The comment that track costs influence rider safety concerns me greatly..
Sorry for the threadjack, and this can be moved if desired, but just responding to existing content that's currently in this thread.
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No question the safety card has changed over the years, in terms of number of bikes/riders on track. Laguna Seca is a prime example of that.
For the first 10+ years that I attended/instructed at trackdays at Laguna, the track itself (or SCRAMP) had a 25 bike/rider limit on track. This was not open to negotiation by the trackday providers. As such, with a 3 group day, accepting 75 riders maximum for an event was cast-in-concrete.
Then suddenly a number of years back, the Laguna track management began to offer promoters the option of increasing the maximum group size by 5, or 10 riders. Each of the two options having an associated added cost to the promoter for the trackday rental.
Once that change of policy took over, 35 riders/group were now obviously being considered to be a "safe" environment on track. The exact same track, with the exact same riders, on the exact same bikes, that the same track management entity had previously deemed only safe up to a maximum of 25 riders.
So as to the question of whether the almighty $$ has been the unspoken driving factor resulting in increased rider limits applied at trackday events, at the expense of changes to "safety" perceptions; good or bad .... the answer is obviously "yes".
This is the reverse of situations where public roads that have been marked with a 55 MPH speed limit for over 30 years, are suddenly marked with 45 MPH speed limit signs. Same road, same vehicles, and suddenly the formal perception (by law) on what is a "safe" speed is changed?