Click here to subscribe today or Login.
INDIANAPOLIS — The U.S. Grand Prix Racers Union wants doctors to have more discretion over motorcycle riders under the age of 18.
Parents will just have to live with it.
Stewart Aitken-Cade, the series’ chief steward, said this season’s biggest rules change will require injured minors to be cleared by a medical professional, instead of their parents, before they can return to competition. The move was made to avoid the appearance of parents pushing their children back to racing too soon — though Aitken-Cade said there have been no documented instances of that happening.
“We just want to do everything we can to avoid putting us in that particular situation,” he said. “We said, ’Let’s do what we can to divert this from becoming a problem in the future.’ When you look at other pro sports group, they do medical checks. We thought we should, too.”
Previously, minors needed parental permission at most tracks.
The change comes less than six months after the series suffered its first fatality. Peter Lenz, 13, died after he fell off his bike and was run over by a 12-year-old during a warmup lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The rule, Aitken-Cade said, would not have prevented it because neither had been involved in a previous accident that week.
Aitken-Cade said a subsequent investigation by the series also indicated additional changes — such as raising the minimum age of riders or teaching new safety measures at racing schools — also would not have prevented it.