Mladin Says Duhamel’s Crash During Test At Road Atlanta Highlights Need To Improve Run-off Room Before Repaving Tracks
Aug 09, 2007
The 2.5-mile, 12-turn road course at Road Atlanta was recently repaved and is much smoother, has more grip and, as a result, is much faster, according to riders and lap times recorded during a two-day AMA team test at the Braselton, Georgia track August 7-8.
But the increased speeds and a scary crash by Miguel Duhamel into a trackside wall only highlight the fact that more run-off room was needed before improvements were made to the racing surface, according to six-time AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin.
“I didn’t see [Duhamel’s crash], but I saw the marks afterward,” Mladin told Roadracingworld.com Thursday. “I’m not sure how it happened, but that certainly highlights the problem that we have at some of these racetracks, especially that last corner at Atlanta, which is the most dangerous corner in American road racing.”
Mladin was, unofficially, the fastest rider at the recent test with a 1:20.8 on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. Mladin's time was well under Ben Spies’ lap record (1:21.987) and nearly two seconds faster than Mladin’s best lap from the 2006 races (1:22.699), both of which Mladin won.
“The first thing everyone asked after I went on the racetrack was, ‘How’s the surface?’” reported Mladin. “My answer was, ‘I don’t really care about the surface. I would’ve been happy with the old surface if they would’ve spent the money moving the walls.’ And I’ve said that about Mid-Ohio. Everyone used to complain about the surface. Yeah, the surface wasn’t good, but I would have preferred to spend the money moving walls rather than changing the surface.
“The [Road Atlanta] racetrack is a great layout. It’s a beautiful racetrack. [But] the average speed of that racetrack is getting higher and higher and higher, and the racetrack is just getting more dangerous every year we go back there. As we just seen.
“From what I understand, Miguel has a lacerated liver, broken ribs which punctured a lung. If that’s not a typical injury you get from coming to a sudden stop from 120 mph then I don’t know what is. He’s a very, very lucky boy.”
During the repaving process, Road Atlanta did push back walls in its S-turns, but Mladin said that change would have been at the bottom of his list.
“They moved the wall back slightly on inside of Turn Five,” said Mladin, “but if there were six or seven changes that needed to be made that was the last one. It is disappointing.”
Road Atlanta, speaking through AMA Racing Road Race Series Director Keith Kizer last September, stated a change -- specifically for motorcycles -- to Turn 12 was in the works but due to its cost and complexity would have to wait until at least 2008.
http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/...?article=29870
DuHamel Has Severe Internal Injuries
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