[husker boxster]

Tom - interesting points in your 2nd post. But let's think about the various scenarios around the placement of the sandbags...

1. Assume LS didn't bother to put the sandbags up at all. There would be some wicked gullies that would either need to be addressed after every rain or left for the drivers to contend with at ea. event. Obviously LS would not want to be doing constant landscape grooming, so it makes sense to have the sandbags during rainy season. BTW, it looked like the runoff area was relatively smooth up to the 1st sandbag in the video.

2. Should LS have removed them for this event? How long is their rainy season? They couldn't be expected to know when the rainy season was over. Not sure when this event was held but it obviously was during the rainy season. Should they be expected to remove & replace for each winter event? R&Ring the sandbags for every event would cost $$$ and would have to be passed on to the consumers. And what happens if it rains during an event? Do they put the sandbags out or let the dirt run onto the track and create gullies along the side of the track, or cancel the event because the track is unsafe?

3. The organizers should have seen the sangbags during track inspection and requested LS have them removed before the event took place. Can you imagine the delay this would have caused? I imagine there would be sandbags over in T8 and T9 areas that would need removing too. That could have wiped out 2 hrs of the morning. Then what happens if it rains?

Bottom line is it isn't unreasonable to have the sandbags there. If the rider was freaked out with them, he certainly could have backed off in the areas where there were sandbags. He chose to drive fast thru those areas.

Someone in our club rented our local track during the off season a yr ago. Pit out spits you onto the beginning of the main straight, which is followed by a fairly slow 90 deg turn. On my 1st lap, I was barrolling down the straight and suddenly noticed the brake signs were removed. I realized it after my normal brake zone so I blew hitting the apex but made the corner. The next several laps were used to find visual spots on the track or nearby to locate brake zones. You learn and adapt.

I've driven at Laguna Seca, Kansas Speedway, COTA, and Indy. All of those tracks are fairly wide open when it comes to runoff areas. Several of my club buddies like to go up to Road America for a mid-week 2-day DE in June. I've watched videos from there and it's an old school track with barriers not far off the track. Basically if you go off, you're going to crash. While the track looks like a lot of fun and has some high speed sections, I've chosen not to run there because of the smaller margin for error. The closest I've ever come to having an "off" is running over the water grate inside of T8 at Laguna, but I factor safety into my decisions on where I run. No one is holding a gun to my head saying I have to participate. The same applies to the motorcycle driver.

It will be a shame if this lawsuit ruins track day events. I guess it was a matter of time before someone was able to poke holes in the signed waiver. Personal responsibility is long gone.