Most definitely. No more riding for him. No chance of him having to pay opponents' legal fees, though. Not how it works, unfortunately.

Certainly useful to the defense to show that he knows how to ride properly and is used to taking risk w/o crashing. The asshattery point will not help since it is really not at issue given that he was on track. If he had crashed on public road being a tool then it would be relevant to show that he routinely rides like a knob.

I was thinking the same. Never on track again.

I know, just wishful thinking. I would like to see tort reform, including people putting some skin in the game when they file a frivolous lawsuit.

The Chinese space station has already crashed, so I can't wish for part of that to fall on his head.

I'm not licensed in CA but isn't it comparative negligence state?

If that is correct, he can only recover the portion of the incident for which the track owners/organizers are responsible. So if the track owners are only 40% responsible for the injury then he can only recover that percentage of the overall award from them (assuming there is an award of damages).

So his pathetic riding may well play a role in this thing.

what an a$$hat... someone needs to start a negative social media campaign against his company and see how he likes it.

I think we already did, this is a popular subject on enthusiast sites. Running about 99.99% against Mr Kim, maybe a little higher.

Unlikely, but possible, depending on the judge.

California is a contributory negligence state. If he is much over 50% on that, and he ought to be, it is within the purview of the judge to stick it to him.

Blacklisted from every track on the continent is likely though.

Yes. And just for all you armchair cowboys, that vid lends itself to analysis and focus that isn't available to the rider in real time.

Yeah, no way he should sue. But to me the video doesn't demonstrate anything other than a bad choice made at speed.

Glass houses, guys.

Willing to bet Richard has more seat time on the track than everyone else on this board combined.

If there is a resident expert on sport bike racing on this board, it's him.

Why is everyone focusing on his riding skill? That had nothing to do with the lawsuit.

He is not suing because he went off the track. He is suing because the track put cinder blocks on the run off areas. And he crashed into them.

The question is.... Is that negligent? Should the run off areas be clear of debris?

Fair enough. Why are you using the term "cinder blocks"?

IMHO, if you leave the racing surface, you should be prepared to encounter anything. There are tracks operating in the USA that have concrete, unprotected walls very close to the track. If you're riding on a track like that, you should be prepared for the risk of impacting those concrete walls.

Willow Springs has unbelievably bad things off the racing surface, including huge ruts, drop-offs, giant rocks, embankments, gullies, etc. People have impacted all of them, even resulting in death.

This guy has no case, if his case were to be presented to anyone who knows about race tracks. He's probably betting on a jury being of a different mindset.

Looking at the video, it wouldn't even surprise me if he ran off the track intentionally.

Absolutely not true. You know exactly what's going on when you're out there. If you have an experience, you also know WHY.

Those weren't cinder blocks, they were sand bags. The off-track area of every track is less than perfect. Whether it's one thing or another, you will have to deal with various challenges if you go off track. That's just life.

This guy could have done a couple diferent things after he left the track to deal with the bags but he didn't have the presence of mind to deal with the situation correctly and he also lacked the skills every roadracer should have. There's a reason that every single successful roadracer trains on a dirt bike. This guy could have used that experience.

If you read the Revzilla article, they state that in his Youtube videos, he is running at a pace only 10 seconds a lap slower than the MotoAmerica mid-field.

Something else happened. He seems to possess the skills.

I think he was talking about the offroad portion of skills on two wheels.

But as to his pavement skills, either his bike failed, or he intentionally crashed is what you're saying?

I read the article. He may be capable of that pace (I'll not lay money on that, though) but I can promise you they were going through that corner at nowhere near that sort of pace. Turn 5 is a fairly fast one and the exit is uphill with good camber. The guy he was following was going at a fast pace for a streetbike ride but was way off any sort of competitive speed through that corner. Neither of them was anywhere close to the right line through the corner.

If you watch the video, dip**** is coming into the corner at a pretty lazy pace and my guess is that his idea was to accelerate through the corner and pass the guy before turn 6. Didn't work out. Apart from his bad entry and missed apex, he was also slow to figure out he was in trouble, then he made the wrong choice to bail instead of leaning more and finishing off the corner. Even if he hadn't backed out of the throttle completely, he could have tightened his line a bunch by rolling out of it a little bit to the point that he was scrubbing a little speed. Hell, easing on the rear brake would have tightened his line, even if he did nothing to the throttle position. I use the rear brake all the time to make small adjustments to my line in a corner.

He clearly has no dirtbike skills, as he tried to finish the corner in the dirt, rather than standing it up and running to the right of the bags. He also did the wrong thing when he hit the bag, which naturally caused him to get hit in the ass and launched into space. Notice how quick he lost his grip on the bars. A better rider would have made the corner, no problem. A more experienced rider would have saved it in the dirt. He did neither. He's learned his (limited) skills by street riding. He needs better instruction and vastly more seat time, both on a lighter, less powerful bike and also on a dirt bike.

Here's a video of him lapping in the mid-1:40's. That's 18-20 seconds a lap slower than a superstock 1000 bike can run, which is a fairly large amount of time (some would say an eternity) for a track as short and slow as Laguna Seca.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UilI_UpK8xo

Feel free to observe his riding skills. He takes better lines in this video but he lacks any sort of finesse. Take note of how he downshifts.

Even more reason to think he should have been well aware of the risks and track conditions, no?
I mean, a rider with the skills and experience he apparently possesses should have acknowledged the (increasing) risk as he progressed up the ladder to the faster run-groups, IMO.

I could maybe understand a request to pay his medical bills, but $15MM?? Yeah, OK...
Why would you want to seek such ludicrous punitive damages from a company that facilitates your ability to do the thing you love...unless you are a bottom-feeding scumbag?

To relate to our other shared passion (sky jumping), I've broken bones at a couple DZs, to include some pretty hefty medical bills, and the thought to sue any of them (or even ask for one cent) never crossed my mind.

A big payday would delay the demise of his company by a few years. Read up on his company. It's not a pretty story.

this. I have many years of road racing behind me. I will not comment on his riding ability but the sand bags should not be there during a motorcycle track event. the track was not ready for the event. I have never seen sand bags at a track in my 10 years of road racing scoots.

my advice would be to take any proceeds and look at another business venture...or...