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Jason748 -> RE: (n00b question) road racing = ...safe? Or, how much does it hurt? (10/22/2007 7:56:31 PM)
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This is one of those things I sometimes go back and forth on... Overall I think racing is "safer" than riding on the streets because your not worried about other vehicles pulling out in front of you, everyone’s traveling the same direction, the surface conditions are much more consistent, those kinds of things. But you also have to keep in mind that you're in a competition. What I mean by that is that in the heat of battle sometimes people do stupid things, and sometimes the results are not pretty. In my view race starts have the most potential for something to happen - You've got on average 25+ bikes (at least here in the midwest CCS region, hell even 30 or more is not uncommon) going into the first turn, literally inches apart, battling for position.
Another thing is on the street you don't ride at 90% - 100% like you do in racing (if you do you shouldn't be riding on the street). Because your riding at such a high level on the track the consequences of a small mistake almost always lead to the bike going down or an off track excursion.
I can't say ones particularly "safer" than the other as they both have their good and bad points, but I personally have always felt safer and more comfortable on track than riding on the street.
Well run track days are in my opinion are the safest option hands down, because you have the opportunity to really "ride" the bike without the typical street obstacles, but without the "competition" of racing.
I've been in many, many crashes (I've lost count), but the majority of the time I've gotten up and walked away with no injury, or minor scrapes and burses. But I've had a few bad ones that have required immediate trips to the emergency room or trauma center (see below). What it comes down to is crashing happens and it always "hurts", whether it be your pride, your pocketbook, your body or all three together. I have plates on both collarbones (did the left one in a highside last year), have broken 8 fingers, blown both knees out, and countless bruises scrapes and sprang, all in about 15 years racing and riding, both motocross & road racing.
If fact, I'm sitting here in almost the exact same condition as Woody... At the last race weekend of the CCS midwest series at Blackhawk farms (September 14th), during Friday racer practice I was hit from behind going into turn 6. I came away with a badly broken collarbone (required surgery to have a plate & 8 screws installed), three broken ribs (and the rest on the right side bruised), badly bruised hip and knee, bruising on my brain (also with memory loss - I remember exiting turn 5 then waking up with the paramedics working on me), and to top it off because I was still unconscious when the paramedics got to me so I had to be helicoptered to the nearest trauma center...
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