(01-12-2014, 07:36 PM)sticky Wrote: I've been close to all kinds of motorsport for a long time now and I think it's true to say that the dynamics of a high speed car crash will be rather different to that of a bike.  Something weighing 150kg doing 140mph may bounce off an obstacle but something weighing 1200kg doing the same speed may go right through whatever it hits.

I accept that as sponsors, if the organisers can raise a few quid by separating VIPs from there money by sending them out in the course cars for laps they would be doing anyway then fair enough.  I sincerely hope though that we see no more of these 'record attempts'.

Unfortunately money seems to over-ride safety these days.  Example: When North One first started covering the TT I was shooting a race from Parliament Square.  As a stills photographer I'm not allowed any further out than the end of the recticel barriers where the marshals congregate, which is fair enough.  Halfway through the race a camera crews shows up and sets up a large broadcast camera and tripod in what would be the escape lane up Parliament St.  The DSM naturally ordered them to move and they said they had permission to be there.  A phone call to race control confirmed that they did.  So - how is it unsafe for me to be there (and any competitor that might want to use the escape road) but safe for them?  As a matter of interest I saw a crew set up there camera in front of the safety barriers at the Creg this year - right at the spot where Rafael Paschaolin hit them earlier in the week.  I'm not allowed to be there, so why are they?

Common sense dictates that they are not allowed there either but these people consider themselves immune to the laws of physics and any other official body because they are 'the press' and the event couldn't possibly take place without their involvement.

It is infuriating for everyone who has stood their position for several hours to have the 'press' come and camp in front of you, minutes before the action is due to start. In some ways, the forest car rallies are much better than the TT, in this situation because the TT lacks a plentiful supply of pine cones. The forests of England and Wales have witnessed what a fine target the blue bib of a press photographer makes in between the high speed action.
I can also say that some of our press photographer friends have born the brunt of some severe crowd castigation having ignored the advice of marshals who have a plentiful supply of knowledge to call upon when it comes to which positions are likely to be filled with a wayward competitor in desperate need of a close look at the scenery.