Riders still wavering over Japan MotoGP due to atomic fears

Whether it's with or without its biggest stars, such as Spain's Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, the Japanese MotoGP race will take place this year, on October 2. That new date has been agreed upon after the original fixture was put on hold due to the devastating tsunami that hit the country earlier in the year, causing, among other things, a nuclear alert at the Fukushima power plant - located 120 kilometers from the Motegi circuit.

The fears of many of the sport's high-profile riders about the risks of radiation contamination they would face in Japan have been well publicized over the past few months. So much so that the MotoGP rights holder and organizer, Dorna, produced a report about the potential dangers. That report found that while the levels of radiation have indeed risen in Motegi and Mito, where the majority of the race personnel will be staying, they do not pose any dangers to health.

The report says radiation levels in Motegi are lower than those in Madrid

With this document the teams pledged this week that they would be at the Japan race, and they are counting on their riders to be there too. If they were to drop out, however, there are a host of replacements waiting in the wings, such as Japanese Honda test driver, Shinichi Itoh.

Speaking from Brno, where Australian Casey Stoner stretched his championship lead over Lorenzo by winning Sunday's Czech Republic MotoGP, the teams also made clear that they would be willing to fine riders or renegotiate their contracts should they refuse to travel to Japan. That was the stance of Hervé Poncharal, who made clear that he would take such action with his Yamaha Tech3 riders if necessary. The HRC team representative, Livio Suppo, and Yamaha representative Lin Jarvis were unwilling to talk about possible sanctions, but left no doubt about what they were expecting from their riders. "It's obvious Honda will not be happy if the response from their riders is negative," said Suppo. "They need to understand the Japanese mentality. I think they are starting to do so. We are not taking them to ride in Afghanistan, or any other country where there is a war."

"There is no evidence to suggest that this is dangerous," added Jarvis. "So we have to go, and we hope that our riders will too. If they don't, we'll have to see what happens come October."

After having held their positions, and after having led the calls for a mass refusal on the part of the riders to participate, both Stoner and Lorenzo were somewhat more pensive this week. Their "no" is no longer definitive. Nor is the response of the rest of the riders, although all of them would rather stay at home.

"There was a period after Silverstone when I felt very strongly I wasn't going to go to Japan after things I'd seen and heard," said Stoner. "That came from a very strong sense of emotion after we found out that Adriana [Stoner] was pregnant. We've discussed it a lot since then and that's a huge thing that's happened in my life and now the most important. So I felt the best thing I could do at that time was to make my mind up. There was no way I was going to risk my wife or my family and it was very tough."

Lorenzo had similar things to say: "We have more information now, so we will decide over the next few days," the current world champion said. "Neither money nor points are more important than health," he concluded.

The report produced by the experts leaves little room for debate, given that it says the radiation levels in Motegi are similar or even lower than those in Rome or Madrid. "The levels of radioactivity are very low, even lower than what is known as the detection limit - i.e., that the errors that can be made in measuring the levels is bigger than the actual measurement," explains Lluís Batet, a nuclear energy expert. "If they are not worried about their exposure when they are in an airplane at 10,000 feet for 10 hours, they shouldn't be worried about radiation in a place like that."