The recent deaths of several bright young stars of the road racing fraternity have raised serious questions over safety in the sport writes Patricia Weston
DAVID JEFFERIES, Richard Britton, Darran Lindsay, Martin Finnegan and Robert Dunlop: the litany of young men lost to the treacherous road racing circuit is long and sad.
While it may seem difficult to accept, there is an inevitable question that falls from the lips of those not familiar with the bike world: 'Should we call time on a sport where very powerful, highly tuned, motorcycles are pitted against mortal man and the unchanging, unforgiving age-old hedges, stonewalls and meandering roads of the Irish countryside?'
To outsiders it seems such a logical course of action when they witness the regular obituaries and sombre news reports.
Or should we endeavour to continue to improve rider safety on the circuit and allow the racing to continue? After all, other motor racing formats have started out with serious fatality rates but have radically reduced their death tolls.
Billy Nutt organised the Ulster GP and North West 200 road races for over 30 years but he was turned against this racing format after witnessing so many deaths.
"I walked behind too many coffins and knew too many wives and families who lost loved ones," he said.
Phil Wain, editor of RealRoadRacing.comadmits that road racing is a dangerous sport with serious risks but he'd never want to see it stopped.
"There are lots of dangerous sports out there. Rock climbing is dangerous but you don't hear of calls for that to be banned. No-one forces the riders to do it - they want to and I don't think they should be deprived of that right," he says.
For Mr Nutt, however,it has claimed far too many lives to be allowed to continue.
"It's time we moved on and changed the whole emphasis of road racing. It's all about speed which is too dangerous for the roads, we should be transferring it to the circuits," he says.
He says the risks involved are highlighted by the ever decreasing number of young people taking up the sport.
"The clubs will tell you there are newcomers joining but these seem to be older men. Young people are not getting involved," he says.
Phil Wain disagrees; he thinks there are plenty of people who want to race.
"There are plenty of people out there who still want to do it and I think it's flourishing, especially in the Republic," he says.
The nature of the sport affords fans a proximity to the action not possible in other sports. Spectators can be as little as a few feet away from the riders as they speed around the public roads.
Phil Wain thinks this closeness makes it a very attractive sport for fans.
"On the circuits fans are miles away. It's not the same as the road racing where fans can get near the riders," he says.
Nutt thinks road racing will never be safe enough for the riders or the spectators.
"Spectator safety is a big problem and health and safety is very much to the fore."
His point was horribly illustrated recently at the Skerries 100 road races in north County Dublin when an elderly spectator was seriously injured when one of the racing bikes crashed.
"I can't see any way to protect spectators except to corral people into safety areas but this would cost too much money and I think part of the attraction for spectators is the danger anyway," he adds.
Mr Wain says organisers do everything in their power to make the spectators at events as safe as possible.
"It is dangerous but you've got to make people aware of the dangers and you have to make it as safe as possible."
"A lot of work has been done in recent years to improve safety. Protective barriers have been erected on the corners and on many courses, the Ulster GP circuit being a prime example, circuit trees and hedges have been removed," he says.
But death looms large within this form of motorsport.Riders will continue to risk their lives for racing.
Mr Wain rationalises his support for such a perilous sport by saying; "It's hard when someone dies but at least they were doing something they loved".
One Internet blogger commenting after a rider and two spectators were killed and two injured following a collision during the senior race at the TT Centenary Races in 2007 said;
"It's sad but both riders and spectators know they risk death when they attend the races."
It's a sentiment that Billy Nutt believes has now been overcome by the growing number of funerals and injuries. In his view, road racing is not worth the cost of lives and heartache for loved ones.