mosport - pit bike?
- Thread starter fugue
- Start date
N3WMAN
Well-known member
Regular gestapo. Couple years back I had a lady, representing the track in some capacity, come and give me **** for riding my ZX-6R across the field instead of using the gravel road. Later she came back and said it was ok after watching 100+ BMW's do it lol
sempre1
Well-known member
If you don't bring with you the ownership they could give you hard time, it happened to me years ago, my bike had no ownership and i wasn't aloud to use it.
Outside the paddock, on-road plates only. Inside the paddock, no plates required but operator must be 16+ with a driver's license.
Excess speed or stunting anywhere will result in them inviting your bike to an impound enclosure for the rest of your stay at the track. If you object, the rest of your stay will be very, very short.
The area outside the paddock is all public viewing and camping. By insisting on driver and vehicle street-licensing and a current sticker with current insurance, you effectively reduce and even remove the potential for spectators to bring their field cars and 4x4s, Razrs, full-on motocross bikes etc to "play" in those areas, and you also limit the number of 10-year olds being given driving lessons by their dads amidst all the other public there. Both of these used to be a big problem. Operators and spectators have been badly injured by such things, including a number of incidents of vehicles crashing into tents in the night. I think there was also one death in there from that many years where a dirt bike went through a tent, and I have video of a 4x4 crashing through a tent in the daytime.
That problem has gone away with the licensing requirements. Should a collision happen with what's left, insisting on street-licensed vehicle with current sticker and insurance reduces the track's liability exposure. They can point to the off-road vehicle ban as taking measures to stop potentially dangerous vehicle use in spectator areas, and enforcement as performing due diligence to maintain safety.
For any collisions and/or injuries that do still occur, the involved currently-licensed, stickered, and insured vehicle owner's insurance would end up being the first point of claim. Current sticker implies current insurance. Green plates are different. They are forever, and there is no government oversight of continuing insurance coverage on green-plated vehicles. That, and green-plated vehicles too easily fall into the "play" category and encourage play, and the race track spectator areas are not a place to play with off-road vehicles.
The paddock area is a different animal. The expectations of a safe environment there are tempered with the realities of that area being a working part of the race event. Crew and drivers are supposed to sign in as participants, and that places them under the event insurance whether they have driver's and vehicle licenses or not.
The track still has to exercise due diligence though, and that is why they impose restrictions on operator age restrictions and operation conduct restrictions in the paddock. An under-16 or older unlicensed operator isn't permitted to operate a motorized vehicle in the paddock unless they are a competitor doing so as part of their session. Recreational riding or driving in the paddock by them is a no. The paddock can already be a congested-enough place, and there really is no place for recreational riding or driving in a paddock, especially by under-age children.
Distances at Mosport are not that long. The track encourages walking, bicycles, and on bigger events they provide shuttles.
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Essentially, yes, for race-related support use. If you're as a participant are just recreational riding in the paddock, Mosport staff can still ask you to park it except as needed specifically for your track sessions. Their place, their rules, and as in everything else in life, the few irresponsible and/or reckless (or in Mosport's case "the many") ruin it for the responsible ones.
As far as dirt bikes go, I have seen them shut down full-on, barely-muffled two-stroke dirt bikes as being inappropriate for the pits and paddock. Again, their place, their rules. Having seen the zoo the place used to be in past, I can't really blame them. The place is a lot more civilized and kid-safe these days.
