is the typical bitch about his days being way over booked - remember the 15 minute 4 groups at Summit they did?
The other ones where there was video are sort of inconclusive. In the first one the guy got spooked and just rode off in the grass. Does not look like he went down at all.
The one out west I'm guessing someone touched his rear wheel. There was a bike showing him a wheel a couple of turns prior to the wreck.

Hell, however you cut it, it's an unsafe sport. Human bodies just never evolved the ability to tumble across asphalt at 100+ mph. But we here are sort of living proof of not knowing any better: We keep going back out there in spite of the risks.
We all know that track days, for the most part, are safer than racing. They are also safer than going at similar velocities on the street. I think that orgs that consider themselves to be "race oriented" run more problematic track days than explicitly non-racing organizations. I'm not even about to kid myself into believing that we never "race" during a track day. I just don't think that we take anything near the risk we would take in an actual race. I mean the odds of me stuffing Nate or Joe just to get ahead of them are about zero. Do I want to pass them some time, fuck yeah! But I think that all of us understand where we are and the game we are playing.
I don't begrudge what Jr. said about his attitude during a race. I don't think he's saying anything any other racer would not say. It's just why I will probably never bother to get a license or give it a whirl. I'm too damn old, too damn slow and my body is probably way past the point of that much additional abuse

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I agree with just about everything written above. I choose not to race for a number of reasons. I raced Motocross pretty seriously for years. I can tell you that everyone on this board that hasn't raced has another gear that they don't even know about. I believe Justin would agree that he threw down some fast laps at BeaveRun that he probably would not have if he weren't racing. That little bit you keep in reserve at track days gets thrown right out the window during a race. When you're racing, you'll pull the trigger on those passes you second guess at a track day. All the riders around you will do the same. The other scary thing is that riding on the street is like smoking cigarettes, riding on the track is like smoking weed, and racing is like crack cocaine. Remember when riding on the street was so much fun, and then you started track days. What happens when you start racing, and track days are no longer as exciting?

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LETS GO PRAIRIE DOGGIN!!!!!!!!!YEEE HAWWWW!!!
WERA & NESBA #45