MotoGP riders standing firm?
- Thread starter Laava
- Start date
I think that the riders who dont want to race should have that option. Whether the are worried about safety, politics or nursing a wound, they should be free to npt participate for any reason they deem necessary. Force them to race and we dont get the show we love, we get money dictating people lives. The governing body can choose to not pay them but the riser should decide if he risks his life or not
Barry Sheene showed them, back in the day 
Do tell…Barry Sheene showed them, back in the day
Can't remember exact details, but one year he had the championship sewed up early on and then refused to race for the rest of the season unless safety improvements were made. We have since had much safer racing for riders - cheers Baz
Bit more context, probs more accurate than my memory too
But money wasn’t the only thing Sheene’s GP rivals gained from his presence, he also made a number of principled stands on safety issues. His refusal to race in the Manx TT was undoubtedly a major factor in getting it dropped from Championship in ’77; and at the Austrian GP the same year, he led most of the leading 500cc riders on a walkout over safety facilities, after a fatal pile up in the 350 race. Barry was a great man to have on your side in any argument over track safety because his Daytona injuries and subsequent comeback were the stuff of legend so there was nobody who would dare to accuse him of being short on bottle.