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Night Time Races..

K

Katt

I read a press release about holding races at night under floodlights in Qatar...
They figure that football can be played in a floodlit stadium so why not at a race track?
It seems a bit mental though ... footballers reach speeds of 15km/hr MAX. .... with bikes we're talking 200km/hr plus....
Valentino Rossi, Kenny Roberts and Loris Capirossi will be the ones testing out the floodlit track idea in Qatar.... I think its crazy...
 
They do some 400 races for the tri state championship here under lights I think.... bragging that its probably the only night bike race in the world.
If the track was well lit enough, and by that I mean every square inch of tarmac AND runoff areas, it could make for an interesting spectacle. But, as usual, safety's gotta come first.
 
it could be interesting done under the right conditions. think of the short rally races done at night or the endurance races like Le Mans. as long as everyone would be happy with the safety side of it then why not?
 
I think it would be very tough for riders to adjust with all the shadows. It's not like cars where you are situated inside and above all the shadows. On a bike you are subject to more optical illusions. I would be VERY shocked if they raced under lights.
 
Racing under lights is quite common in the endurance world championsip. But obviously those bikes have lights (though not very powerful).
 
Yeah, not GP. They need to try it with another, less important class first. I'd say the AMA would be a good candidate. Good point about the shadows, Ooost. But surely you've ridden at night, shadows dont have that much effect.
 
Very true, but then again I'm only riding at 70mph tops at night. These guys would be averaging about 150mph.
 
And light travels at nearly two and a half million mph, its not like headlights and floodlights couldn't keep up
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I'm not worried about lights keeping up, I'd be worried about eyesight being able to adjust to different degrees of light at those speeds.
 
but i dont even see the point of racing them at night!? .... i mean if the track is available in the daytime, why not race in then... it would be a hell of alot safer.
is it something to do with the time difference in europe or somethin?
 
If the track was lit like a football stadium, I can't forsee any problems. But I'm not saying there wouldn't be any. Like the track being cold, but not wet... what tyres do ya use?
At Qatar I can see why they would wanna have it at night, the place is too bloody hot
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haha
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geez im stupid ... time difference? ...haha

even if it were lit like a footy stadium there would still be shadows cast wouldnt there?
 
well, its qatar ....

there might be a grain of sand that you cnt see becoz of the shadow...

but still the shadows would screw around with your eyes surely...
 
Maybe, I dunno. theyre going to test it out arent they? If the riders don't think its ok, they wont do it I guess
 
Would love to see it. yeh theres probably some safety issues to be thought of. but i think they could be resolved.

when they testing it out?

worth a try i reckon
 
it would be something cool to see but I have to agree that the riders wouldn't go for it. The shadows would play a huge roll with the riders confidence.
 
i would love to see a night race at this track. with proper lighting it should be no problem with shadows. the heat is a real problem at this track & i think the rider's would welcome it. as long as there's plenty of light. can u imagine if they did decide to run under the light's & in the middle of the race, the power suddenly went out!!!
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I you get lights pointing from opposite directions shadows shouldn't be a problem, just like in a football stadium. Though the electricity bill is going to be fat.
 
And Spectators would be buying less drinks and stuff, but that power thing is a real safety issue, Frosty. How did we overlook that?
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