With the recent death of 13-year old Peter Lenz at Indy, everyone has been freaking out out over the safety of motorcycle racing and was this kid too young to race. To get a good scope of the situation, you have to look at all youth sport programs. Football, Soccer, Martial Arts, and Cheerleading all pose significant risk to children who compete in them, and the parents assume that risk as well. Motorcycle racing is no different.
There are risks with riding a GP bike at 130+ mph, duh. The same risk when you put on a helmet and let somebody kick you in the head, or blindside you on the 50-yard line. Or better yet, throw on a hot skirt and let somebody throw you 50 ft in the air, and hope they catch you on the way down. The youth sports industry standards try to keep kids safe as possible, but the risk sometimes rears it's ugly head.
The death of a teenager is nothing that anyone wants to deal with, but it's not the sport, it's just an unfortunate accident. Cheerleading, year-in-year-out has been name the most dangerous sport, hands down; crippling and killing teenagers every year without fail, so let's not point the finger at the motorcycle because it's loud and fast. Look at the broad scope. If Pete was playing JV on his football team and was killed, who knows if there would be an inquisition on the safety of the sport, because we all know the risk when the pads go on and the whistle blows.
We should assume the same with racing. Pushing it to the limit has a price. Put away the pitch forks and bring out the sympathy cards for the Lenz family, because they just lost their son, and my guess is they don't don't give a crap about the sport at this point, they just want their kid back at home.
