Calling all South East/South Carolina guys

bh
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bh
I'm really trying to push this were the customers and promoters should know what we want idea hear locally. Because what typically happens is riders will try out the whole local racing deal and at some point they figure out how much better off-road is seat time and schedule wise they migrate over to there. And they end up being a race 90% woods and race 10% moto type of guy, but they practice the majority of the time on motocross.

The problem is nobody says a word or gives any feedback, they just speak with their wallet and spend their money elsewhere (rightfully so), and local motocross is hurting pretty bad in my eyes. With that being said if you race in the south east, or South Carolina area please fill out this form.

Thanks!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdVail60qGI51LezUGkSKdu73ivIfU…
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lumpy790
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lumpy790 12/7/2021 2:33pm
12/7/2021 2:33pm
I wouldn't say NC/SC MX is dead however the Issue I have seen since moving here almost 20 years ago is every track tries to hold outlaw races at the same time so none of them get a good turnout.

The AMA district here is dead.
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bh
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bh 12/7/2021 3:01pm
12/7/2021 3:01pm
lumpy790 wrote:
I wouldn't say NC/SC MX is dead however the Issue I have seen since moving here almost 20 years ago is every track tries to hold...
I wouldn't say NC/SC MX is dead however the Issue I have seen since moving here almost 20 years ago is every track tries to hold outlaw races at the same time so none of them get a good turnout.

The AMA district here is dead.
maybe I could have worded it different, I believe it can be a lot better and with more consistent turnouts think 20+ man gates are very attainable for most classes. I think its just a matter of making a better more streamlined experience like mideast, sorcs, nchsa, and carolina xc. And ultimately trying to hear the people out.
queen of spodes 12/7/2021 3:30pm
12/7/2021 3:30pm Edited Date/Time 12/7/2021 3:31pm
I race maybe 1-2 times a year now. The last race I went to (SEVMX) I was at the track 9 hours and rode a total of 20 laps. On top of the entry fee and 2 class fees, I paid way more to ride way less time than practice days.

Hit that downvote but I'm a vet lady rider, not super fast just want to have fun and not get hurt. There are so few women who ride/race MX anymore, so I end up in the senior classes since that's safest to me. I don't know what can be done to get more women racing again.. can promoters/track owners offer discounts for us?

Way too many classes as is. Way too much time at the races for a tiny amount of ride time. I also like spectating but it just seems we are spending more money, for longer wait times, for less overall enjoyment.
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Sandusky26
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Sandusky26 12/7/2021 3:56pm
12/7/2021 3:56pm
I like to freeride in the hills.
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Chance117
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Chance117 12/7/2021 5:17pm
12/7/2021 5:17pm
There are a number of factors that contribute to the decreasing turnouts we are seeing at moto races on the local level.

Having raced/ridden moto & off-road for about 20 years, a few things I think that are key-factors.

1. Too many classes. We have all been to a local race where there are 5 bikes on the track for a moto. There are safe ways to combine more classes to allow for either slightly longer motos, or a shorter day overall. This also leading to the increasing costs per class, to do 4 laps for a moto could be mitigated.

2. Local promoters having problems, and not working together to coordinate some kind of series, or at least schedule separate weekends. All too often there will be weeks where no local tracks are racing, and then 3 tracks are racing on the same day. If they could all cooperate, everyone wins. The turnouts are better, more money is made for each track, and the sport continues to grow.

3. A conversation that I had with a previous track owner of one of the best tracks Georgia has seen, one of the main issues he mentioned was riders & parents complaining about layouts/track conditions, and bashing the track publicly via public forum or social media rather than talking to the owner or promoter, and then complain when they or their kid doesn’t have anywhere to practice.

4. Something that I am unsure as to why, but now most tracks only open once a month or every few weeks for practice on the weekends, and that seems to be particular to the southeast for some reason, and the rest of the country still continues to open most or all of their tracks every weekend.

5. Slightly unrelated but worth noting, parents continuing to give their money to ‘training facility’ owners, for those owners to go buy local tracks and then not open them to the public. Not naming any names but there are a few prominent tracks in Georgia this has happened to as of recent years.

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user760a
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user760a 12/7/2021 9:50pm
12/7/2021 9:50pm
You are right about the small, fly by night outlaw series'....never going to go anywhere. I moved to NC from upstate NY at a time that motocross was big, dist. 3,4 and 34 all with very healthy turnouts., and cohesive series' run in each area....

I have totally gone over to off road racing in NC now....dont even really know a lot of places I would even get to ride moto anymore, much less race a decent day. There is no way I will go sit at a rinky dink track all day for 35 min track time....
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Phillip_Lamb
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Phillip_Lamb 12/7/2021 11:02pm
12/7/2021 11:02pm
this has been an ongoing issue even in california. though in the past few years the locals have been doing a good job to put on series, most tracks here are open regularly at least 2-3 days a week,

but offroad has grown significantly more and for all the same issues. lack of track time, needlessly long days, etc

MxRewind
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MxRewind 12/8/2021 6:06am
12/8/2021 6:06am
I’ve moved here in Myrtle beach from New England 3 years ago. Grew up racing NESC and nothing stacks up down here. I’ve raced a lot less locally here due to the fact of a consistent 1 to 5 at most rider gate in the A class. It’s such a bad turnout that even combining the A&B class into an all star A/B class still gets the same results. Too many small series going on at the same time. We need one big series in the sc state with all tracks on board to not host other racing on same weekends.

If I knew the legal side and had a partner to run a series, I know plenty of track owners and connections to where I’m sure I could get a good series up. However would these other promoters run against me every weekend would still be a question.
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bite_the_curb 12/8/2021 6:28am
12/8/2021 6:28am
someone needs to step up and buy up all the tracks, turn it into a REIT..float some stock on the NYSE and run it like an organized corporation would
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queen of spodes 12/8/2021 7:01am
12/8/2021 7:01am
bite_the_curb wrote:
someone needs to step up and buy up all the tracks, turn it into a REIT..float some stock on the NYSE and run it like an...
someone needs to step up and buy up all the tracks, turn it into a REIT..float some stock on the NYSE and run it like an organized corporation would
Chapter 11 in 3, 2, 1....
FCTRY
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FCTRY 12/8/2021 7:04am
12/8/2021 7:04am
user760a wrote:
You are right about the small, fly by night outlaw series'....never going to go anywhere. I moved to NC from upstate NY at a time that...
You are right about the small, fly by night outlaw series'....never going to go anywhere. I moved to NC from upstate NY at a time that motocross was big, dist. 3,4 and 34 all with very healthy turnouts., and cohesive series' run in each area....

I have totally gone over to off road racing in NC now....dont even really know a lot of places I would even get to ride moto anymore, much less race a decent day. There is no way I will go sit at a rinky dink track all day for 35 min track time....
My biggest frustration in NC was getting enough seat time to feel ready to go racing. East Bend in Winston Salem is racing all the time and has a lot of practice days, most reliable schedule of anywhere, but its a very small track. They split up practice such that you are usually capped at 15min motos, one per hour, so I have to hang out for 5 hours to get a decent workout in. Racing there, the motos are absurdly short regardless of class, about ~5min, so it's pure startocross.

Silver Valley MX in Lexington just had their first race, it's one definitely worth keep an eye on. My suspicion is that Thad has his eye on big things there, it's a national style track and a venue with tons of space. He's been putting a lot of work into the infrastructure there. From a track build perspective, it's my favorite I've ever been on. But, the practice days are few and far between, curious to see if they pick up as the venue becomes more developed.

Lake Sugar Tree in Va has a similar problem, racing all the time but very few practice days. I've lived in Roanoke for 6 months and my schedule has lined up with their practice days exactly one time.

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heathkiller 12/8/2021 7:10am
12/8/2021 7:10am
I loath when people complain about track time at a amateur Mx race. When you decide to go race it’s impossible for ever class to get a 15 min practice and two 20+1 motos. A race is about comparing your skill to others. If you want track time, go to a practice day and ride until your heart is content. Practice is for building your skill and racing is for testing it. If you decide to go race understand you will sit for a long period of time until it is your turn to race.
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GrapeApe
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GrapeApe 12/8/2021 7:15am
12/8/2021 7:15am
heathkiller wrote:
I loath when people complain about track time at a amateur Mx race. When you decide to go race it’s impossible for ever class to get...
I loath when people complain about track time at a amateur Mx race. When you decide to go race it’s impossible for ever class to get a 15 min practice and two 20+1 motos. A race is about comparing your skill to others. If you want track time, go to a practice day and ride until your heart is content. Practice is for building your skill and racing is for testing it. If you decide to go race understand you will sit for a long period of time until it is your turn to race.
You should put this in the "controversial moto-related opinion" thread and see how many down votes you can rack up.
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bh
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bh 12/8/2021 7:50am
12/8/2021 7:50am
Chance117 wrote:
There are a number of factors that contribute to the decreasing turnouts we are seeing at moto races on the local level. Having raced/ridden moto &...
There are a number of factors that contribute to the decreasing turnouts we are seeing at moto races on the local level.

Having raced/ridden moto & off-road for about 20 years, a few things I think that are key-factors.

1. Too many classes. We have all been to a local race where there are 5 bikes on the track for a moto. There are safe ways to combine more classes to allow for either slightly longer motos, or a shorter day overall. This also leading to the increasing costs per class, to do 4 laps for a moto could be mitigated.

2. Local promoters having problems, and not working together to coordinate some kind of series, or at least schedule separate weekends. All too often there will be weeks where no local tracks are racing, and then 3 tracks are racing on the same day. If they could all cooperate, everyone wins. The turnouts are better, more money is made for each track, and the sport continues to grow.

3. A conversation that I had with a previous track owner of one of the best tracks Georgia has seen, one of the main issues he mentioned was riders & parents complaining about layouts/track conditions, and bashing the track publicly via public forum or social media rather than talking to the owner or promoter, and then complain when they or their kid doesn’t have anywhere to practice.

4. Something that I am unsure as to why, but now most tracks only open once a month or every few weeks for practice on the weekends, and that seems to be particular to the southeast for some reason, and the rest of the country still continues to open most or all of their tracks every weekend.

5. Slightly unrelated but worth noting, parents continuing to give their money to ‘training facility’ owners, for those owners to go buy local tracks and then not open them to the public. Not naming any names but there are a few prominent tracks in Georgia this has happened to as of recent years.

What really gets me about the classes is that they say people want to race their ama classes, but in my experience people who race ama events and big national races where that is a factor are few and far between. 5% or less. I’m really going to try and push this survey so we can get some good data, and actually as it sits (granted it’s a pretty small group) 5.9 percent say they have to race their ama class.

I really do try and give these guys a break in track conditions and that type of stuff for the most part, the only thing that is complaint worthy in my eyes is when they build something and it risks people saftey or they do something unsafe.

I’m going to assume in the last part you’re talking about Matt walker. It absolutely kills me when these big name, been around it a long time type people do something like that and they know that it is detrimental to the sport. Will never understand it.
bh
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bh 12/8/2021 8:06am
12/8/2021 8:06am
heathkiller wrote:
I loath when people complain about track time at a amateur Mx race. When you decide to go race it’s impossible for ever class to get...
I loath when people complain about track time at a amateur Mx race. When you decide to go race it’s impossible for ever class to get a 15 min practice and two 20+1 motos. A race is about comparing your skill to others. If you want track time, go to a practice day and ride until your heart is content. Practice is for building your skill and racing is for testing it. If you decide to go race understand you will sit for a long period of time until it is your turn to race.
It’s not necessarily the track time it’s the time spent racing. If feels so one dimensional. It’s startcross for the most part. Unlike woods racing where there seems to be more styles of riders and ways of going about it. Moto is just sprint speed and starts at the local level.

I don’t think you have to sit there all day, is there some sort of golden rule that states I have to watch every single class go between my motos? It’s like going to a youth basketball game and your kid playing 1 half and then every other age group plays their first half before your kid can finish his game and go home.

Obviously it’s not possible for long motos to happen with the current class structure, but if everyone was boiled down to one skill, vet, or bike size (little bikes) class it would 100% be possible.
bite_the_curb 12/8/2021 2:18pm
12/8/2021 2:18pm
FCTRY wrote:
My biggest frustration in NC was getting enough seat time to feel ready to go racing. East Bend in Winston Salem is racing all the time...
My biggest frustration in NC was getting enough seat time to feel ready to go racing. East Bend in Winston Salem is racing all the time and has a lot of practice days, most reliable schedule of anywhere, but its a very small track. They split up practice such that you are usually capped at 15min motos, one per hour, so I have to hang out for 5 hours to get a decent workout in. Racing there, the motos are absurdly short regardless of class, about ~5min, so it's pure startocross.

Silver Valley MX in Lexington just had their first race, it's one definitely worth keep an eye on. My suspicion is that Thad has his eye on big things there, it's a national style track and a venue with tons of space. He's been putting a lot of work into the infrastructure there. From a track build perspective, it's my favorite I've ever been on. But, the practice days are few and far between, curious to see if they pick up as the venue becomes more developed.

Lake Sugar Tree in Va has a similar problem, racing all the time but very few practice days. I've lived in Roanoke for 6 months and my schedule has lined up with their practice days exactly one time.

are the split up by classes? its not a good idea to have "open" practice unless the turnout is really low.

NC isnt really a wealthy state either..that could also be why turnouts arent really all that good.
Sandusky26
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Sandusky26 12/8/2021 3:52pm
12/8/2021 3:52pm
You guys should come race Saturday and Sunday at Jammin Jimmy Weinerts.
1

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