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I saw this on the NEAR group thought i would share it.
Don never said ALL HJC's are excluded, and never meant that. He specifically talked about their low-priced line(s), and noted that he contacted their distributor, who pointed out they are *specifically* precluded from being used for competition.
As Micky's post points out, this is not as "knee jerk" a reaction as some would think: The negative history against low-priced HJC's has been building. (They were discussed at the meeting I attended in January.) At the risk of putting words into Don and Jerry's mouths, the final straw happened (a) at the first event of the year, (b) when Jerry was in the middle of moving to Florida, (c) Don was dealing with major computer problems, (caused, ultimately, by the flood at the track last October) and (d) within two weeks time of another event.
***I have asked for clarification on what helmets will be legal *** ... like you, I'm waiting to find out, but feel confident in choosing the model Ted Temple went to after he got hurt.
We're all aware of how statistics lie ... Jerry and Don no less than any of us. But they have access to more information than we do about the specific incidents at LRRS, (and may have talked with other safety directors around the country) and they have many more years of experience in general, but in specific about dangerous helmets.
* They are not trying to force us to buy a specific model/brand.
* They are not trying to bump up helmet sales for track/online vendors.
* They do not have a grudge against a particular manufacturer.
They simply don't want US to get hurt.
They decided to ACT, and not to wait until another rider is hurt.
They didn't pick when the straw would fall.
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Two quick asides, relevant to this post:
* Don wrote NEAR saying the April results wouldn't get posted online until he could get back to fix the computers. Since nobody else has, I'd like to thank him and whomever else worked on it for getting them up over this weekend ... just as he said he would. This Saturday's results are also up.
* He also mentioned that LRRS will go to on-line registration. I didn't catch when ... frankly, it wasn't important to me.
Now, before every "detractor" goes spouting off about how they suggested it 2,3, or even more years ago, I'll point out that I started ranting -- yeah, ranting -- against LRRS management almost 9 years ago when the first NEAR-list came online. I didn't/don't claim to be the first. I have continued to push for it all along.
The difference (from me and those who no longer race at LRRS but feel it's appropriate to post to every penny-ante website under the sun just how badly LRRS is managed) is that I got involved in the process. I listened to what the management had to say, and while I didn't necessarily agree with their opinions, on the whole the explanations were defendable.
If YOU would like to become more involved in what is going on LRRS, talk to them ... they welcome it. Don's contact info is pretty much right in the middle of the homepage. In the past, when he's made themselves available at specific times at the track, people rarely IF EVER show up. (One summer, NO ONE showed up.) Instead, people choose to write rants.
Work together, not as adversaries.
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If you are wearing a cheap HJC, you have some (admittedly limited) information with which to make a decision on a new helmet. If that's not enough, chill out and wait for more ... as Don noted, it is coming.
This is not a bad thing, just a new thing, and I offer this analogy: If a side cover shows a propensity for splitting open and oiling the track, we ban it. A few riders are upset, but eventually accept it as a cost of racing.
Everyone else is happy. Or could care less.
The circumstances of this ruling are EXACTLY the same, except that it affects more riders. But even if it affected every one of us, I still maintain it should be done.
So stop second-guessing the people who have seen too many friends and good riders get thrown for a loop. This is a tough situation to address ... but would you really rather they NOT? Threats to quit racing because of new safety mandates do not help. They didn't help when leathers were required, or when single-piece (or zippered) suits were required, or when helmets had to be full-faced, or bikes had to be safety-wired, or catch-bottles had to be mounted, or medical forms had to be on file, etc, etc.
This is an organic, ever-changing process, and it's not always seamless.
B.J. Worsham
Originally Posted by bergs
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