Safety fencing

[Mgas]

I’m sure this has been discussed many times before by more intelligent and better informed people than me, but with Tobias’s injury’s and a clip from Poland doing the rounds I’ve been wondering what can be done to stop safety fencing lifting? More and more often a rider or riders have an incident where the bike hits the fencing first and lifts it leaving the rider to go underneath and impacting with whatever is behind. My opinion is that attaching them to the concrete below the shale might make a difference. Possibly eyelets in the concrete to attach to? 
let’s be honest we all like a little off but people being hurt or worse is not what anyone wants to see. 

[Triple.H.]

2 minutes ago, Mgas said:

I’m sure this has been discussed many times before by more intelligent and better informed people than me, but with Tobias’s injury’s and a clip from Poland doing the rounds I’ve been wondering what can be done to stop safety fencing lifting? More and more often a rider or riders have an incident where the bike hits the fencing first and lifts it leaving the rider to go underneath and impacting with whatever is behind. My opinion is that attaching them to the concrete below the shale might make a difference. Possibly eyelets in the concrete to attach to? 
let’s be honest we all like a little off but people being hurt or worse is not what anyone wants to see. 

The fence should be partially buried by about a foot, the normal tethering system at top and bottom used and however much of the fence below track level filled with water. The section filled could be totally separate from the airside.

Riders will no doubt still get hurt but airfences lifting or sections separating is a common problem, so my idea may appear daft but if you don't try you don't find out.

Alternatively phase in foam fences as and when air fences reach their replacement date. I cannot recollect any incidents where the foam fence lifted.

No doubt I'll be informed about them sooner rather than later.

[IainB]

The foam fences do seem a lot less forgiving than the air fences though... I've always thought that a solid deformable barrier should be placed in front of the air bags, made from thin aluminium or something

[stevehone]

17 hours ago, Mgas said:

I’m sure this has been discussed many times before by more intelligent and better informed people than me, but with Tobias’s injury’s and a clip from Poland doing the rounds I’ve been wondering what can be done to stop safety fencing lifting? More and more often a rider or riders have an incident where the bike hits the fencing first and lifts it leaving the rider to go underneath and impacting with whatever is behind. My opinion is that attaching them to the concrete below the shale might make a difference. Possibly eyelets in the concrete to attach to? 
let’s be honest we all like a little off but people being hurt or worse is not what anyone wants to see. 

any eyelets or straps at the bottom would soon become a danger

[Spoofer]

They are struggling with this everywhere so it's something that needs looking at very closely.

Mencel went underneath the fence on Saturday in Ostrow because it doubles as the pit gate.

Anywhere you have a pit gate on a bend you cannot dig down the required level or anchor it the same as other panels so that area has massive vulnerability.

[Mgas]

3 hours ago, stevehone said:

any eyelets or straps at the bottom would soon become a danger

I more imagined flush or recessed eyelets secured by very short strapping or clips but I understand what you’re saying. It’s would be trial and error to start with as I don’t think the money exists to do development that isn’t on a live track.

[Mgas]

2 hours ago, Spoofer said:

They are struggling with this everywhere so it's something that needs looking at very closely.

Mencel went underneath the fence on Saturday in Ostrow because it doubles as the pit gate.

Anywhere you have a pit gate on a bend you cannot dig down the required level or anchor it the same as other panels so that area has massive vulnerability.

Yes that is exactly the clip I had seen, it looked horrific. I think the only way to avoid that exact scenario is banning pit entrances on corners. Easier said then done though. As a matter of rider protection I think any fence lifting is a huge issue. It’s never going to be a safe sport but more needs to be done to mitigate risk.

[Whitelinehugger]

Polystyrene panels would be ideal

[Petecc]

The way apb's are made,  each bag has 8 fastening d rings at the rear and are held together with 6 straps . 

When you see bags flying into the air, I can only assume that someone hasn't been doing them all up.

[MattB]

On 4/6/2026 at 8:52 PM, Triple.H. said:

The fence should be partially buried by about a foot, the normal tethering system at top and bottom used and however much of the fence below track level filled with water. The section filled could be totally separate from the airside.

Riders will no doubt still get hurt but airfences lifting or sections separating is a common problem, so my idea may appear daft but if you don't try you don't find out.

Alternatively phase in foam fences as and when air fences reach their replacement date. I cannot recollect any incidents where the foam fence lifted.

No doubt I'll be informed about them sooner rather than later.

I may be wrong here, but the fences we have on British tracks maybe are a few years old now and perhaps have become more brittle with age.

Worth remembering as well the bikes now are much faster than they were when air fences came in.

[IainB]

56 minutes ago, MattB said:

I may be wrong here, but the fences we have on British tracks maybe are a few years old now and perhaps have become more brittle with age.

Worth remembering as well the bikes now are much faster than they were when air fences came in. 

Are they though? Not so sure about that, track records aren't being shattered by seconds, in fact many tracks have quite long standing track records. A lot got broken in 2023 but only by fractions of seconds and over 4 laps.

Also brittle or not, I can't see that having much effect on the design flaw of the bags keeping lifting. 

Edited April 11 by IainB

[R87]

2 hours ago, IainB said:

Are they though? Not so sure about that, track records aren't being shattered by seconds, in fact many tracks have quite long standing track records. A lot got broken in 2023 but only by fractions of seconds and over 4 laps.

Also brittle or not, I can't see that having much effect on the design flaw of the bags keeping lifting. 

Maybe not so much faster, but more powerful.  Certainly a lot more cases of riders falling off unchallenged today.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

3 hours ago, MattB said:

I may be wrong here, but the fences we have on British tracks maybe are a few years old now and perhaps have become more brittle with age.

Worth remembering as well the bikes now are much faster than they were when air fences came in.

Neither of those points are true, air fences have a use by date and bikes are no faster than 40 years ago 

[IainB]

1 hour ago, R87 said:

Maybe not so much faster, but more powerful.  Certainly a lot more cases of riders falling off unchallenged today.

Maybe down to track prep, we had a couple of fallers last Monday at Leicester as riders hit a wet spot on turn 3... not the first time that's happened!

[Fromafar]

2 hours ago, R87 said:

Maybe not so much faster, but more powerful.  Certainly a lot more cases of riders falling off unchallenged today.

Due to lack of skill maybe

[IainB]

11 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

Due to lack of skill maybe

Undoubtedly when it comes to the less experienced riders... but Charles Wright? Leon Madsen? There's always going to be crashes and injuries but what is inexcusable is having airbags and them not performing properly due to them lifting in 2026 in exactly the same way that they did when they were first introduced some 25 years ago. 

[Pinny]

You would think an air fence thats 100 percent fixed down with no movement in it would see riders bouncing back into the track way more than they do now.

It would be interesting to see if the number of injuries have decreased or increased since introducing air fences as well.

[Whitelinehugger]

Perhaps if they used barbed wire on the fence it would encourage riders to ride the white line more often.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

The air fence problem has never been a problem with the fence itself, it’s what is behind the air fence 

[gjcone44]

remember when they had them down the stright.🤣