Every year – or at least since a greater number of former MotoGP riders have arrived in World Superbikes – there’s been talk of organizing a riders safety commission (they tried to form one in 2011) along the lines of the one that exists in MotoGP.
It seems that the death of Andrea Antonelli – his racing number (8) has now been retired – has sparked the riders, and epecially a galvanized Marco Melandri to organize a safety commission.
On Friday at Silverstone the riders held their first meeting – Eugene Laverty didn’t show up, while Tom Sykes was late – in order to elect their representatives who will have the responsability of talking to the race direction, the FIM Safety Officer for World Superbikes, Igor Eskinja and Dorna’s Javier Alonso and Gregorio Lavilla, regarding safety issues.
It seems that Marco Melandri and Carlos Checa were voted (they were the ones, along with Max Biaggi, who were able to stop the the re-start of race 1 at Monza in 2012) and also Leon Camier.
Melandri, who has been linked to a return to MotoGP (according to Forward Racing’s boss Giovanni Cuzari) after BMW decided to pull the plug on the racing effort, told Sportmediaset, “What is important for me is to have a relationship that is sincere and open, where we can exchange views on important things, so that in any situation we can find a plan B to solve it.
However, we are aware that the risk in racing exists and cannot be eliminated.
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