Sorry boys been meaning to reply to this for ages. There's some great ideas and comments and without a doubt something needs to be done to help reduce serious incidents like what happened on Saturday. It's really bad when there are spectators that are attending for the first time and they see something like that happen, it doesn't help the profile of the sport and they probably just think we all have a death wish.

When I started in the UK they had a fantastic system, you needed to attend an ACU sanctioned practice day where your riding skills were assessed, you did a number of practice starts and had to sit a classroom test. This was the only way to get a race license. Following this you took part in 'rookie' only championships for the first year and had to wear an orange vest until you had completed/finished 10 races and could graduate from a novice license.

I appreciate that we wouldn't have enough D graders to run on their own unless 600's and 1000's raced together but obviously had separate point scoring. If we all race together I don't have an issue with where they start on the grid as long as they have been assessed as competent with race starts. If the MA stipulated that new license applicants had to attend a practice day they could run it to make a profit by charging for it and enlisting volunteers to help run it which is what happens in the UK. I would happily volunteer for the day to help assess and mentor new riders if it meant we knew all new racers were competent and therefore less likely to be involved in serious accidents and cause multiple red flags when we are racing! I always thought it strange when I got here that anyone can get themselves a race license, we only have to look at track days to see how many people should NOT be given a license to race!

I think responsibility lies with MA to make sure that new participants are safe and deserving of a license rather than the clubs themselves who have enough on their plates with trying to not make a financial loss and get enough volunteers to be able to race.

Thoughts?