What makes motorsport so exciting? Danger, noise, speed, showbiz? Maybe all of them together make the concoction so addictive. But at least two of them are being diluted and they are the most compelling.
No-one can argue that circuits should be made safer. No spectator comes to see riders killed or indeed, seriously injured. The downside is that many of the newly constructed circuits, with huge areas of run-off, are downright dull and if you take Qatar as an example spotting the spectator is an interesting diversion during the commentators between-race babble. And some of the great circuits, Suzuka for example, are being taken off the calendar. In the UK and Ireland only Silverstone and Donington can host world championship events. Neither may be able to afford it next year.
But there are still lots of crashes, in fact more than ever, and legendary commentator Murray Walker is getting concerned about riders becoming almost ambivalent about crashing."Now it is almost acceptable that you will fall off during the weekend," he observed. And indeed it is riders and machines hitting each other which is now the greater concern of the FIM safety commission.
Perhaps Murray should have been at Cheltenham last week. If he thinks riders are too relaxed about falling off he should watch jump racing. Four top jockeys were injured and two, Ruby Walsh and Darryl Jacob, will be out for several months . There were also, inevitably, two or three horses whose lives were ended.As champion jockey Tony McCoy wryly put it:"This is the only job where you have two ambulances following you round!"
The other compelling ingredient is noise. Not only is racing, F1 in particular, starting to resemble a modern day version of the Mobil Economy Run - remember that - but we are being gradually weaned off what makes it exciting. The sound. It's like watching Metallica with the sound turned down. No wonder the crowds at Melbourne, witnessing the new formula for the first time, were less than pleased.
We are heading, inevitably it seems, to soundless racing. How exciting. We already have an electric bike TT and those who visit Donington this year will see large sheds being erected to manufacture cars for a Formula-e World Championship.
Is there no room for excess, even in the privacy of your own racetrack?
WELSH RAREBIT
A programme on BBC Wales recently appeared to cast doubt on proposals to build a new Grand Prix circuit which would be ready to host MotoGP on 2015. It suggested that investors from the private sector, ie people who out their money into infrastructure projects, had not been found and that suggestions that employment would be found for thousands of people in a deprived area were wide of the mark.
The developers response was, not surprisingly, more confident. They said discussion with investors, both private and public, were ongoing, reminded people that this would be the biggest motor sport development in the UK for fifty years and it would indeed, over the entire industrial development, employ thousands of people.
It is perhaps sobering to remember that the last new circuit to be built, at Corby on Northamptonshire, is now used for vehicle testing and track days and efforts to sell it appear to have been unsuccessful. It was to have been the greatest thing since sliced bread, incorporating a speed bowl, infield track, off-road etc., but was beset by construction difficulties and eventually cost financier Guy Hands £50 million quid when he off loaded it for loose change.
It looks like Silverstone will be staging MotoGP for a few more years but only if Dorna are prepared to reduce their price. Remember that Silverstone has also been up for sale but so far there have been no takers.
Running a racing circuit is no fun. Good luck to Stuart Hicken and Eddie Roberts at Mallory Park.
