FIRST PERSON/OPINION Shame On You By Ed Sorbo In recent years many new tracks have been built in the U.S. and many old tracks have undergone improvements; all of this costs a lot of money and we are lucky to be racing when it’s happening. I have raced and ridden on 34 different tracks around the world. I have owned a motorcycle shop, racing club, team and school and worked for motorcycle racing clubs and schools. I have owned a go-cart concession and worked for a car racing school. I currently work for a racing magazine and a race team. In short, my life has revolved around racetracks. I feel qualified to critique the people who own and operate racetracks. Good on you for doing the hard stuff: –Daytona: Changing the track so our tires are less likely to come apart and kill us. Making it easier to get into and out of the track. Motivating the security guards to be much nicer now. –Barber: For moving some of the Armco back and planning to move more. –Infineon: For gathering and acting on information from motorcycle racers when making your improvements and for giving the AFM an interest-free loan so they could buy more Airfence. Shame on you for not doing the low-cost stuff: –Daytona: The slippery lines across the entrance of turn one, on pit road and around the top of the banking. Redo them with grippy paint, or make the lines across turn one thinner, or dashed. Sandblast off the unused lines on pit lane. And the Armco on the inside of turn two can be moved back to the outside of pit lane. –Infineon: The lack of a PA system for the pits. –Laguna: Bringing GP races to the U.S. does not give you a pass on everything else. The restrooms in the paddock are pathetic. Last year one of the urinals was broken and overflowing. There was a three-gallon bucket under it. The bucket was overflowing. The drain in the floor is not at the low spot. Picture this, a urinal overflowing with piss into a overflowing three-gallon bucket of piss, leading to a puddle of piss in the middle of the floor. Add to that the backed-up toilets. I opened the windows and I found someone to complain to. This year I opened the windows again and the same urinal was still out of order without an out-of-order sign. Yes the fools who used that urinal are part of the problem too, you know who you are. –Mid Ohio: I drove up to the nice young woman at the gate to the pits with many cases of drinks and many bags of ice wanting to drop it off at my pit. She said she was sorry and please don’t yell at me like the last guy but my boss said no cars can go in the pits without a pass. I can’t get this pass and the boss won’t honor my AMA season parking pass. I was not surprised by this and was ready. I smiled and said thank you as I drove into the pits, unloaded and drove out to park. Someone in a golf cart and a Mid-Ohio shirt found me, I told him the problem and he said he knew and I could tell the boss, I said I could not take the time to go find the boss but if he came to my pit I would explain it to him. In the restrooms I have to step to the side of the toilet in order to close the door, one of the sinks didn’t work until Sunday and only then because I found the guy cleaning and told him, telling a number of people standing around in Mid Ohio shirts was a waste of my time. The pits were a mess, I had to sweep up the dirt behind pit wall. The boss guy parked his car in the middle of the lane behind pit wall so that everyone had to squeeze by to set up, and a Sheriff’s car showed up in the same place latter. The boss guy and the Sheriff were up in the tower doing something. Why couldn’t they park in the pits? Unfortunately I missed them when they came out. The PA is useless in the pits. I could go on and on but you get the picture. This stuff is easy to fix, there is no excuse. –Road Atlanta: Continuing the saga of bad restrooms. Don’t use the portable toilet trailer in the pits, your knees will hit the door when sitting, if you dare to sit, if they have been cleaned. Go up the hill to the old restrooms and use the rocking toilet. I was impressed when the deadly “gravity cavity” was replaced by the turn 10 chicane and the hill on the outside of turn 11 was moved back. I’m sickened by the turnstile that was installed at turn four instead of just moving the dirt hill on the outside of turn four back. Also the dangerous curb on the inside of turn three is still there. –All Tracks: Set up a system using low-power FM radio for the PA! They have it at Willow Springs and it works great. This list is incomplete, just because you are not on it does not mean you can’t do better. I decided to write this opinion piece because of the simple problems at many of our tracks. There is no excuse for dropping the ball on the basic stuff, and this is the responsibility of the track bosses/owners. (Also read “Shame on Us” in the October 2002 issue of Roadracing World for a list of things that we racers need to do better.)