Assen to be defaced

[chunder]

Just turned on the Eurosport Assen coverage to watch a bit of qually only to be told that the track has been faffed about with again, that great chicane that Xaus and otehrs were vaulting over where the fastest corner in the world was before has been tightened into a Tilke special second gear flop.
And worse of all the whole beginning of the lap, where Doohan crashed, those rgeat sweepers and a few other corners are to be bulldozed to make way for, wait for it...a hotel and car park!
For goodness sake is nothing sacred, they are destrying the character of one of the worlds greatest racing circuits, and for what! Suerly Assen dont need the money, they are packed out every year and the thing must have paid itself back handsomely
Does anyone out there know if this has been forced upon them by Dorna or the FIM or are they thinking that changing the character of the track and destrying one of the last great challenges is a good thing.
EVERY sinlge rider spoken to hates the idea apparently
Fair play to you Aussies, at least you bloody well leave your great tracks alone.
Beware the Tilke, comeing to a country near you to desgin a tepid race track under orders of the commercial powers at play in racing!

[Gerben24]

Originally Posted by chunder

where the fastest corner in the world was before has been tightened into a Tilke special second gear flop.

They had to get rid of this fast corner because they had to build a bigger paddock. I believe it was Dorna insisting on this (I'm not completely sure though). Then they build those left-right-left-right-left combination before the stekkenwal (90 degrees bend to the right). But last year during the superstocks, a support race for WSB a very young Italian rider on a R1 crashed in this left right combination. He ended up getting on the track again and somebody rode over him, which killed him. That's why you've got that 2nd gear st corner now.

Originally Posted by chunder

And worse of all the whole beginning of the lap, where Doohan crashed, those rgeat sweepers and a few other corners are to be bulldozed to make way for, wait for it...a hotel and car park!

I think this is one of the best parts of the track, especially as a spectator. I think it's totally unacceptable...

Originally Posted by chunder

For goodness sake is nothing sacred, they are destrying the character of one of the worlds greatest racing circuits, and for what! Suerly Assen dont need the money, they are packed out every year and the thing must have paid itself back handsomely

Believe it or not, Assen is the only circuit on the MOTGP calender that has seen ticket sales drop since the beginning of the 4stroke era. There are a lot of people that agree with you. They have made a lot of changes to the circuit, but it has not become any better for the public. After the races, there is no police controlling the traffic etc. So, it's not uncommon to be standing in a traffic jam, in the car park, for 6 hours (trust me, I've been there). The accessibility has been become very bad as well. you used to be able to walk around the circuit. Nowadays only a third of the circuit is accessible. If you wanna go to the other parts, you have to walk out of the circuit and go through a different entrance. There is more, but I won't bore you with that.

Originally Posted by chunder

Beware the Tilke, comeing to a country near you to desgin a tepid race track under orders of the commercial powers at play in racing!

I totally agree with you. This guy has been listening to a certain Mr. Ecclestone to much. The accomodations around the track have become more important than the track itself. To many tracks have become this long-straight-followed-by-hairpin kind of circuits. Why can't they build more tracks like Spa, Suzuka, Philip Island ?

[Alex Hodgkinson]

Yes this really is awful, I saw it a few weeks ago on a certain website...

[Raglanparade]

Im sorry, that new track is a disgrace.

[Schummy]

This sort of "progress" is what makes seeing old videos of bike racing and car racing so shocking in terms of the beauty of the old tracks and atmosphere in general.

Safety doesn't have to be necesarily compromised by old layouts, it is just fast money that makes all those awful changes.

Yes, I hate all those flat, CAD/CAM circuits of nowadays

[f1manoz]

It's a bloody outrage!

[Hazza]

If anyone has a MotoGP.com account they should check out the Assen video of 1993.

When men where men, and cows grazed in the Assen infield.

[hobophobic]

I cant beleive its going to be changed! are all the race series in the world going to be hosted on some generic "modern" track soon? seems only the yanks have any good circuits left ( except laguna which sucks imho).

[Knowlesy]

Will be interesting to see the calendar in twenty years time, when all great tracks have been wiped from the calendar or defaced.

We need circuits like Assen to remind us, to a greater extent than normal, why we admire these guys so much.

I personally can't understand why anyone would want to do this, it's outrageous.

[chunder]

I think money talks but it is interesting t nte the earlier post that says interest is waning, I wonder if that is because the real fans are not interested in the queuing and poor treatment they get and the circuit is filling up with F1 type yuppie fans!
Sadly there is very little we can do about this sort of thing, the circuit people dont give a dan about the fans and never have, you only have to look at that disgraceful Silverstone chicane to see that, that is the biggest abomination of a corner I have ever seen, nearly rivalled recently by the hideous thing they put in at Cadwell. Oh and tlaking of Cadwell, who decided that we couldnt sit on the grass at the bottom of the mountain left anymore and we all have to stand on the clay path at the top, it was amazing watching the guys come into the bottom there shifting down, almost like being on a road track, thanks mr Palmer

[marcush.]

and now the mega shock:the same Mr Tilke is a regular competitor in the VLN championship in germany ,running exclusively on the Nordschleife....... what can you say?

[robert77]

Yep, I have to say I agree with every comment made so far on this thread.
Assen is one of, if the greatest road racers circuits in the world and people have to come along and carve it up is beyond me.
I'm a bike marshal and to see ciruits like Assen defaced like this is a total abomanation and a total disrespect of riders skill and ability such as that of the MotoGP riders.