WSBK: Alstare And Iddon Respond To Accusation By Barrier

By Press Release |
At Laguna Seca, the third restart was caused by a red flag after a crash that left Sylvain Barrier lying on the track near the start line. Barrier tweeted (in French) that he blamed Christian Iddon for the crash, stating that Iddon hit him on the handlebars. Bimota Alstare, Iddon's team, sent out the following statement describing the contact as a racing incident.
 



A RACING INCIDENT

All types of motorsport carry their own risks, but it would be fair, and correct, to say that no competitor ever seeks to cause another injury. In these days of high-speed communication and the use of social media, it is very easy for a comment or story to gain ground rapidly, often with disregard to the facts.

Team Bimota Alstare have noticed, with growing concern, a series of comments regarding the crash of Sylvain Barrier and Christian Iddon in race 2 at Laguna Seca and, because of the large number of uninformed comments, have decided to respond to the various allegations. It would be easy for the team to put out a statement on Christian’s behalf, but we have decided to let Christian explain the incident by himself - especially as no media person has tried to contact him and get his side of the story.

CHRISTIAN IDDON

“I had hoped to not to need to comment on the crash of Sylvain Barrier in Laguna Seca and have so far stayed quiet. However, following recent escalating and extreme allegations as well as poor behaviour from other parties involved, I feel I now must respond.

The ‘incident’ between Sylvain Barrier and myself at Laguna Seca was nothing more than a racing incident and had it been anything more than that Race Direction would have been involved and they have not.

Nobody in the press has been in contact with me to ask my side of what happened, and the fact is that there is no video evidence so far to support any other version of events. Therefore I find it hugely unfair for certain press personnel to be presenting an opinion as fact.

Sylvain had tried to pass me into the final corner and ran extremely wide. I was able to accelerate well with a good line - unlike Sylvain who lost all acceleration and tried to cut my line by continuing to turn left after the exit of the turn. Our paths crossed and I was very lucky not to crash (even a piece was broken from my boot) when he collided with me. Unfortunately Sylvain fell from his machine.

Picture evidence also shows that I gave more than ample room on the exit of the turn and was almost in the middle of the circuit, and ahead, at the point of contact.

Despite this, I still deem it to simply be a racing incident in much the same way I deemed the start of Race 1 to have been a ‘racing incident’ when Sylvain hit me off the line after making a poor start and, as in the other collision, turned left to cut my line. Once again I was lucky not to crash, but I accepted the mistake and said nothing.

Sylvain is a hugely talented racer and it is a great shame that this behaviour and these comments have occurred. Despite all of this, I do of course still wish Sylvain a full and speedy recovery.

I understand we as a team are very much in the media spotlight, which is ever increasing, as is the number of other riders commenting on our racing. I can only take this as a huge compliment as Team Bimota Alstare, my team mate Ayrton Badovini and even myself are proving what strong competition we are now, and will be in the future.”

https://twitter.com/BarrierSylvain/statuses/489008759977816064

2014
9
World Superbikes
Laguna Seca, USA
Bimota
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Comments

I'm not arguing with anything he said, but it seems Christian is exceptionally well spoken for a motorcycle racer.

"If we put quotes around it, they'll never know the statement was written by the PR officer who put out the press release."

I'm definitely a fan since back in his Supermoto days, but have you ever heard him speak? He isn't that eloquent. Neither am I, nor are most people who's job is anything other than speaking like that.

I don't think who penned it is totally the point. Christian feels as though he's being victimized and he has a right to share his side of the story. Just because it says its his words, doesn't make me believe he kicked someone out of their desk and started typing. I'm sure he explained his side of the story very carefully to someone on his team and they cleaned it up for him.

Well educated to degree level , quietly spoken polite inteligent Englishman . Christian is completely competent in pr and speaking being used to tv, media, writing of articles etc for many many years .. Christian is of course capable of not only writing this but speak eloquently and more importantly in a measured way and bases his reports on his experiences and with fairness and usually with some British humour too. .
Of course i am biased but true.

Long before Christian Iddon was in World Championship Road racing I met both Christian and his dad through my involvement in Supermoto stuff between 2002 and 2006 in the North of England and Scotland.

I can confirm with 100% confidence that Christian is an educated, eloquent individual who is more than capable of opening his mouth and producing his own words without a PR person doing it for him.

Pretty good at backing a bike in and out of a corner too............. :)

So now we gonna raise doubts if a Rider can Write... last I checked this was still Motomatters.com :D and all that mattered was if one could turn.

ON topic: Iddon was not in the wrong, there was enough room. Its one of those crazy things that can and will happen at the corkscrew if you are out racing. Even in our processional GP races in the recent years there have been a few incidents at corkscrew so this does not really come out as a bolt from the blue.

Where's the 1st side from Sylvain? :) I can't keep up with all the news every day so it's always a little bit here and a little bit there... Would've been nice to have a footnote with Sylvain's accusations in HIS own words as well so we could get the 2 sides in 1 story. Guess I'll have to go and look up where and when he's been accusing Iddon. Oh well.

I've seen the race, saw the crash and indeed, from the video it wasn't really clear what happened. I really don't care if anyone polished up Christian's speach, what matters is the content. I also don't understand what all these comments here are all about. It's the same with language... who cares if someone makes a mistake speaking a foreign language, what matters is the message that gets across.