Boss explains punishments
Following fans’ backlash, Race Director Higgs reveals how penalties were decided
Jason O’Halloran’s incidents with Peter Hickman and Tommy Bridewell left fans divided and frustrated with the penalties handed out, specifically with the fact that Hickman was excluded from the race for his actions, whilst Bridewell was not.
A Race Direction Panel made the decision, with Race Director Stuart Higgs explaining to MCN: “I take myself out of the process for matters that directly involve the FHO Racing team where they’re the subject of the offence.” Higgs is engaged to team owner Faye Ho.
“Every incident does have a mechanism that adds a bit more to the story,” Higgs said. “With Peter’s crash we had the onboards, plus data trace which gave a pretty clear picture of the decision to make a move in an area where moves, as we’ve seen, are pretty difficult, if not impossible to execute.
“Peter accepted that this is very much the case with that type of corner where, once you’ve made the commitment to move, it entirely relies on the actions of another rider on making the grand assumption that they’ve seen you to be able to lift out of it – O’Halloran had no option to make an evasive manoeuvre and he was taken out of the race.
“With the Bridewell incident, the build up to it was slightly different. Lap one of a race is always treated slightly differently in terms of riders on multiple lines; there is just a different dynamic compared to the last lap, where there’s a lunge on the penultimate corner.”
“There was a demonstrable difference as Jason was going up Clay Hill with the pack behind him, and there was definitely more room between Jason and the inside of the corner; clear space as opposed to marginal space that it was concluded he had with Hickman.”
For Higgs it comes down to who takes the proportion of the blame, with the direction being that the majority of Saturday’s clash rested on Hickman’s shoulders.
“The decision to execute the manoeuvre was clearly Pete’s. It was high risk. It was always more likely to be a poor outcome. We think with the second case, the balance of responsibly shifted a little bit in as much as the mechanics leading into that corner were really down to Jason – he did have a role to play in the outcome. With Bridewell there was a subtle difference in the mechanics of the incident and those subtleties are important.”