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Monday Morning Grind – Nelson Unsafe?

The WERA Nelson National was held this past weekend, amidst high levels of controversy. The big story was Robert Jensen and the Vesrah team electing not to ride, due to safety concerns about the Nelson facility.

Jensen set a new lap record at the last WERA Nelson regional round. He ran times he was comfortable running and wasn't chased by anyone. However at the National, he knew lap times would further drop with the increased level of competition and didn't feel running at that pace was safe, primarily because Nelson has an extreme lack of runoff in a few different corners. Couple that with the fact that Nelson is one of the fastest tracks in the U.S. (in terms of overall average speed), and it's not a safe combination.

So Jensen and the Vesrah team sat Sunday (Jensen actually left and went to race at Autobahn). Of the riders that did elect to race, two crashed fairly hard - Jeff Agnes and Rueben Frankenfield. Both crashed in the fast carousel with Jeff escaping with only a minor concussion. Unfortunately Rueben made it to the tire wall (only a short distance off the track), totalling his bike and breaking both of his legs.

So what can we as riders do? Ban going to certain tracks? Some riders do that now and while it proves a point, I don't think it's enough. We can talk to track management – which WERA is currently doing now. One thing Nelson does have in it's corner is that the Nelson management are constantly doing things to improve the track and surrounding facilities. I think they would be receptive to input from riders on safety concerns and ways to make the track better in terms of runoff. Ultimately the biggest thing is money. It takes money to make things happen, but if you could help by contributing money to improve the safety of a track – would you?

Monday, September 11th, 2006 | POSTED AT: 6:23 AM
FILED UNDER: General