Laguna Seca blows up all to hell 6/12/20

Johndicezx9

Johndicezx9

Rolls with it...
Man, this new group is off to a rocky start... but hey, the MoCo supervisors have all the faith in the world in him. :facepalm
 
Butch

Butch

poseur
Staff member
This is the first I have heard of an unsurprising turn of events. I’ll look if there is another thread and maybe use mod powers. Or not.

Those of us who have had the pleasure of doing laps around the course are lucky. Heck, I even skateboarded most the track.
 
Last edited:
Snaggy

Snaggy

Well-known member
By LSVA volunteers, I assume that means USARM is defunct? They had some money problems a few years ago. I’m guessing the new operators didn’t offer enough money to run events. Costs a lot of money to get workers, pay them, feed and water them and the rest. Must be pretty bad because USARM had a hard core of people like Jan Kaufman with a lot of experience, and love for that track.
 
Last edited:
budman

budman

General Menace
Staff member
It is a bummer, but having to provide their own insurance besides fuel to get there.. give up the time for water and lunch? (not sure if there are other benefits)

I volunteer to kick that Narigi dude in the eggs. :kicknuts
 
NorCalBusa

NorCalBusa

Member #294
Agreed. I find the lack of Workers Comp coverage to be a non-starter for any sensible person. That said, as a kid just out of high school- I did the SCCA thing at Laguna and Sears as a firefighter. Young meet foolish.

Hint: that's when both tracks had fewer turns
 
Snaggy

Snaggy

Well-known member
NorCalBusa said:
Agreed. I find the lack of Workers Comp coverage to be a non-starter for any sensible person. That said, as a kid just out of high school- I did the SCCA thing at Laguna and Sears as a firefighter. Young meet foolish.

Hint: that's when both tracks had fewer turns
Click to expand...

Oh yeah. There was a corner worker who picked up a bike at MotoGP maybe 10 years ago. He ruptured his distal biceps tendon. That meant an operation and months of very limited ability to move his elbow. He was a surgical scrub tech, couldn't do it for months.
 
Last edited:
DataDan

DataDan

Mama says he's bona fide
NorCalBusa said:
Agreed. I find the lack of Workers Comp coverage to be a non-starter for any sensible person. That said, as a kid just out of high school- I did the SCCA thing at Laguna and Sears as a firefighter. Young meet foolish.
Click to expand...
Same. Only it was Riverside and other venues, some temporary (like Santa Barbara Airport), and it was California Sports Car Club, the So Cal SCCA region.

A big difference at that time and place is that it wasn't an employer/employee relationship. It was club members putting on a race. Some were racecar drivers; most of the rest of us aspired to be, but weren't. We were stewards, turn marshals, timing & scoring, flaggers, grid marshals, firefighters, the people who got you to sign your "abandon all hope" waiver and handed you a go-anywhere pass, and the people who went around handing out brown-bag lunches.

We didn't expect to get paid because it was fun. We got the brown-bag lunch, a big BBQ and beer after, and a little event commemorative plaque you could stick on your dashboard. Oh. And we got the best seats in the house. Not saying much for a regional club race, but a BFD for Trans-Am, Can-Am, NASCAR, and USAC.

There's no comparing today's SCRAMP to that experience. It was half a century ago and an atmosphere more like today's AFM.
 
Holeshot

Holeshot

Super Moderator
Staff member
Snaggy said:
Oh yeah. There was a corner worker who picked up a bike at MotoGP maybe 10 years ago. He ruptured his distal biceps tendon. That meant an operation and months of very limited ability to move his elbow. He was a surgical scrub tech, couldn't do it for months.
Click to expand...

The electric race vehicles likely propose the largest danger to workers. That and impact zones.
 
Snaggy

Snaggy

Well-known member
Holeshot said:
The electric race vehicles likely propose the largest danger to workers. That and impact zones.
Click to expand...

Are they a fire danger? Standard corner station red fire extinguisher probably wouldn't cut it I'd guess. Batteries really heavy?

I saw maybe the first electric race at Sonoma, something like 13 years ago, from the station between Turn 8 and the Turn 6 exit. Half the bikes didn't finish and the last laps were a lot slower than the first. No crashes though.

The worker I mentioned at MotoGP had to sell his AFM pony after his injury, and never raced again.
 
Holeshot

Holeshot

Super Moderator
Staff member
Chemical fire and Electrocution were the two that were stressed. Handlers had special gloves and extinguishers when Brammo and Zero came out to race with us.

Bummer on the worker's injury. That stuff sucks to read about.
 
NorCalBusa

NorCalBusa

Member #294
So this topic went dark pretty quickly with COVID going apeshit. I haven't seen anything in the news or heard about developments- anyone know if/how it (Laguna's issues with workers, county, SCRAMP and about everyone else) resolved? I saw someone post they owe DORNA a couple million. If the track is dark, be a good time to resurface and make major improvements as needed- but someone has to have the cash (County?)...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top