A Bag of Wind

No I’m not talking about the BSPA or some team manager I mean the one around the outside of the bends – yes the air fence !

Speedway is always going to have its dangers and maybe that’s part of the appeal but surely risks can be reduced and the sport has to be, as far as possible, as safe as possible. After all the track is the rider’s workplace if you like, and both yours and mine are regulated by significant quantities of rules and regulations. The employer has a responsibility towards his employees. I ‘m sure speedway as a sport is not governed by quite the same stringent rules but never the less given the spate of serious accidents we have seen this year what systems are in place to reduce the carnage ?

Are all serious incidents investigated ? Some obviously are racing incidents and quite clearly in race conditions these are an unfortunate occupational hazard. But what of the others –

Track preparation – how often do we see the outside of bends ripped up before the meeting starts what does this achieve ? – riders riding close to the fence on an unpredictable surface – is that a good idea !

Safety Fence Design – Are air fences the answer ? what is the likelihood of hitting a post ? would higher fences prevent serious injury ? Is the air safety fence at a GP fundamentally different from those at Elite Tracks ? It certainly seems that way, the air bags at a GP appear to be backed by a substantial railing fence at the temporary tracks and presumably they are placed in front of the existing fence at permanent tracks. In league speedway riders seem to go under the air fence with startling regularity and some have been seriously injured after making contact with a post. A recent televised match at Wolverhampton showed a rider going clean through the air fence – a few feet either way and he would have struck a very substantial looking post.

Human Error – on that black night in Somerset when Gary Stead met with such serious injuries two races prior to the fateful heat the referee apparently failed to stop a race with a fallen rider on the track. On realising the situation anecdotal evidence suggests that the red exclusion light was illuminated rather than the red stop lights. Now I’ve never been in a referee’s box and not seen the layout but should it not be standardised so that such errors are less likely – if they already are then it was purely human error.

I’m no expert in all this but it seems to me that the GP type fence configuration offers the best protection and if this is proven should be in place at all tracks – there are obviously going to be incidents on which the safety fence will have no bearing whatsoever but if it prevents one serious injury it will have done its job.

There are of course other factors involved and I would like to think that the BSPA are evaluating air-fences, looking into track preparation and tyre and bike design to see if there are any patterns emerging that may result in improved safety.

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