How many people crash on track days?
Discussion
Anyone on here actually involved or have been involved in running track days and know the percentage of people that crash per track day?
My guess - based on the ones I have been to - would be about 5% (if you have around 100 attending then 5 crashes - one in three sessions - sounds about right). That is just a guess.
My guess - based on the ones I have been to - would be about 5% (if you have around 100 attending then 5 crashes - one in three sessions - sounds about right). That is just a guess.
As above, every TD is different.
To try and put this into perspective, I only do Euro TD's these days and last year did Estoril and Portimao back to back (3 days at each). Estoril there we probably 4-5 crashes over the 3 days, Portimao there were at least 4-5 by lunchtime on the first day!!
There were only a handful from Estoril that did Portimao also, so a different group of people in the main with different outcomes.
To try and put this into perspective, I only do Euro TD's these days and last year did Estoril and Portimao back to back (3 days at each). Estoril there we probably 4-5 crashes over the 3 days, Portimao there were at least 4-5 by lunchtime on the first day!!
There were only a handful from Estoril that did Portimao also, so a different group of people in the main with different outcomes.
There's a million variables in that question.
In my opinion as someone that works at trackdays, I'd say the main drivers for more crashes are :
1) Weekend dates : People that don't normally do trackdays ride at weekends, and end up crashing as they get a bit overkeen. Weekend trackdays are always really busy too, which doesn't help
2) Early Season dates : First time on track after maybe 6 months off for many people. You'd be surprised how many bikes I've seen that don't look like they've been touched since the summer before, and things like levers going to the bars or under inflated tyres are way more common than you'd hope.
3) Trackdays before race weekends : More racers mixing it with trackdayers - Trackdayer gets spooked at a closer overtake, or tries to follow a faster racer. Racers forget they're using it as a test day and crash racing their mates
4) Drying track - Everyone goes out thinking the track is dry, but there's still wet patches. Normally the crashes can be avoided, but a lot of people get spooked and grab a load of front brake
5) GSXR days : I've been at a couple of these, and the typical GSXR owners (you know, the ones that wear hoodies over their leathers) tend to ride like dicks
In my opinion as someone that works at trackdays, I'd say the main drivers for more crashes are :
1) Weekend dates : People that don't normally do trackdays ride at weekends, and end up crashing as they get a bit overkeen. Weekend trackdays are always really busy too, which doesn't help
2) Early Season dates : First time on track after maybe 6 months off for many people. You'd be surprised how many bikes I've seen that don't look like they've been touched since the summer before, and things like levers going to the bars or under inflated tyres are way more common than you'd hope.
3) Trackdays before race weekends : More racers mixing it with trackdayers - Trackdayer gets spooked at a closer overtake, or tries to follow a faster racer. Racers forget they're using it as a test day and crash racing their mates
4) Drying track - Everyone goes out thinking the track is dry, but there's still wet patches. Normally the crashes can be avoided, but a lot of people get spooked and grab a load of front brake
5) GSXR days : I've been at a couple of these, and the typical GSXR owners (you know, the ones that wear hoodies over their leathers) tend to ride like dicks
graeme4130 said:
4) Drying track - Everyone goes out thinking the track is dry, but there's still wet patches. Normally the crashes can be avoided, but a lot of people get spooked and grab a load of front brake
Ha ha ha, laughed at that as that covered about 95% of the crashes at the recent NL Parcmotor trip, including one of my mates who decided to breakdance in front of me at the hairpin !!!graeme4130 said:
There's a million variables in that question.
In my opinion as someone that works at trackdays, I'd say the main drivers for more crashes are :
5) GSXR days : I've been at a couple of these, and the typical GSXR owners (you know, the ones that wear hoodies over their leathers) tend to ride like dicks
ha ha ...my mate will enjoy this :-) In my opinion as someone that works at trackdays, I'd say the main drivers for more crashes are :
5) GSXR days : I've been at a couple of these, and the typical GSXR owners (you know, the ones that wear hoodies over their leathers) tend to ride like dicks
we had 4 days in jerez ...and had a great few days ... with only one lad on an apillia coming off and got a bit hurt ... a few others (including my mate on his gsxr) did end up going into the kitty litter with brake issues (missed the braking point or boiled the fluid)
was low in numbers tho which helped
graeme4130 said:
There's a million variables in that question.
In my opinion as someone that works at trackdays, I'd say the main drivers for more crashes are :
5) GSXR days : I've been at a couple of these, and the typical GSXR owners (you know, the ones that wear hoodies over their leathers) tend to ride like dicks
Ah...explains why I crashed. Was riding a GSXR...In my opinion as someone that works at trackdays, I'd say the main drivers for more crashes are :
5) GSXR days : I've been at a couple of these, and the typical GSXR owners (you know, the ones that wear hoodies over their leathers) tend to ride like dicks
Freakuk said:
As above, every TD is different.
To try and put this into perspective, I only do Euro TD's these days and last year did Estoril and Portimao back to back (3 days at each). Estoril there we probably 4-5 crashes over the 3 days, Portimao there were at least 4-5 by lunchtime on the first day!!
There were only a handful from Estoril that did Portimao also, so a different group of people in the main with different outcomes.
I was on the same event and did both as well. As you say, hardly any red flags at Estoril whereas Portimao was an absolute crash fest. It was so bad the instructor got everyone out in the pit lane at lunchtime on the first day to ask what the hell was going on! I've never had that on a Euro trip before.To try and put this into perspective, I only do Euro TD's these days and last year did Estoril and Portimao back to back (3 days at each). Estoril there we probably 4-5 crashes over the 3 days, Portimao there were at least 4-5 by lunchtime on the first day!!
There were only a handful from Estoril that did Portimao also, so a different group of people in the main with different outcomes.
Most of the offs I saw were from a group of young guys from London, innit bruv etc etc....
When I was last at Oulton I was talking to a Marshall who said last year they had the air ambulance out every other track day. So I would guess a lot.
It seems to me like there is an ever growing group of people who don’t take it seriously enough. Probably the relentless fleece wearing lot mentioned above. They turn up on shagged old bikes, not prepared themselves very well and don’t realise it will hurt when they crash. The same people also like to do stupid things like to rev their bikes like a 2 stroke at 7am to warm them up despite not going out for 2 hours. My particular favourite is the people that warm their bikes up with all the garage doors shut and don’t understand why the marshalls then go round opening the doors.
It seems to me like there is an ever growing group of people who don’t take it seriously enough. Probably the relentless fleece wearing lot mentioned above. They turn up on shagged old bikes, not prepared themselves very well and don’t realise it will hurt when they crash. The same people also like to do stupid things like to rev their bikes like a 2 stroke at 7am to warm them up despite not going out for 2 hours. My particular favourite is the people that warm their bikes up with all the garage doors shut and don’t understand why the marshalls then go round opening the doors.
SAS Tom said:
When I was last at Oulton I was talking to a Marshall who said last year they had the air ambulance out every other track day. So I would guess a lot.
It seems to me like there is an ever growing group of people who don’t take it seriously enough. Probably the relentless fleece wearing lot mentioned above. They turn up on shagged old bikes, not prepared themselves very well and don’t realise it will hurt when they crash. The same people also like to do stupid things like to rev their bikes like a 2 stroke at 7am to warm them up despite not going out for 2 hours. My particular favourite is the people that warm their bikes up with all the garage doors shut and don’t understand why the marshalls then go round opening the doors.
Braaaaaaaap Braaaaaaaap, Brooooooooom Brooooooooom, Zooooooooooom, Screeeeeeeeetch, Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh, Ooooooooooooof, Oooooooooooouch ....It seems to me like there is an ever growing group of people who don’t take it seriously enough. Probably the relentless fleece wearing lot mentioned above. They turn up on shagged old bikes, not prepared themselves very well and don’t realise it will hurt when they crash. The same people also like to do stupid things like to rev their bikes like a 2 stroke at 7am to warm them up despite not going out for 2 hours. My particular favourite is the people that warm their bikes up with all the garage doors shut and don’t understand why the marshalls then go round opening the doors.
Soundtrack of their day ....
SAS Tom said:
... the relentless fleece wearing lot mentioned above. They turn up on shagged old bikes, not prepared themselves very well and don’t realise it will hurt when they crash. The same people also like to do stupid things like to rev their bikes like a 2 stroke at 7am to warm them up despite not going out for 2 hours. My particular favourite is the people that warm their bikes up with all the garage doors shut and don’t understand why the marshalls then go round opening the doors.....
Great summary! 
SAS Tom said:
When I was last at Oulton I was talking to a Marshall who said last year they had the air ambulance out every other track day. So I would guess a lot.
It seems to me like there is an ever growing group of people who don’t take it seriously enough. Probably the relentless fleece wearing lot mentioned above. They turn up on shagged old bikes, not prepared themselves very well and don’t realise it will hurt when they crash. The same people also like to do stupid things like to rev their bikes like a 2 stroke at 7am to warm them up despite not going out for 2 hours. My particular favourite is the people that warm their bikes up with all the garage doors shut and don’t understand why the marshalls then go round opening the doors.
Totally agree with the last paragraph. It seems to me like there is an ever growing group of people who don’t take it seriously enough. Probably the relentless fleece wearing lot mentioned above. They turn up on shagged old bikes, not prepared themselves very well and don’t realise it will hurt when they crash. The same people also like to do stupid things like to rev their bikes like a 2 stroke at 7am to warm them up despite not going out for 2 hours. My particular favourite is the people that warm their bikes up with all the garage doors shut and don’t understand why the marshalls then go round opening the doors.
Oulton is a strange one though. The HSE have got a hard on for shutting it down, so the management there are being overly cautious. Every crash is a red flag and the medical car goes to everyone. The Air ambulance is needed for every injury involving neck or back as the local roads are too bumpy for safe transport by road ambulance.
On topic, my thoughts are that people seem to think it’s funny crashing. There are always posts on Facebook about someone having a crash and laughing about it, rather than being embarrassed and keeping their heads down.
Crashes can happen, but the majority of trackday crashes are totally avoidable. I don’t understand why people have to go balls out on lap 1 of the first session after the sighting laps. Building rhythm and lines over the day means speed comes without effort later in the day.
My experience sadly is that there seem to be 5-10 crashes a day across all groups in the U.K. Euro days seem less, but only because the ones who crash on Day 1 are rarely around to do it on Day 2, 3 or 4
SAS Tom said:
When I was last at Oulton I was talking to a Marshall who said last year they had the air ambulance out every other track day. So I would guess a lot.
It seems to me like there is an ever growing group of people who don’t take it seriously enough. Probably the relentless fleece wearing lot mentioned above. They turn up on shagged old bikes, not prepared themselves very well and don’t realise it will hurt when they crash. The same people also like to do stupid things like to rev their bikes like a 2 stroke at 7am to warm them up despite not going out for 2 hours. My particular favourite is the people that warm their bikes up with all the garage doors shut and don’t understand why the marshalls then go round opening the doors.
Oulton does have a load of red flags, but the reason they regularly have air ambulances is that the nearest hospital is a mission away, and the roads are quite bad around the circuit, so if they suspect any kind of neck injury, they bring out the air ambulance to stop any further jarring in a rough ambulance ride.It seems to me like there is an ever growing group of people who don’t take it seriously enough. Probably the relentless fleece wearing lot mentioned above. They turn up on shagged old bikes, not prepared themselves very well and don’t realise it will hurt when they crash. The same people also like to do stupid things like to rev their bikes like a 2 stroke at 7am to warm them up despite not going out for 2 hours. My particular favourite is the people that warm their bikes up with all the garage doors shut and don’t understand why the marshalls then go round opening the doors.
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