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Unless I am trying to qualify for LL, you won't catch me paying over 100 bucks and spending an entire day to ride 20 laps. I even hate how practice tracks break up practices in 5 different classes. Let me show up and ride for as long as I want.
I think the age classes should be there but not so many.
moved you from 30 classes to 17. Now everyone can get their longer motos and not be at the track for 24 hours. Youre welcome
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Anything over 40/45+ should probably fall into a single Vet class. Do you really think *most* 45+ vet guys care about winning the plastic trophy against 5 other riders in their age based class OR would they have more fun if they all lined up at the same time and got to race with all their buddies for both motos for 15+ minutes?
+25A, +30A, +35A, +40A should all be rolled into Open A. Same with B & C.
In my area, C class might be the only one where you are pushing more than 40 entries and would have to worry about having more entries than gate spots. 250A, 450A, and +25A usually have the same 5 to 10 guys in all 3 classes. What's the point of that?
The general idea that I'm trying to pitch here is we need to consolidate down a bunch of these age and skill specific level classes that have maybe 3 to 10 riders in each and combine them into a bigger class to make full gates which would shorten the amount of time the race day takes while simultaneously increasing the amount of track time for each moto.
My local MC club has held several dirt track races in the past that were not AMA sanctioned and they purchased the event insurance through the same insurance carrier as the AMA sanctioned MotoX races.
Sometimes it requires a little more paper work and paying for the coverage further in advance then you have to with ama, but nothing that can't be done if you plan ahead a bit.
Less classes is a great idea, but certainly not a new one.
The problem is, less classes means less entries. Which translates into less revenue for the track.
It's very expensive to put on a race especially since the fixed costs run so high. When we do a race we have over $3500 invested before we drop a gate.
That includes insurance, labor, ambulance, awards and fuel, etc..
That doesn't include things like equipment breakdowns and maintenance, property tax and other misc expenses.
It all adds up. Now the good thing is once you get past the fixed costs, the profits are pretty good. So if your getting large rider counts/entries, like over 300 its all good. But much below that and the profits get eaten up pretty fast. Especially if you need to repair a dozer, skid steer, tractor or water truck. Something always breaks.
Btw, the equipment is very expensive. We're looking to buy a decent skid and will probably have to spend about 35 to 40k to get a good one that will be dependable.
Couldn’t you charge 100 dollars a class but guarantee x amount of races with x amount of laps/time on track with only x amount of time between a classes race 1,2 and 3.
It seems everyone complains about the same thing so if
In your marketing for said event you explain you’ve solved all these complaints, showing the value for money riders are getting theoretically you should equal or increase revenue (if more riders turn up due to this being a race that fixes all their complaints) with less paperwork and gate drops from all the classes, everyone’s happy right?
Our group has promoted a ton of races over a 30 year span and we're always trying to think outside the box on this. But so far we just don't have a good answer.
There's many very smart promoters out there trying to find a better way as well. Bottom line, it's easier said than done.
Wouldn't work. When we do a race, over half the riders only do one class.
Genuine question because I do not understand. There are multiple threads about race days being too long with too many classes, and everyone says the additional classes are for people who want to do more races, it doesn't sound like the additional classes are for people to find their niche race group. Youre stating that 50% of people only ride one class anyways (honestly, that's more than I assumed).
Are you saying that reducing classes would keep people from showing up, or would keep people from racing two classes? The reason I ask is that there are SO many people that say they would race if it want an all day affair to ride for 10 minutes.
Id like for a track to just test it out sometime, which I understand is easy to say when it isn't my money, but I cant stand seeing all of the "moto is dying" crap, and tracks sticking to the same damn formula they've been using since the 2000's when gates were full.
One weekend, run your normal schedule
Next race, reduced classes, if you typically run 30, cut in half. Keep the laps the same, and let everyone enjoy a half day of moto.
Next race, run the same reduced classes, but make it 3 motos. Itll still be a shorter day than your normal schedule, and offers more seat time.
If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but at least you will know that the community is okay with long race days and little seat time, and that the vocal crowd is the minority.
We all agree long race days suck, but there's no real good solution.
Our group has talked about this as promoters, and riders for a long time, with no good answer.
Like that if there are fewer classes all those that go to practice days would come to a race that has a shorter day or more laps.
And like indy has pointed out a promoter has to make x amount or they are out of biz, yet charging twice as much for half the entries isn't going to fly with riders that realize they can get as many laps for a practice day fee
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A big part of me thinks that if a promotor would re-structure the format to a reduced class format and then really promote the racing and made it a series that went around to several tracks, I think you would get higher attendance turnouts over time. It wouldn't take much to offset the loss of multiple entry fees with higher rider turnout and in addition I think most racers would pay an extra $10-15 at signup if they knew they would be done racing by mid afternoon with MORE track time.
Really focus on running a tight ship....Signup 7am to 8am, practice 8am to 9am, racing from 9am to 3pm. Racing from 9am to 3pm provides 6 hours of racing which means you could get up to 12 classes to play with and still keep the 15min motos.
I'm not saying cut the classes in half and charge the same. It very reasonable to charge 50-60 plus the gate fee for longer motos. But there is a crowd out there who wants longer motos and shorter days. gncc has exploded due to that reason. They are short days and the riders get all the seat time they want. And the tracks are very moto rider friendly.
A split program say 8-12 have big bikes. Big bikes would have to go first due to break in the wet prepped track. If the little bikes went first you couldn’t put down as much water and would later result more time being taken up for putting down more water.
Then have little bikes start at 12. In between session if there is parts of the track that need touch up it could be done quick. By 4 everyone should be packed up and going home.
Most importantly for something like this to work or just a normal race day is START ON TIME!
Post a reply to: Local Racing... What really grinds my gears. (South Carolina)