How Can Anyone Defend Luca Corberi

~ by Chris #16 Demaras ~

A couple days ago I wrote a short article about Luca Corberi, the kart racer suspended from competition for 15 years for throwing his bumper at a rival during a race. I called him the Darth Vader of Karting, theorizing that although he’s a bad guy, given the chance to redeem himself, he could be a good guy.

All the racing websites including Racer.com, Motorsport.com and Crash.net did a story about the FIA’s stiff penalty on the Italian karter, without exception cancelling Corberi from racing.

Many young racers have done incredibly stupid and dangerous things at the track. But there isn’t always a viral video on the internet to draw international criticism. So I wondered if somebody would take a different angle on the story. The Jalopnik article below pointed out that the behaviour is actually quite common in racing…even celebrated.

Listen, I’m not saying what he did was right. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve some kind of retribution for his actions. But…
…NASCAR literally encourages shit like this.
Name a sporting event that isn’t better with a little fighting. Baseball? Football? Hell, Hockey is just a street fight with knives on your feet. Corberi threw his kart’s front bumper, which probably weighs about one pound. Then he rushed his competitor in the paddock with both of them still fully suited, booted, and helmeted. Could he have gotten hurt? Sure. Could any racer get hurt on track far worse? Absolutely.
If this had happened at a 3/8ths mile dirt oval, he’d have been carried out of the stadium on the shoulders of the fans.

The satirical article was actually really funny. Calling hockey a street fight with knives on your feet was totally over the top. However, in pointing out that some US racing series encourage crashes and fights made people really think, and some didn’t like what they saw in the mirror. Other readers didn’t get the humour, and poor old Bradley has been taking a beating in the comments section.