Posts
38
Joined
8/23/2014
Location
USA
Edited Date/Time
8/25/2014 3:33pm
Like Ron Turner, Tim Rutherford, Gary Denton, and guys like that made a living racing 3 -4 nights/days per week local series? There were Wed and Thursday Races. Ascot Friday nights, always a CMC or CRC series on Sat and Sundays, or both!
Golden State nationals, summer series, Trans-Cals in the Fall.
And the big name pros came out too alot of times.
Sometimes the Golden State races may have well been a AMA Pro national, because all were there.
Is that possible now? Or is the pay too small and bikes too expensive?
Golden State nationals, summer series, Trans-Cals in the Fall.
And the big name pros came out too alot of times.
Sometimes the Golden State races may have well been a AMA Pro national, because all were there.
Is that possible now? Or is the pay too small and bikes too expensive?
sure motor sports cost more than ball sports,but if there is a will,theres a way.
Factory teams restrict what their riders can ride outside of team sponsored events. One main reason is that their bikes are quit expensive to maintain, that's unneeded events that aren't in the budget to have the rider, bike and a mechanic at.
The payout is so small it's really not worth it to these guys. Their off-weekends would be better spent being exactly that, an off-weekend.
Also, there aren't weeknight races out here anymore, and many of these series have died off or lost their previous support.
I knew all the first part, I've seen lots of riders contracts over the last 10 years. Lots of restrictions.
I dont follow the local race scene too much anymore. I figured no weeknights really, but didnt realize these other series have died off. Thats too bad.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
And 500 is pretty damn high for down here..some these races you win both a classes and don't even get close to making your money back. It's a shit show
4 strokes
Only a few raced open also.
Guess it was more entries, those 110% Pro payout deals.
Back in the day, lots of guys made a damn decent living racing local pro, I mean a really nice living compared to some bullshit job, and way more fun.
Some of these guys racing 2-3 days/nights a week, were doing pretty damn well!
I know guys that would show up for Friday Ascot races, and go straight to a CRC or CMC race on Saturday and do no maintainence really, other than check the bolts, spokes and gas since the Filter was still clean.
The Sat night, wash it up, clean the filter, and race somewhere Sunday.
Usually they all ran whatever series was happening, and got lots of contingencies and prizes/product too.
this sport is trending down..
Nevermind...I think you were talking about local race payout, not with contingency. I'd be curious to know what a guy could make between track purse and contingency at a bigger race like cmc or gfi events.
This is a serious long term problem IMHO that won't go away if we don't aggressively address it. We need safer (don't expect a MX track to be safe) tracks and longer motos to keep people racing. The days of people being content being at the track for 8 plus hours to only race two 4 or 5 lap motos are long gone.
Speaking of safer tracks.........Ever been to a speedway race? Not a single jump and that shit is intense!
Its like the first turn chaos the whole race. Costa Mesa races used to be a packed house. Not sure how that is holding up.
explain to me what is the incentive for more people to get involved?
Man, this is hard for me to wrap my head around. Why would anyone want to do this anymore?
It did, by dark(winter time).
Some didn't even race 1 moto, but at least they got their entry fee back.
The next day we went and rode Beaumont because it rained all night. Just riding made it fun again.
Practice days and poaching banned ride spots is 10 times more fun than actually racing.
Pit Row
when we turn of age,all we want is a car(young age)
everybody has cars as soon as they are able.out of those millions of young people, enough take a step furture..car racing.also tons of car racing fans.
motorcycles are lame in the eyes of the majority of youngsters....compared to cars.
and for what its worth cars are more expensive in the long run and just as dangerous..in this day and age.
why not take public transportation or walk or cycle or well motorcycle?
you realize multiple dui/dwi offenders wont even opt the options,they will drive illegally.
point of my rant. push/sell motorbikes at young age,schools,etc.
I also remember making $4200 at a Golden State in 83 for two classes.
Times seemed much better then.
Even in 2009 local pro stuff paid about twice what it does now. The last time I raced in late 2012 I went 2-3 in 450 pro (10 riders in the class), and 1-2 in open pro (8 riders in the class) . I got handed $77 at the end of the day. I paid $35 per class in entry, and $20 in gate fee's for my girlfriend and I. So I lost $13 to wake up at 4 a.m. and drive 2 hours to race my ass off.
Every once in a while you'll find a track that gives you break and will give free pro entries, or pay 100 or 125% payback. But even then, most of the time when you do the math it's not even close.
This is why myself, and the majority of my buddies that raced are done racing. It just doesn't make sense to do it as anything more than a hobby.
people aren't that interested in dirtbikes anymore. plain and simple. the interest has been waning for the last 30 years. (i know that doesn't fall in line with the retarded theories that 4-strokes killed bike sales but it's the facts)
so...of course there isn't any money for local racing, because no one is interested outside of the guys who show up to bang bars.
The issue from my vantage point is we've made "dirt biking" too exclusive with the way the tracks have gone the last 20 years. I would like to see tracks offer scramble type tracks that ANYONE with basic motorcycle skills can circulate on plus have tracks utilize the perimeter of their facilities with a trail so dual sport folks can have some fun too.
We need a feeder device to get people interested in getting on a track....right now I can't think of any that exist.
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