Report From Wet Daytona Speedway: The Paint Stripes Are Ultra-slick

Report From Wet Daytona Speedway: The Paint Stripes Are Ultra-slick

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OPINION: It’s raining at Daytona International Speedway, and Roadracingworld.com’s Chris Ulrich rolled out into the second practice session of the day, turned two laps–setting the fastest time of the session to that point–came back into the pits for good and said, “The paint stripes are really slippery! If you’re not completely straight up and down when you cross the paint stripes in turn one, coming onto the back straight and in the chicane, the bike gets all out of shape.” Which begs the question: Why do American racetracks that host motorcycle races use slippery paint instead of the anti-slip paint used by European tracks? Laguna Seca was required to use anti-slip paint to host MotoGP, so obviously the stuff is available in the U.S. The answer is, because they can. If racetrack operators won’t do the right thing and switch to anti-slip paint, it’s time for sanctioning organizations that run races in the wet to require racetracks to use anti-slip paint for lines and curbs on and adjacent to the racing surface.

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