What's the point of a night race?

[CaptainRaiden]

I have to say, I am not really a fan of night races. I mean, apart from robbing us of a rainy grand prix throwing up surprise results, they are just wasting humungous amounts of electricity, when you can instead very easily save that much energy, maybe light up a whole poor village with THAT amount of light, and just simply run the race in the day time.

I mean the WSBK race ran trouble free in the day time. Is the damn circuit so boring (or maybe it's the racing) that Dorna has to resort to stupid tactics to put butts in seats? That's just money and energy down the drain when you have so much natural sunlight for free. Idiots.

Excuse my rant, but I've grown up in a place experiencing scarce electricity and paying loads of money to keep the house lit. We have energy saving days or hours around the world where we switch off for one hour to save energy, and then we have morons boasting on TV that the power used for the floodlights on the circuit can power 3,000 houses. Whoop-de-doo. :rolleyes:

[leopard]

In normal condition that is obviously wasting energy and money, having said that it could be only Qatar or Singapore which are capable of facilitating the lighting system, but the first reason is to show their seriousness hosting the event in order the world pay more attention to them, besides the fact they don't have enough fan base to make the event glittering.

Night race is prepared properly from beginning, visibility problem could be the second to temperature handicap which is crucial not giving the tyres sufficient grip.

The track already designed for night race, it wastes more money if they don't have enough return while day race doesn't seem to be attractive and put the track threatened being ruled out.

I think the wise thing is to reschedule the calender so it falls at Qatar while forecast of the weather is with less probability of rain...

[Corny]

Well, the bikes look much better in this night race :D

That's the only reason I can think of

[NinjaMaster]

Perhaps for ratings? The weather is too hot (2 months on from WSB and thus hotter conditions) for racing. And it looks super cool. :up:

[The Phantom]

Wasn't it because of very hot weather? Weird though that they decided to race at night to get around this, and then at the same time moved the race to a cooler time of the year... and now the riders complain that it's too cool for the tyres...

I agree, it's just stupid to race at night.

[MrJan]

I did wonder this the other day. I mean the F1 night race is largely to boost viewing figures in Europe because we're all lazy and don't like getting up before 10 am, but the MotoGP started at about 7pm or something over here so surely can't be the reasoning.

I just find it ironic that they are introducing all sorts of measures to make both F1 and MotoGP more environmentally friendly and cheaper but then spend huge amounts of money and power on feck off big lights to turn night into day. Okay so it's a spectacle (especially when Loris dropped it and the sparks flew) but at what cost?

[Rod Richardson]

Personally, I don't care two hoots where they race, whether the riders look good, whether the pit bunnies have silicon boobs, plastic smiles, cracker shorts, who has the designer clothes or which of the riders blows kisses to the viewing audience including us blokes.

All I am interested in are the bikes, the actual racing, who the sponsors are that provide the funding to teams that enables us to enjoy this great sport, the abilities of the riders, the sportstmansip they display, the ongoing development and survival of the sport and the viewing spectacle focused on those aspects.

As for the cost involved with installing and powering the lights, that would not be borne by the teams so has bugger-all to do with the cost involved with them competing in the series. If anyone knows otherwise then I'll stand corrected.

The principal issue is that practice and racing had to be cut short and in the case of the MotoGp race postponed due to the lack of vision.

It is obviously not sensible for racing to be conducted at a location or in circumstances that make it impossible to race on a track made reflective even as a result of a brief shower of rain.

According to the records, the average daily high temperature in mid April at Doha, Qatar is 90Fhttp://www.motorsportforums.com/forums/images/icons/devil.gif (32c) which appears to be around 2pm ater the sand has heated trough so why not have the racing start early morning to avoid the afternoon heat.

My opinion............either change to morning races or delete the venue from the calendar.

[leopard]

I did wonder this the other day. I mean the F1 night race is largely to boost viewing figures in Europe because we're all lazy and don't like getting up before 10 am, but the MotoGP started at about 7pm or something over here so surely can't be the reasoning.

I just find it ironic that they are introducing all sorts of measures to make both F1 and MotoGP more environmentally friendly and cheaper but then spend huge amounts of money and power on feck off big lights to turn night into day. Okay so it's a spectacle (especially when Loris dropped it and the sparks flew) but at what cost?

While night race in far east region is to synchronize European times so that it falls not less than 10am, I think from viewership point of view night race in Qatar will increase their rating especially in those the same region of time like Europe, 7pm is the prime time, we have to pay the rate higher if we want to advertise our product on TV during the prime times (ranged between 6-9pm).

On the other hand viewership from region ahead of Qatar may slightly be decreased, a fact that we might put it aside from, considering the measurement rod of motogp and any sport events is Europe...

[leopard]

Personally, I don't care two hoots where they race, whether the riders look good, whether the pit bunnies have silicon boobs, plastic smiles, cracker shorts, who has the designer clothes or which of the riders blows kisses to the viewing audience including us blokes.

All I am interested in are the bikes, the actual racing, who the sponsors are that provide the funding to teams that enables us to enjoy this great sport, the abilities of the riders, the sportstmansip they display, the ongoing development and survival of the sport and the viewing spectacle focused on those aspects.

As for the cost involved with installing and powering the lights, that would not be borne by the teams so has bugger-all to do with the cost involved with them competing in the series. If anyone knows otherwise then I'll stand corrected.

The principal issue is that practice and racing had to be cut short and in the case of the MotoGp race postponed due to the lack of vision.

It is obviously not sensible for racing to be conducted at a location or in circumstances that make it impossible to race on a track made reflective even as a result of a brief shower of rain.

According to the records, the average daily high temperature in mid April at Doha, Qatar is 90Fhttp://www.motorsportforums.com/forums/images/icons/devil.gif (32c) which appears to be around 2pm ater the sand has heated trough so why not have the racing start early morning to avoid the afternoon heat.

My opinion............either change to morning races or delete the venue from the calendar.

Currently the only one track offering feature of sheen of color of night is Qatar. It feels like accompanying me to dreamland looks like the race is almost unreal. Perhaps just because it is unusual that I have to wake up from sleep in the midnight that sends me to state in between of conscious and unconscious.

I think it is correct that teams shall not be borne whatsoever for lighting system, and it is fully responsibility of sport body of the country with probably financial back up from Commercialbank. Any postponement that forces the race to have another effect in the days after such as ticketing, the race arrangement will be in care of the race organizer while teams have to responsible for their accommodation internally.

It doesn't seem easy to nullify the venue from calender as it is committed to host long term race until 2016. Who would be responsible for breaching the contract within its validity. Perhaps whenever night race considered unsafe and inapplicable, the race to be redirected to be day race or whenever the time considered appropriate and none or less parties suffering loss from that change.

Last year the race ran smoothly, this season problem such as visibility and asphalt temperature which is not optimum for motoring was mainly because of rain, besides naturally regions whose their temperature in the day extremely high their night temperature extremely low, besides also the unpredictable weather is the result of global warming...

:)

[ShiftingGears]

It's the only way you'll make a circuit like Losail seem spectacular.

[leopard]

It's the only way you'll make a circuit like Losail seem spectacular.

;)

[Rod Richardson]

Point taken on the contract period to 2016......... So what are your thoughts about the suggestion that it would be a better proposition conducting the races in the morning before it heated up?

Part way through this reply, I noted that Kropotkin on Motogp matters website post on 13/4 expressed the view that the organizers should not run the events under lights to avoid the likelihood of it happening again. Like.......another flop.

Good article

http://www.motogpmatters.com/opinion/2009/04/13/the_numbers_game_why_rain_at_qatar_is_mo.html

[leopard]

Not much people in Europe get up in the morning before 10am.

;)

[tha_jackal]

the sparks during capirossi's crash were cool as! maybe that's why?

[CaptainRaiden]

So what are your thoughts about the suggestion that it would be a better proposition conducting the races in the morning before it heated up?

I obviously agree with that idea. They are wasting too much money and energy to suit the viewing times in Europe when the other half of the world will lose sleep on Sunday night if they wanna watch their favorite sport and wake up drowsy on Monday morning and go to work.

Dorna is not alone in this. F1 organizers changed the start time of Australian and Asian races to suit the European viewing time as well, and are simply playing with danger. Drivers complained of bad light at the Australian GP and everybody knows the Malaysian GP was a farce, and the latest example is the MotoGP Qatar "Night race" being a total dud, adding more expenses of accomodation and electricity consumption for one more day, just because Dorna had a brain fart one year ago.

Also, I think the 2007 Qatar "day race" was much more interesting and closely fought than the last two "night races." They wanna blow their trumpets about safety, and then go ahead and stage a night race where riders complained about not being able to see bumps on the circuit in a night race last year. I think I remember Stoner and Pedrosa mentioning this in 2008.

[leopard]

Good article

http://www.motogpmatters.com/opinion/2009/04/13/the_numbers_game_why_rain_at_qatar_is_mo.html

Yeah worth read, atop of human knowledge that doesn't always have correct prediction, it'd be better to minimize the risk to put the race during period statistic which average probability of rain is zero.

However this doesn't warrant anything to be free from rain. Anomaly such as rain or some other natural phenomena may come out of season. If this happens put the math off for a little while...

[MrJan]

Point taken on the contract period to 2016......... So what are your thoughts about the suggestion that it would be a better proposition conducting the races in the morning before it heated up?

Part way through this reply, I noted that Kropotkin on Motogp matters website post on 13/4 expressed the view that the organizers should not run the events under lights to avoid the likelihood of it happening again. Like.......another flop.

Good article

http://www.motogpmatters.com/opinion/2009/04/13/the_numbers_game_why_rain_at_qatar_is_mo.html

You'd lose half of Europe with a morning race. It's a good idea but if MotoGP is heading in the same direction as the Bernie Show then it won't happen.

[leopard]

Perhaps agreeable morning time for a race is not earlier than 10am, the proper time for people start working, leave out of hotel for the race. This is basically a day time race.