It has been a few days since the tragic death of Shreyas at MMRT in Chennai. Motorsport does not get a lot of attention in India generally, but this is such a sad and frustrating situation that the whole community is discussing it, and searching for some answers.
I don’t have any, and the only reason I’m writing this is to add a tiny drop to the sea of questions being asked of the event organizers and the people in charge for safety of the riders. Pressure and public scrutiny of this sort is the only way we will get some answers and improvements.
There has been a lot of speculation about this incident, and most of it comes from a genuine desire to understand the truth. A very small portion comes from a complete lack of brain cells, such as the comments made by HV Kumar, but the less attention paid to that the better.
Motorcycle racing, especially at the junior levels, has been plagued by deaths over the last few years. A couple of years ago the minimum age limits for the riders were increased, 16 to 18 for Moto3 and Moto2, Red Bull Rookies cup went from 13 to 15, among others. Apart from this however, no significant change has happened, because nobody knows what to do.
As MotoGP has gained popularity, the feeder series across the world have become more crowded and competitive. It is a well known fact in racing that the earlier they start, the more experience they gain, the better they get. This means there are huge numbers of what are essentially kids fighting it out to get on top and move to higher classes of racing.
A genuine argument can be made that kids of 11 and 12 shouldn’t really be risking injury or worse at these hyper competitive events, but the argument is destroyed by reality. There are a large number of parents and their children who are willing to risk it all for the glory and success, and it’s their choice to make.
As someone who watches races a lot, I would not mind at all if the participants were all 18+, even at the Red Bull Rookies level. I would prefer if kids get to be kids for a few years, do their schooling and all, and then decide to fight it out later going 250 kph on motorcycles as adults, if they so desire. However, this is not the world we live in, and this is not the world in which you end up with Marq Marquez or Valentino Rossi or Max Verstappen for that matter.
Isle of Man TT exists in this world, and there’s no greater example of people willing to risk everything for the win.
What I’m trying to say is that this is a very complex situation. Apart from the whole argument about age limits, there a whole lot of other factors that will matter here. What is the state of the MMRT race track? I have heard rumors of it being bumpy and unsafe in places, did that contribute to the crash? How old was the helmet? How well did it fit? Was it certified and tested for racing? How could it possibly come off? Did it come off after he fell off the bike, or did it happen after he got hit by another rider? What level of medical services were available for the racers post crash?
Scrutiny must also be placed on the recent new rules placed on import of helmets in India. It is no secret that it’s due to the lobbying of local helmet manufacturers that the Govt. decided to force foreign brands to undergo extra testing before their helmets can be sold in India. This, obviously, has made them less affordable, and reduced their availability as well tremendously. When the brands used in MotoGP are extremely costly or simply don’t exist in the Indian market, people are forced to go with companies that don’t have the same level of racing experience as Shoei or Arai or AGV. Are those helmets good enough?
This incident requires a proper investigation, and it’s only with consistent negative publicity of this type that it’ll happen. This crash is national news, it needs to go international. As many people have pointed out, Shreyas was not a rookie, he was an experienced warrior even at that young age, this can’t just be called a “racing incident” and forgotten about. It’s upto you and I to make sure that doesn’t happen.