Viewing from a distance online there does seem to be a lot of faffing around and I can never figure out how reducing a race distance somehow makes it safer, either you're/it's good to go or it's not, I got an impression the organisers were trying to appease too many people in the safety/insurance/PR departments, maybe that's the way road racing is heading ??. The chicane thing is odd particularly the Mathers Cross set up, it's a god awful piece of track layout and the bikes are still getting back up to top speed anyway - chicanes aren't confined to road circuits, Castle Coombe, Cadwell, Snetterton(Russells) and Mallory have all had slow nadgy chicanes installed, I think Russells at Snetterton was done in the early 90's.