‘Birds can happen, Wallabies cannot!’ - Wildlife hazards for MotoGP and WorldSBK at Phillip Island
Fortunately, it was the circuit’s geese that caused today’s brief WorldSBK interruption, rather than one of the wallabies, which 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Aleix Espargaro came frighteningly close to striking at highspeed duওring the MotoGP weeke🦂nd.
One of the less common reasons for a red flag
— WorldSBK (@WorldSBK)
While Phillip Island certainly isn’t alone in having bird scares, so꧟me MotoGP riders requested that more be done to stop a potentially disastrous impact with the much larger Wallabies.
A close call for the Wallaby and !
— MotoGP (@MotoGP)
“At the beginning, everybody was laughing [about the near miss with the Wallaby], I mean I understand it could be fun,” Espargaro said. “But in the Safety Commission, they also understood it was a very, very imp🐎ortant thing in terms of safety.
“If I hit the wallaby, I was doing 220k per hour. A big, big, bꦛig crash. For me it’s unacceptable. It was very dangerous.
“We asked for them to improve, to close 🐎off the track a bit be൲tter.
“For the birds, you can’t do anything, and we also hജave birds in other places. I mean, the 𒊎birds can happen, but wallabies cannot.”
One of the most memorable Phillip Island bird strikes occurred when Andrea Iannone headbutted a seagull while leading the 2015 race - prompting mahbx.com podcast pu𝄹ndit Keith Huewen’s famous “He’s nutted it!” reaction on&🐼nbsp;the TV commentary:
But Australian Jack Miller felt there was little that can be done to limit the wildlife given t✤he rural nature of the seaside circuit, which also includes a lak🗹e.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s♔ very dangerous to hav꧟e Kangaroos hopping around in the middle of the racetrack when you’re doing 350kph,” Miller said.
“But like I said in the Safety Commission, that [Wallaby] definitely didn’t just waltz in. I’d say it was burrowed in somewhere. Even the Moto3 machines didn’t wake it up,𒁃 but these bloody 300hp MotoGP things did and they were out!
“At the end of the day, you have a track in su🥃ch an iconic location and you’re always goin🦹g to have an issue in Australia with wildlife, whether it’s seagulls, geese or whatever.
“What are we going to do? Stampꦇ out the whole Island? Like I said, it’s not nice but everyone knows in ♉Australia there’s wildlife. Just drive down one of the highways here and you see the amount of roadkill on the side of the road.
“There’s a lot more animals than people here. But tha🎐t’s a part of it.”
One course of action that both Espargaro and﷽ Miller agreed needs to be taken is a resurfacing of the track.
“For sure, surface-wise, she’s beenﷺ on there for about ten years and she’🍌s starting to get pretty used,” said Miller. “Just bumps. Not so much on the racing line but as soon as you go off, you’ve seen guys go wide at turn 1 or turn 8, they manage to hit the deck. It’s at that point now where she’s probably due a freshen up.”
“All the riders love this track,” said Espargaro. “We love this place. It’s very, very high adrenaline to ride𒊎 here, but without any doubt it’s the most dangerous circuit of the calendar for many reasons.
“Because it's very bum✤py. Grip is very low now. Now the bikes are super, super fast, super good. I mean a lot b🍌etter than ten years ago, but we just dropped one tenth below a lap record from ten years ago. So I think this is a good example [of why it’s needed].
“So ♏we need new asphalt💜 and they need to take more care about the animals.”
The Phillip Island WorldSBK 🌳round, which traditionally opens the world championships but has been moved to the 2023 finale due to covid restrictions at the start of the year, continues on Saturday and Sunday.
Peter has been in the 𝄹paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Ro✨ssi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
