Several times over the first two days of the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca the discussion between reporters and MotoGP racers has turned to safety at the Monterey, California track, and the issue of safety has been raised by riders more than by the reporters. “I remember it being a lot bigger, a lot wider and everything,” Repsol Honda’s Nicky Hayden said in the pre-event press conference Thursday. “I used to come here and think how big Laguna was, a lot of run-off, but after being in Europe for a couple of years, I realize the track’s a little tighter than it was on my 600 going up that hill in the back. Yeah, on a MotoGP bike it’s going to be pretty gnarly, no doubt.” “When you go to Europe you get spoiled,” Gauloises Yamaha’s Colin Edwards said Thursday. “You can push everywhere. Every corner is perfectly safe and fine. When you’re in Europe long enough and then you come back to a racetrack like this and you look at it like, Nicky said, ‘Wow! It used to be huge.’ But because everything is so much bigger in Europe, this one feels tight and narrow.” After the first, nearly-two-hour MotoGP Practice Friday morning, more opinions about the track started to come out. “Compared to 11 years ago this track is much safer,” said Camel Honda’s Alex Barros, who raced in previous Grands Prix at Laguna Seca. “They’ve done a good job in improving the safety,” said Camel Honda’s Troy Bayliss. “They’ve moved several walls and the impression it gives is that overall it is much safer. It’s still a hard track though, where you have to be very aware, but it’s a track I really like, also.” “This circuit isn’t so easy with all this horsepower, but it’s a lot of fun,” said Marlboro Ducati’s Carlos Checa. “So it doesn’t seem dangerous, just quite difficult at a few points.” “This track is really nice, but it’s not suitable for MotoGP bike,” said Checa’s teammate Loris Capirossi, a member of the MotoGP Safety Commission. “There are too many dangerous areas.” “This track is pretty dangerous in many points, but there are some places where it’s very, very dangerous it’s an ‘old style’ track,” Valentino Rossi was quoted as saying. “When you’re walking around it or going around it on a scooter, it’s actually even more dangerous than when you’re on the motorbike, when it feels safer! The level of security is not very good, it’s not as good as the other tracks we race at. If we don’t make some changes to this track for the future we might not be able to race here again. However, today we will have a meeting with all the riders to speak about the problems. I never saw this track before, but Kenny Roberts saw it and obviously thought it was safe enough.”