JoeyD23
#utvunderground
Well, I have been getting blown up since last weekend about this subject. Initially, its a feel good story. I mean, with the recent events involving the Gordon family you can't help but just want to say "hey, let the kid race with his dad and let the both of them just not think about the tragedy while doing something they love" and I still feel that way. I am a father, seeing my kids participate in racing always puts a huge smile on my face and you could tell that RG was having the time of his life while his extremely talented son wheeled that Arctic Cat Wildcat like a seasoned pro. But you do have to look at the big picture here.
Again, I am not shaming RG for making this happen for his son, I think any of us can see the pics and video and recognize that this is no ordinary 8 year old. I mean, he beat half the UTV field. But, he is only 8 and up until this point I had been under the impression that drivers in a BITD race had to be at least 16 or licensed to drive? I could be wrong so maybe someone can correct me. Only other exception has been the UTV World Championship production and youth races.
But a friend brought up a good point. What if, and thank God it didn't and hope it NEVER does, but lets say what if they would have crashed and Max got hurt? What would the ramifications have been for our sport? Its a fair question to ask if this was the smartest decision by BITD to allow this to happen. I get it, it was a UTV only race, but like others mentioned there were a few slow or wounded UTVs still on course when the 6100s were let loose in the following race. But I can see that side that you got one of the most experienced racers of all-time riding shotgun, with his son who clearly can drive and you know RG would not want his kid to be in danger so he must have had total confidence and nothing did happen but what about next time?
So as we debate and discuss this I want to ask a couple of questions and get everyones take for the sake of conversation.
1. Do you think BITD made a smart decision?
2. Do you feel safe passing or being passed by a 8 year old?
3. Does this mean that now we can have youth entering into our class and how do you feel about that?
4. If this was a one time thing does the exception made for RG (who technically was suspended for the year from BITD) bother you?
5. What do you think would have happened had something gone wrong and how do you think it would affect the sport?
To conclude, I do not think it was a smart decision, BUT I do think it was totally cool that they did that as I saw it as such a great healing event for a heartbroken family. I would never feel safe passing someone else's kid at race speed or having someone else's kid pass me at race speed. It would bother me immensely if I was involved in wrecking the young man and he was hurt, and if he wrecked it would bring a lot of heat back onto the promotor. I would imagine this was another one of those "one time" special exceptions made by Casey and maybe Cory. I think if he wrecked, it would reflect in a negative way upon our sport. It would show bad judgement and further the argument that off-road racers are a bunch of buffoons. In the end, I hope to one day share an experience like that with my own son.
Again, I am not shaming RG for making this happen for his son, I think any of us can see the pics and video and recognize that this is no ordinary 8 year old. I mean, he beat half the UTV field. But, he is only 8 and up until this point I had been under the impression that drivers in a BITD race had to be at least 16 or licensed to drive? I could be wrong so maybe someone can correct me. Only other exception has been the UTV World Championship production and youth races.
But a friend brought up a good point. What if, and thank God it didn't and hope it NEVER does, but lets say what if they would have crashed and Max got hurt? What would the ramifications have been for our sport? Its a fair question to ask if this was the smartest decision by BITD to allow this to happen. I get it, it was a UTV only race, but like others mentioned there were a few slow or wounded UTVs still on course when the 6100s were let loose in the following race. But I can see that side that you got one of the most experienced racers of all-time riding shotgun, with his son who clearly can drive and you know RG would not want his kid to be in danger so he must have had total confidence and nothing did happen but what about next time?
So as we debate and discuss this I want to ask a couple of questions and get everyones take for the sake of conversation.
1. Do you think BITD made a smart decision?
2. Do you feel safe passing or being passed by a 8 year old?
3. Does this mean that now we can have youth entering into our class and how do you feel about that?
4. If this was a one time thing does the exception made for RG (who technically was suspended for the year from BITD) bother you?
5. What do you think would have happened had something gone wrong and how do you think it would affect the sport?
To conclude, I do not think it was a smart decision, BUT I do think it was totally cool that they did that as I saw it as such a great healing event for a heartbroken family. I would never feel safe passing someone else's kid at race speed or having someone else's kid pass me at race speed. It would bother me immensely if I was involved in wrecking the young man and he was hurt, and if he wrecked it would bring a lot of heat back onto the promotor. I would imagine this was another one of those "one time" special exceptions made by Casey and maybe Cory. I think if he wrecked, it would reflect in a negative way upon our sport. It would show bad judgement and further the argument that off-road racers are a bunch of buffoons. In the end, I hope to one day share an experience like that with my own son.
