Gus Scott

RIP.

I heard yesterday that Gus died in a particularly stupid accident on the
IoM. He hit a marshal who was crossing the road to get to another
incident and both died. There were allegedly no yellow flags leading up
to this. And no blame for an accident he could not have avoided.

Enough of this.

Gus is remembered as an entertaining journalist who was not only funny
to read but admired for having a go at anything including the IoM and
Macau. And being pretty fast at it as well.

 

All deaths at the IOM are particularly stupid.
They happen every year.
This one is no different.

I feel sorry for the friends & families of those that die but all that
ride there know the risks.

If the organisers care they don't show it.

Barry Sheene had the right idea - don't race there!

Bummers

 

How do you feel about people who die mountain climbing? Or caving?
Or racing at a short circuit?

This is very true. No one races there without the very real knowledge
that it could kill them.

What do you expect them to do to show that "they care"?

It's certainly not for everyone. However, for those who want to, it
is an incredible challenge and experience. What would you do - ban it
to protect people from themselves?

Just for info, I was a newcomer at the Manx Grand Prix last year

 

Those sort of "avoidable" accidents always seem somehow worse than a
"normal" crash (c.f. Lee Pullen's death at Spa after hitting a
marshal)

I used to love reading his articles. And he was rock hard too - he
rode at this year's Le Man 24 hour with a broken wrist, only giving up
in the small hours (and leaving his team mates to share the remaining
stints) in the middle of the night.

 

Well all racing is dangerous and racing at the IoM particularly so. If
you have an accident there, in lots of places it will hurt and maybe
kill you. But coming round a corner to find a marshal on your line seems
exceptionally unlucky and avoidable. Especially with no warning flags.

And yes, I do agree with you really. It's time for this stuff to stop.

In a perfect world, there would be a modern race track on the island.
We'd have WSB at the start of the week, MotoGP at the end of the week
and a demonstration parade on the old track in the middle of the week.
Then we could all go over there, have a huge party and we wouldn't have
to lose racers every year.

 

I realise the world moves on, and we don't do bear-baiting or send
boys up chimneys anymore. But nowadays, no-one rides the TT course
unless they want to. Do you really think we should stop all dangerous
sports?

 

No I don't - I raced for 20 years, rested for 18 & am now racing again.
In that time I know of 6 or 7 people that have died road racing in
Australia & how many at GPs/MotoGPs - 4?
But at the IOM every year it's several, either racers/spectators or both.

I know that the local community depends to a great extent on the tourist
& motorcycle enthusiast's pounds for their income but at what cost? -
to me it seems crazy logic.

Bummers

 

They could initiate a public works project to put gravel traps at each
corner. In the meantime they could put out air fence.

Heh heh. Just dreaming.

But why not the air fence?
--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at

Thanks, robots.

 

Go watch the videos. You'll see why not.

 

Not that it makes any difference, but it's very, very rare for racers to
have accidents that end up killing spectators. The spectators are
perfectly able to do that all on their own. The closest comparison is
somewhere like the Nurburgring. Let people ride on the road near or on
the track and outside the racing and some of them will screw up. Hell,
it happens at Daytona too.

The IoM is enormous fun. It's a week long party with good beer. It's a
rush to ride 2/3 of the course as fast as you dare with no speed limits.
And you need to hold your breath for a week. But by organising races we
are to some extent responsible for what happens in them. And I'm no
longer comfortable with the view that the throttle works both ways and
if people want to use the track we should help them and just do our best
to take the rough edges off.

Maybe I'm just turning into my father. He loved racing and worked way
too hard to help organise races. But eventually he had to attend one
inquest too many. And that one was for an amateur marshal who was hit by
a flying car that landed on the marshal's post. And that was that. This
case with Gus Scott feels the same. An amateur marshal who probably
thought they were trying to help, got themselves in the wrong place at
the wrong time. And both they and Gus paid for it.

Damn that feels maudlin and I don't mean it to be. I still love watching
racing. But even on the very safest circuits, motorcycle racers injure,
maim and sometimes kill themselves. I guess it's just the way it is.

 

This is not quite true. At the Manx GP, there is no prize money at
all. At the TT, however, there is, and combined with start money it
can add up to a decent pay day for the riders taking the top
positions.

It is one of *the* great motorcycling festivals. Anyone interested in
bikes and racing should go at least once.

He was. Road racing is a different skill from short cicuit racing.
Comparing them with circuit riders is as foolish as comparing
competition trials riders (have you seen what those guys can do on a
motorcycle?) with GP riders.

 

Pounds Sterling, dear boy, Pounds Sterling!

And it's still worth having. Lead every lap of the Superbike race and
you make £22,000 (approx $40k US).

a full list of prize monies is here :
http://www.iomtt.com/riders/TT_Regs.pdf (pagea 21 to 27)

 

But then it's also seriously expensive to do. You'll end up with at
least 500 miles of race and practice with big portions of that with the
throttle against the stop. The 600s reckon that next year they'll need 2
frames and 4 engines for one top flight rider to do the two 600 races.
They don't take that kindly to spending quite so much time at 15,000 in
top.

Until you watch the video, I don't think you realise just how fast many
of the sections are or how long they hold it wide open. But then the lap
record is now up at about 127mph (125) average for Superbikes and
Superstock 1000s and 122-120Mph for 600ss, 600 superstock

 

The start money for the TT is reckoned to be reasonable, tho I've no
idea what the numbers actually are. I'm sure the wouldn't come close
to meeting the costs of a top team, but a good private rider can come
out ok, so I've been told.