Will the Japanese MotoGP round change locations?
It’s unlikely, but it’s what Shuhei Nakamoto, Honda MotoGP boss is suggesting.
Currently, the race is scheduled for October 2, rescheduled from its April date after this spring’s weather and radiation disasters.
It’s slated to run at the Motegi racetrack, only a hundred miles away from the damaged Fukushima reactors. That’s a problem for many of MotoGP’s top racers, who think there’s too much risk of radiation exposure, although an independent study has concluded the race is safe.
According to Visordown, Nakamoto’s solution is simply to hold the race at Japan’s Suzuka track, further away from the radiation. It sounds like a simple solution, right? Except for one problem. Suzuka hosted the MotoGP round from 1987 until 2003, but lost its FIM certification that year after Daijiro Kato died in a crash at the track. We can’t see MotoGP changing its plans at this point, leaving a track that has been certified as safe, to go race at a track that’s lost its safety rating.
Suggesting the race be transferred is not actually what he said, guys, as you point out in your last paragraph. Why not back off on the News of the World sensationalism?