MotoAmerica is Changing Concussion Safety

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00:00I obviously am a longtime fan. I've been watching Moto America racing for over a decade now.

00:06Let me start by asking you, doctor, about this test. It's interesting that you guys in motorcycle

00:16racing have adopted it first. I would have thought it goes to football or boxing. How

00:21important is it for motorcycle racers, for you as a doctor that serves these pilots to be able

00:28to assess whether or not they've had a concussion? Well, Matt, thank you. I have a pleasure to be

00:34here. I have a little bit of a vested interest in this in that I am a racer. I've had numerous

00:39concussions. Concussion is actually a clinical diagnosis until now. It's a constellation of

00:46symptoms, and many of those are self-reported. It's a fairly subjective diagnosis. This blood test,

00:54which measures a couple of different kind of biomarkers in the peripheral blood, is the

00:58first bit of objective evidence that we have. When I first heard about this test, I've known about

01:04the biomarkers for a while. Although previously, you had to do these in a reference lab, essentially,

01:11you had to draw blood, spin down the blood, get the serum, and send that off to a lab. It wasn't

01:17very helpful at point of care. Last year, in April, the FDA approved Abbott's ISTAT Alentity

01:24device, which is a handheld computer that you basically put a drop of blood on a chip and

01:29plug it into the computer, and it spits out the answer in 15 minutes. It was a result of a private

01:34public partnership between the DOD and Abbott. Bottom line is it measures these biomarkers, and

01:40right now, as approved by the FDA, it allows us to determine whether somebody with a concussion,

01:46we need to send them for a CT scan or not, which is helpful just from a triage standpoint in my

01:51situation. But it also has some other uses that I'm using it for in terms of, helps me quantify a

01:59little bit the degree of concussion. It also lets me, being a writer, I kind of know sometimes that

02:05the writers don't really want to know they have a concussion, but I can do the blood test and show

02:09them and say, hey, look, you really do have a brain injury, and you shouldn't be out there.

02:13So it's real exciting, and we're just the first sports organization, motorsports organization

02:22certainly in the world, using this as part of our concussion protocol because it's a huge game

02:27changer.

02:28Yeah, well, and safety is so important. Richard, let me ask you about the improvements that you've

02:34been able to make. Obviously, motorcycle racing can be dangerous. Your CEO, Wayne Rainey, had a horrific

02:39accident in the Mizano Grand Prix in 1993, and people don't want to see that, right? As you make

02:47these kind of safety improvements, how helpful is that, you know, to attracting viewers, long-time

02:53viewers for the sport?

02:55Well, thank you very much, Matt. I think not only is it important to attracting viewers, but also

03:00participants. You know, we feel like the future of motorcycle racing is in our youth, and as they grow,

03:07we want the parents and everyone around them to feel comfortable that we're taking every

03:13opportunity possible to keep the riders safe and to have on hand the ability to determine

03:20if they're injured, truly injured, or if they're safe to go. Because it's not only the rider that

03:27we're concerned about, it's the riders around him or her. And I think it's a testament to Abbott

03:34Labs that has developed this and are putting it out here in our field to make sure it works

03:42and well-tested.

03:44Dr. Price, can you give us some information also on what you're solving here? What are some

03:50of the numbers that you're looking at when it comes to the accidents that you're seeing

03:54in the sport? And how much doing this could save lives, frankly, if not at least careers?

04:00Good question. Can you quantify it?

04:03Well, I think that concussion is a big part of our sport. And on any given weekend, race

04:11weekend, we'll have two or three concussed riders. And once again, this helps us manage those

04:17concussions and potentially let us perhaps diagnose them a little more accurately and have some

04:26more rational return to sport decisions, too. That's always the difficult part when someone

04:31after a concussion, when they were able to return to sport. Because obviously, one concussion,

04:36multiple concussions is bad. And we want to make sure that our riders have a life when they get

04:41done with this. And so, I mean, I think it really does help us be a little more sensitive in terms of

04:47our ability to diagnose and manage those concussions. I'll just kind of say it's real gratifying to be

04:55part of an organization that Richard's put together that really is interested in rider

04:59safety. I mean, not only are we doing the concussion testing, we have airbag suits that

05:03we've instituted, Red Racing World Air Fence at the tracks, which are barriers to help prevent

05:08injury. So we're doing a lot of things to kind of prevent injury, as well as managing injuries

05:13like with this concussion test.

05:15Richard, I want to ask about the diversity that you've brought into motorcycle racing. And I don't

05:21mean in terms of, you know, your typical DEI thing, but the actual bikes, right? We've got a

05:26super hooligans class at Moto America, which I absolutely love. And then King of the Baggers has

05:31been a massive success. I was lucky enough to get to ride Harleys with James Rispoli and the Wyman

05:38brothers in Austin a couple of months ago. And I'll never forget it. How much more can you expand with

05:45these racing classes? And will you continue to have King of the Baggers as Harley goes off to ride with

05:52MotoGP next year?

05:55Well, let me answer the last question first. Yes, we will continue to have King of the Baggers.

06:01As you may have noticed, Harley's

06:03endeavor in Europe will be strictly a Harley-Davidson class.

06:08There won't be any other makes.

06:09So we race both Harleys and Indians and feel it's important to have multiple makes in our

06:16championship. In terms of, you know, expanding the offerings that we have on the track,

06:24our biggest issue is we provide five or six classes a weekend of racing. So it's very difficult

06:31to manage the time over a weekend to get a whole lot more classes in. So we have to be very careful.

06:37But we've seen huge growth in the Hooligan class. And we're seeing very strong showings in the

06:44Bagger class as well. So I would say, and stock 1000 is very large. So I would say that

06:52as long as we continue to attract those people, we'll continue to run them.

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