To be precise, crashes at turn 1 at PF are almost unheard of - Turn 2 is the hairpin where the expensive "fun" starts. The problem seems to be -apart from the blatent disregard of too many drivers for safety, skill or sportsmanship - that everybody is gong fast on cold tyres and are still grouped together. It would probably happen at the first slow bend even if that was the last of lap 1. Its a really tough one, and great racing minds through the years havent fixed it. Standing starts are a thought - but I would be concerned after seeing how close even elite F1 drivers come to huge accidents off the line when they are unsighted and somebody has bogged it. A bigger grid stagger based on quali times would be ideal, but thats unenforcable. You could IOM TT it with elapsed time for the race counting as the win, but thats not racing as we know it. Maybe our bumper cars do now feel too safe! - As some sage once observed - the last thing you want to put on a road car steering wheel is an airbag if you want to reduce accident rates - Put a ruddy great dagger on there and there won't be many collisions. But - then though the likelihood of a crash is reduced, its severity heads in the other direction, and so it could be with Karts - Though first turn pile ups are a pain, the severity of the crashes with current bodywork normally hits only the pocket. So - I am backing the push for improved driving standards, and a heap of observers / cameras at the early turns of a race and solid action by the CoC to weed out those who are happy to disadvantage others in persuit of their own best result.
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