2011-01-15 Sat - Redbull Minidrome

They didn't put padding around the whole track because most people who fall off on a track fall into it...

If you watch the video the directions say for you to stay on the red line. If you stay on the red line and trust the track... you can lean into the corners and go as fast as you like.

When you watch Chris Akrig in the race that he ran over the other rider, he was going super fast and staying close to the red line whilst the other rider was going fast but battling to stay in.

I could have ran a 49 x 13 gearing and it would have been fine.

The key to it all is how long can you concentrate for?!

Andy, as a skilled rider, with many hours practice on the minidrome, I'm sure you could have run 49 x 13 and it would have been fine (although you would have been overgeared even on a regulation 250m track).

You say that the likelihood was that most people would fall into the track rather than out of it, but there was always a chance that people would go up too high on the banking, for a variety of reasons. While this was much less likely (did 2 out of 105 people do it?), the consequences of someone doing this are potentially much worse than the alternative.

Just because an instructional video says to stay on the red line doesn't mean that A) people will have watched the video, B) that people will be able to physically follow the red line, and C) feel confident enough to follow the red line.

My point is, don't forget that other riders aren't as good as you, and if there is slim possibility for something to go wrong, it could well happen. Padding round the banking would be good (or just a track fence), and also the booth with the laptops should have been further away. And maybe the lapboard could have been suspended from the ceiling, rather that on a stand in the centre.

/killjoyhealthandsafetynazi

I thought it was a fun event by the way