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Lone Wolf and the KERS of F1

WHY DO THEY DO IT?

It is when you are presented with the graphic detail of the crash which put Stuart Easton in Belfast Royal Victoria Hospital that you wonder: Why do they do it? Is it because this is the only life they know; they like being famous(sort of); it is better than working; they make a lot of money?

Well, it is certainly not the latter unless you are a front-runner in MotoGP. Allowing that exception, it is probably all of the above. Kids have heroes, they dream of emulating them and they get started in a sport which becomes their life.

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Stuart Easton is happily on his way to a full recovery although it will take time. He is one of the most popular riders in the BSB paddock known for some inexplicable, and probably doubtful, reason as 'ratboy.' He is also one of the most talented with a desire to succeed driven by his admiration of fellow-Hawick townsman Steve Hislop.

This columnist has talked before about track safety, the desire of spectators to experience thrills and spills. But neither apply here. This horrific collision was, it seems, pure chance which no right-minded viewer wants to happen and, whether it be track or road circuit, any rider bouncing down the road at 150mph is going to get hurt.

Why do they do it? Again, all of the above but include also the built-in mechanism which overrides all fears - it's never going to happen to me!

ONE DOWN - TWO TO GO

The North West 200 is the first of the three big road races, the others being the TT and the Ulster Grand Prix. The disaster that was the first demonstrates the difficulty of staging events like this because road racing is more dangerous - that's a fact - and the weather in the north-west of the UK is more unpredictable.

On the other hand you could argue that, in actuality, it is more predictable. It rains more and more often! So could the North West organisers have made an earlier decision to call it all off and save spectators, not to mention the riders, the discomfort of spending all day getting wet. (Wolf confesses that, like thousands of others he was in the comfort of his own living room watching it on BBC NI television).

Hindsight enables us all to make brilliant judgement calls and none of us would have wanted to be in the sodden shoes of race director Mervyn White or his colleagues. Any doubters should accept that they did what they thought was right at the time, bomb threats and all.

However, while we must accept that the weather is beyond our control situations like this allow me to return to my one continuing beef - tyres. It surely must be inarguable that a) they add little to the entertainment value of a race but b) they cause huge problems, delays and even cancellations when weather conditions are uncertain because of the different types that are permissible.

Is it, therefore, not possible, for technical reasons or otherwise, to have an agreed specification for a road race tyre, wet or dry. Discuss.

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THE KERS OF FORMULA ONE

The Editor frowns upon any mention of that dreary series upon which the BBC spends tens of millions of our money(Perhaps not much longer as their sports budget is being cut by 20%, although MotoGP will go first, Ed).

But I dare to do so because it provides an illustration of what not to do, ie make a simple sport where the first under the linen is the winner into something which is completely incomprehensible.

Having watched the start of the Monaco GP - the best thing of which is the circuit, completely amazing - I was then assailed by a battery of acronyms led by KERS and DRS. What the four X is all that about?

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As I switched off reasonably early, the lawn needed mowing, I learned only that KERS stands for kinetic energy blah blah and DRS is drag reduction something. Petrol heads will no doubt revel in this technical jargon but the average viewer/spectator must surely be completely lost, even when explained by DC.

MEDIA-OCRITY

Sportsmen, a few of them anyway, turn to media when their active days are numbered. They do this in order to earn a bob or two, having hated pokey reporters for most of their previous lives. Not many are very good at it and opportunities in motorbike sport are few and far between.

We have mentioned the likes of Steve Parrish and Jim Whitham here before but there may be a new contender on the horizon. His racing days are not yet finished, although his leg still looks in pretty poor shape following the Silverstone accident last year, but Ian Hutchinson made a pretty good job in the commentary box at the North West 200.

Mind you, Parrish and co needed all the help they could get as, apart from one race, they spent all day talking about nothing. No change there, you might say, but it is a bit more difficult than non-participants understand.

So, well done Hutchy. Don't give up the day job yet but you never know.

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