On Friday, all practice sessions were called off as heavy
cloud cover at Twin Ring Motegi meant the medical helicopters could not be
operated. On the grounds of safety, the helicopters must be operable in order to
cater for any medical emergencies that could arise. This was explained in a
press conference on Friday afternoon.
“We are not prepared to run in these conditions when there
is a risk that a seriously injured rider could not be given correct care,” commented
MotoGP™ Race Director Mike Webb.
“The reason no helicopter is here is that, with the low
cloud, there is a lack of visibility in which it is not safe to fly. The
helicopter has been trying to get permission to fly to the circuit since
Thursday and has even tried to take off and then been told to land again. As
soon as permission was granted that it could be taken off, we would have given
ten minutes’ notice to the teams, but the helicopter was never given permission
to fly.”
For Saturday, heavy rain is expected to fall in the morning
but Race Direction hopes that, by the afternoon, the cloud cover should have
abated which would allow the medical helicopter to operate. Currently situated
five minutes’ flying time from the circuit, should cloud cover in its current
location remain too much, the helicopter will be dissembled, transported to the
racetrack by road and then reassembled. Two medical helicopters must be
available at the circuit at all times, and on Friday time has been spent
analysing the best possible locations for their positioning around the circuit,
in order to avoid the need of taking off or landing amidst any further heavy
cloud cover at the circuit, which is situated on high ground.
In the meantime, Race Direction has developed a number of
contingency plans in order to provide each of the three classes with as much
track time as possible; this could be spread across Saturday and Sunday, half
of Saturday and a full Sunday or a condensed routine of practice, qualifying
and races all on Sunday should Saturday conditions remain too poor. The weather
on Sunday is forecast to be a significant improvement in comparison with the
conditions witnessed so far.
“The length of sessions depends on the weather,” Webb
continues. “I have written up draft schedules for all possibilities tomorrow,
including starting in the afternoon after rain in the morning which could ease
at around two o’clock. It depends around what time the weather conditions will
allow us to run. We will give as much track time as possible to all classes.
Nothing is fixed because it depends on the weather, but I’m aiming at 75
minutes for MotoGP™ and perhaps a little shorter for other classes. Taking into
account the shortage of daylight at the end of the day, we will just run for as
long as possible. We also have a draft schedule for Sunday; we have prepared a
possible plan, in case we don’t have any practice tomorrow, which would be 40
minutes for each qualifying session. Also, teams have proposed that perhaps
they would like a single, longer practice session rather than two. We need to
discuss this with the riders as well, to make sure they agree with these
possibilities".
“The original weather forecast when we arrived here on Tuesday
and Wednesday was that the nearby typhoon would be quite close with very strong
winds, so we made a plan that tents (housing several of the teams in the
paddock) would be disassembled and those teams moved into solid accommodation.
Every day those forecasts have got better, so we have been able to leave those
teams in place. However, in place of those strong winds we have had low cloud
cover, which has been a lot worse (disrupting track action). We are still
expecting heavy rain tomorrow morning, but rain does not stop the helicopter
from flying – that all depends on the visibility.”
Apart from the cancellation, official MotoGP™ tyre supplier
Bridgestone called a press conference at mid-day to discuss the events of the
Phillip Island race, which was run with mandatory pit stops, as tyre-life could
not be guaranteed for more than 10 laps on the newly resurfaced surface.
Hiroshi Yamada, Manager of the Bridgestone Motorsport Department, told the
assembled press that despite the company having brought the extra-hard compound
to deal with the new track surface, it was caught out in particular by the
bikes having a higher average corner speed by 12km/h over last year due to the
higher grip levels – something not anticipated in its calculations.
He went on to say that the company would be carrying out a
test at Phillip Island next year, preferably with prototype machines and their
riders, to ensure the safety and longevity of its tyres for the 2014 race. No
date or approximate timing has been given for this event.
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