In the still of the early afternoon on Thursday, only birdsong pierces the silence at the Oulton Park racetrack. There is the blackbirds’ beautiful melody in the woodland walk at the remote corner they called Druids Corner. The cackle of ravens in the lonely stretch of track which leads up there.
And then, at 2pm, as if to remind you that life always goes on, there is the sound of engines firing up, and vehicles begin hammering along the course’s opening stretch to its first bend, Hall’s Corner, where two motorbike racers died on Monday.
Souped-up Porsches, Fiats, VWs and a kit car, powering over a scarred section of the track to the spot where a race at the British Superbikes (BSB) championship ended in unspeakable horror.
The activity and the industry here just a few days on – course staff are emptying bins and readying the place for a British Racing and Sports Car Club event, when VW Beetles and Ford Fiestas will race today – can’t disguise a tragedy which has left the sport’s hardened world haunted and searching its soul about the loss of 21-year-old Owen Jenner and Shane Richardson, 29.
The sport is Britain’s most dangerous: one in which the obvious risk of death and serious injury have always come with the territory. Yet even those who have laughed in the face of risk and serious injury, like the great champion Carl Fogarty, can’t remember a crash which has claimed the life of two riders. It’s the worst the sport has known.
For many, the crash was one of those freak events which occur when competitors are thundering, full throttle, into a race in which they will reach speeds of 200mph. Fogarty, like many within the sport this week, is reluctant to speak about the incident, though a former member of his team observes that ‘you can’t legislate for an incident like this, on the first corner, with everyone jockeying for position when their tyres are cold and have less grip’.
Shane Richardson (left) and Owen Jenner were killed in a crash at Oulton Park on Monday
Richardson was entering the new season in the BSB Supersport classification, for 600cc bikes, looking to keep his competitive racing torch alight
Jenner was a British rider known for his big smile and joker’s persona in the paddock, who’d graduated through the British youth ranks
The run from the start line at Oulton Park to turn one, where the fatal crash occurred
But some have raised questions about the number of riders who were on the grid for this race, at the opening British Superbikes (BSB) meet of the season. There were 38 of them – 12 more than the maximum allowed in the more lucrative MotoGP form of racing.
They were competing on one of the twisty, challenging, ‘old school’ courses, for which BSB is known – and loved – with far fewer straights for the passing manoeuvres than in MotoGP, the global competition confined to F1 tracks.
The sport has been markedly reluctant to talk about this and other aspects of the crash. British Superbikes declined Mail Sport’s request for a discussion, and would not give consent for us to speak to expert analysts from broadcaster TNT, whose screening of the BSB championship meant that Monday’s crash played out before a big, live TV audience. It has felt like a closing of ranks.
What can be said with certainly is that competitors like Richardson and Jenner lived for races like Monday’s. They knew the risks but did not blink. Sitting on the starting grid in the Oulton Park sunshine was their fuel.
Richardson was entering the new season in the BSB Supersport classification, for 600cc bikes, looking to keep his competitive racing torch alight. He’d enjoyed some great years on the American circuit, where he was part of a team of fun-loving New Zealanders who travelled from race to race in an old bus in 2018, with his Kawasaki on the back.
Racing had never been a breeze for him. The costs of competing – bike, pit team, hotels, £200 entry fees for each race – can run to more than £50,000 a season and a main BSB race winner collects a mere £1,000. He’d run his own joinery business to help fund that.
He’d been frustrated to find himself on the fifth of the 13 grid rows on Monday but after the race light blinked to green, immediately made up four positions.
And then, disaster. His yellow Suzuki went into a big slide and crash at the first corner. With nowhere to go, he was left prone on the track with the 25 riders who trailed him powering towards him.
The race, shown here moments before the crash, was shown live on TNT Sports
Some have raised questions about the fact there were 38 riders on the grid for the race
Among them was Jenner, two places behind and unsighted. A British rider known for his big smile and joker’s persona in the paddock, who’d graduated through the British youth ranks, been one of 90 riders selected for the British Talent Cup as a 14-year-old, and who, as a new Honda recruit, had reasons to believe this might be his year.
As he emerged from Hall’s Corner, he would barely have been aware of the catastrophe befalling Richardson.
‘Those guys are not looking at where the accident is,’ Steve English, a World Superbike commentator for several broadcasters tells Mail Sport. ‘Their eyes are focussed on where they want to go, so they are already looking through the corner, down the next straight, especially somewhere like Oulton Park where it undulates and you have to be in the right place at the right time.
‘So they’re not looking for an accident in front of them and then suddenly they have to find a path.’
Though the Isle of Man TT – the next edition of which begins two weeks on Monday – is generally accepted as the most dangerous bike race of them all, the talk in the sport this week has been of how the first corner at a British Superbike race – many riders; very challenging tracks – is just as dangerous.
‘That’s because there’s only one place to be, to be fast – and that’s on the line you have to take through the corner,’ says English, who has 15 years’ experience working in the sport’s paddocks. ‘So everyone’s going for the same inch of tarmac.’
The sport has taken big strides to better protect these riders of such exceptional bravery. Rider protection systems now include friction-resistant leathers, air bags and advanced helmet technology.
An excellent new book, Motorcycle Grand Prix – Insider Stories from World Championship Racing (Michael O’Mara Books) by journalist Adam Wheeler, provides immense insight into safety and many other aspects of the modern sport.
The Isle of Man TT – the next edition of which begins two weeks on Monday – is generally accepted as the most dangerous bike race of them all
Richardson’s bike went into a big slide and crash at the first corner. With nowhere to go, he was left prone on the track with the 25 riders who trailed him powering towards him
The talk in the sport this week has been of how the first corner at a British Superbike race – many riders; very challenging tracks – is just as dangerous
But as the safety systems are honed, so are the ways of intensifying the spectacle and, as a result, greater risk creeps up. In the past 10 to 15 years, there’s been a tendency in both world championship and domestic series classes to regulate performance and costs through the tyre specification, electronics, aerodynamics and chassis suppliers. This has levelled the playing field.
Riders crave that parity, yet it has created greater propensity for packs of riders and pack accidents. Monday’s race was one of the shorter ‘sprint’ races which have been added to a day’s action.
It’s the size of the field for BSB races which has raised most questions though, even though some within the sport argue you cannot legislate for a crash like this and point to the fact that only three riders have been killed at BSB events since 1988.
There’s a huge clamour to compete in BSB races. Young riders are chasing a dream: hoping for the six-figure earnings and the factory bike deal which await only the top one or two racers. Older riders are looking to hold on to the identity which is wrapped up in being a motorbike racer.
One of those involved in Monday’s crash, Tom Tunstall, who suffered a broken neck, is 47. That’s very old to be racing at that level against 18, 19 and 20-year-olds.
Financially challenging though it might be, some are desperate to hold onto that identity as a racer for as long as possible, because it can be a hard world to leave. An inquest two years ago heard that four-times British champion Keith Farmer took his own life at the age of 35, as he struggled with the reality of life beyond the sport.
‘There are only a couple of riders on the British grid earning the big money,’ English says. ‘Everyone else is scraping through. They might have spent 20 or 30 years building up to their career being all about winning those championships. It’s a real brutal sport in every way. Even with that, everyone is willing to take on the risks.
‘Part of the problem for BSB is just that there are too many riders in the field. BSB do a great job – I love the championship, I’ve worked in it, it’s a great series, they take safety very seriously – but it’s also a big business and I think that’s a balancing point for me. The more entries they have, the more money there is for the championship.’
One of those involved in Monday’s crash, Tom Tunstall, who suffered a broken neck, is 47
As Jenner emerged from Hall’s Corner, he would barely have been aware of the catastrophe befalling Richardson
There’s a huge clamour to compete in BSB races and concerns have been raised about the number of entries
The number of competitors also strikes Wheeler.
‘On one hand, it’s a great sign that motorcycle racing is thriving and people want to do it and are not deterred by the costs and dangers,’ he tells Mail Sport. ‘But on the other hand, it increases the propensity for accidents.
‘Oulton Park is not like Silverstone. It’s quite small and compact and I think was just a perfect storm of somebody going down at the front of the pack.’
This is not a universal view. One Facebook user who posted concerns about grid congestion in that race this week was shot down by many, though some agreed.
There is no more graphic illustration of the way this sport has become inured to loss than the fact that Richardson’s partner, Hannah James, with whom he has two children, lost a previous boyfriend, 25-year-old Billy Redmayne, to a fatal crash in North Yorkshire nearly 10 years ago.
But it was message of resilience that was emanating from the sport’s family this week and questions from outsiders seemed largely unwelcome. Leanne Harper, who lost her own partner, Dan Kneen, in the Isle of Man TT in 2018 and says that James had supported her back then, told Mail Sport: ‘These riders are warriors and that also needs to be covered in the news.’
The wives and girlfriends are not the only ones for whom bereavement has become a routine aspect of life.
Fogarty’s brilliant autobiography, The World According to Foggy, relates how the best man at his wedding, Gary Dickinson, had lost his own father to a crash. Fogarty lost Craig Jones, a rider he’d helped, to a crash at Brands Hatch and a close friend, Phil Hogg, in the TT.
‘These guys are just wired differently,’ says the former member of Fogarty’s team. ‘They’re the sharpest people I’ve ever come across – perhaps not always the most educated but certainly with their wit. Their skill is being able to think so quickly and make the right decision in that split second. They are different.’
Fogarty lost Craig Jones, a rider he’d helped, to a crash at Brands Hatch and a close friend, Phil Hogg, in the TT
Fogarty recalls in his autobiography how, after the death of Hogg, he decided he could not race the TT and wanted only to head home to Blackburn
Luck was something Richardson and Jenner did not find on Monday, though a bouquet laid at Oulton Park reflects the fact that they died doing what they loved. ‘Ride the skies, lads,’ it read
Fogarty recalls in his autobiography how, after the death of Hogg, he decided he could not race the TT and wanted only to head home to Blackburn. It was the young rider’s father who urged him to ride on.
‘You simply can’t start thinking about crashing, or you would never get on the bike and race,’ Fogarty writes. ‘And you also need luck on your side.’
That was something Richardson and Jenner did not find on Monday, though one of six bouquets laid at the entrance to Oulton Park reflects the fact that they died doing what they loved.
‘Ride the skies, lads,’ it states. ‘Remembered forever.’
