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Why did they amalgamate..? I dont know! Temporary insanity perhaps...but one thing is for certain, it decimated both senior and junior mx racing..
Actually decimated is not appropriate..the term comes from the roman army habit of punishing 1 in 10 of a legion for misdeeds..the latin deca or 10 ( i think ? )
Its more like 9 out of 10 gone from the sport now.
The mini bike dad that had a go at me will never get it...none of them ever do, but these people now dominate every club...the club system is failed, the MA system has utterly failed.
The only hope for ressurection is through private enterprise and abandonment of MA and the club system
The ride park operators are giving us a glimpse of how it could be if people started to actually think rather than feel..like the mothers club always do...
Here's the thing...the mini bike dad that had a go at me will soon be gone from the sport, when his kid discovers cars and waxed magnets, hes gone, just like most kids that get everything given to them...mx means nothing to them, when they have to pay for it themselves, they're gone..
Ive had this same argument with these people for over 30 years..its not about the bloody kids...they are not the future of the sport...independent adults are the future of the sport, those with jobs and discretionary income..
The absence of these people on start lines today, is why the sport is dead, these are the people that must be catered for...they are customers..pure and simple and they vote with their feet...and they have done so!
Of all the mini bike parents ive fought and contested comittee ballots with, club direction ideology with... are any of them still involved in the sport.?..no any of their kids...no...
Junior motocross is a family thing..its short lived...the kids move on after they turn university or get a job and your own place age and the parents move on too..they are not in it for the sport or the future of the sport , its just a family thing.
There are of course some exceptions , but the rule generally holds true
We got in big troble when we allowed these people to take over our sport
MA might still exist to run junior mx...split it up..but senior mx belongs in the realm of private enterprise
Most if not all of those volunteers were the parents of the riders, even know it was senior racing! seriously the seniors were still in their late teens early 20s, the track was ran by a guy who lost his son to racing, you probably raced against him!
The canteen was ran by two mothers of riders, same as the race sec, the guys who worked the track were parents of the riders, it was still parents running the show, just the kids were adults themselves.
That was just prior to the amalgamation, it was the hey day for the sport back then, MR motocross was huge, the only junior racing with seniors was the RLH class, which was for riders about to hit the senior ranks (15/16 yr old)
It was a time when shopping centres were closed on Sunday's, there was no internet and limited choice in sports, less legal crap to deal with. Volunteers were not hard to find, seriously there was nothing else to do, so why not and entry to a national was still around $20! (Had a mate check his ticket price from back in the late 80s to a MR Motocross event)
If 4000 people paid $20 back in 1988 to watch MX the club and promoter was making a fortune right. the same number of spectators as $20 these days I am sure a promoter would be happy with for a MX event in Aus! lucky to see 1000 - 1500 actual paying spectators to the biggest races in this country at the moment, no one is paying to come watch a local clubday, so its a rider pays program we are all in.
To sit there and blame mini bike parents for the downturn in racing is short-sighted. Is there a reason a all senior club could not now exist? ask yourself why it does not happen, I know plenty of riders who agree with you, and ask why they can't just have senior races, I have been there myself.
But at the end of the day despite there being many that think the same as you and as I have, nothing happens, again ask yourself why. The answer is simple, you just want someone else to organise everything and just rock up race and go home... But seriously who is going to do that for you?
In Vic the state titles still run separate junior and senior series, why not just rock up and race those, same here in SA, juniors race Sat, seniors Sunday.
You ask if I have a senior national licence, yes I certainly do, have had one since 2002, dad sold everything up when I was 11, I had to wait until I was in my early 20s to get a bike, learn to ride again and race.
I have raced every year since, been on many club, and series commitees and have become thankful that junior parents do the work they do, and also thankful that many of those volunteers continue on long after their kids have moved on from the sport.
I was lucky that my Girl Friend at the time and now wife came to every event with me, both here in SA and when I travelled interstate to flag for me when I started racing.
When I had kids that stopped and I came across your trouble of no flaggy, but quickly worked out that if I could team up with a rider in a different class, or work with a mini parent on the combined days, we could swap on and off between races, I made it work, still do.
My son has only just started racing this year, he turned 7 in March, if you think it is hard as a single adult trying to race and deal with finding a flaggy, try having a kid who wants to also ride and race, mum can't come to the track as she is off with my daughters sport, so now I rely on other junior parents to both help me with flagging and also looking after my son when on the track.
On Sunday just gone, another junior parent got Jay on his bike, on the line and the race started before I could pull back around after my race.
You can bang on all you want about mini parents being the death of senior only racing, but the truth is, it is senior riders who want everything done for them without lifting a finger themselves who have put an end to senior only racing.
As you say you can't even organise someone to flag for you, but expect a group of volunteers to put on an entire race event on for you everything provided but at a low cost and no extra cost for Flaggy.
Maybe you will get lucky and someone will find a way to make a profit from running events and you can just rock up to their races and pay to race. Actually there is, if you are willing to race the nationals, pay your $300 rock up and everything is provided, just bring your bike and race
One thing I can promise you is, nothing ever changes from posting your thoughts on a message board. If you really want to get out and race make it happen, find a way. I will be, back racing again this weekend, then the following weekend.
Its all there in front of you if you really want to do it, or as you say you have been around since the 70s, from my understanding there is a huge vintage, Viper clubs getting around, seniors only, race every year of bike including moden classes.
The day in the dirt down under is heading to Qld in a couple of months, plenty of riding to be had there. Get out and race.
but most our regional bigger meetings are run over 2 days, with juniors and mini's (on a seperate tracks) running saturday and seniors sunday, with the clubs getting outside flaggers in
all club days are run over one day all in, and you usually get cheap entry if you provide a flag marshal, some clubs still run a roster system
although we are still set up on the ACU system as well, i dont see MX races being run by promotors here any time soon, there is just not the money in it with out the volunteers,
The Shop
Scotty came out and won the last round of our NZ cross country champs , after not racing for 2 years, on one of his families companies hire bikes, so he can still peddle, (the current MX2 # 2 won the series, and finished 2nd in that Cross Country race,
NZ is a small place, and MX is a small sport, we all know each other,
Little things that MA have done like banning tear offs, banning go pro use?? Don’t help the issue.
Clubs forcing seniors to go and Marshall.. its a lot of effort and money to get up there for the day after working all week, now we have to sit around and Marshall for the Morning before we ride?? No thanks.
This kind of stuff along with the fees etc is what steered me away from the sport.
I don’t watch Aussie MX but I make a point of watching every AMA round.. not sure why but I’m probably not the only one.
Don't get me wrong I would love a world where senior and junior racing were still separate for the most part, it would make my life easier on both fronts of racing myself and then my son racing.
I just don't see it happening in this day and age, volunteers are a thing of the past, paid volunteers (oxymoron!) raise the price of racing, so we either accept more expensive racing or running with juniors.
But seriously if you do want to race, there are events out there that will cater to what you are looking for, SA is not that far down the road, come race our next two state titles, seniors only on Sunday, $20 covers your flaggy, Vets class is normally close to a full gate and we all have a ball, whinge about each other, then line up and do it again.
Yes the Vic titles run seperate senior and junior events and yes I compete in them.
Ive actually flagged one day and raced the other...thats how i know that flag money was taken and volunteers were used..
You can blame shopping centres and mobile phones...but that was not an issue during the time of the amalgamation, the drop off of senior riders was immediate..
You can bung on about the cost of living etc etc...all you like, but the ride parks are packed with people on new bikes ,so that argument doesnt cut it either, they want nothing to do with clubs and MA bullshit
You can describe how you got around the flag marshal thing...everyones mileage varies... motocross meant everything to me,my addiction to it left me fairly devoid of a social life, and from a small town where no one else raced....as
hard as I tried, i could never find anyone to take to the races.
Others here have said its what drove them out..just because you found a way around it doesnt mean others can...it was black and white, no flagger , no ride...simple. people left the sport because of it. Dumbest thing ever done in this sport
this was pure mini bike parent ideology brought over from the junior mx associations....every single rider at a race meeting was there with at least one parent, they had to be...sub 16 year olds arent allowed to drive!
Having that available labor force was utilised by them to provide flaggies..
Clubs running senior events had to have their shit together..a good open senior feature event would make their year financially...making the riders provide the staff to run the event would have been considered an absurd idea..those clubs were real clubs ,doing a variety of things..real club ideals and mentality..not just a collection of parents providing a riding opportunity the kids.. A current example of a club with this old school entrepreneurial mentality is the Horsham club..
I quit racing in 2002 when i fronted up to a 2 day open meeting at a club that i was a member of, the event sponsored heavily by the yamaha dealer that sponsored me, entered in 4 classes and some stupid bitch at sign on said , find a flagger or you dont ride...i packed my shit and turned my back on the sport for over 10 years..
I will keep banging on about mini bike parents being the death of the sport because they are!
Stop thinking about how your child is a third generation racer, take your blinkers off and have a look at the bigger picture.
Clubs were entrepenuers, they ran senior races to make money, once mini bike parents took over, they ran races to entertain the kids and themselves.
Senior riders are customers...you wanna make money as a club? Cater to what senior riders want...you dont want senior riders ? Keep running it the same.
Ive been that senior rider trying to direct a club away from this notion that its all about kids...and i still am.. but with these domineering mini bike parents...its impossible to even get a look in.
With how hard it is to get land to start a track now and every club locked up into mini bike mentality...theres no hope at a club level for a ressurection...
I say its mini bike parents and MA to blame...you say its shopping centres and mobile phones etc..
I wonder what others think?
We will see, I keep hearing from this guy on facebook that a breakaway mx organization is ready to launch...imminent.. i dont know him and im highly sceptical , but he's adamant.
The ride park owners may well evolve into race promoters....thats how they operate in the USA..
People will always want to race..when someone comes up with a workable concept for running races devoid of the baggage, unnecessary rules and officialdom, unnecessary flaggers on tracks devoid of any blind spots and keeps it to no more than 6 classes or so with decent length motos...
Its naive to think that people who wanna go fast on a motocross bike dont wanna race....most do , its human nature.
Officialdom, petty bullshit and unnecessary expense have gotten in the way of that..
Frank Thomason from Racing Enterprises Motocross at Glern Helen , California, runs something like 40 races a year doesnt he? Ive raced there....its like being set free from slavery... I wonder if the regulars there think that motocross racing could never be any good run by a private promotor?
Here's some maths... for a ride park operator..
6 classes
30 riders signed up per class = 180
$ 60 entry fee...fucking cheap compared to any MA sanctioned open meeting about $5 to $10 dearer than a practise day
3× 20 min motos per class = 6 hours of racing...most ride park days are 9,30 am to 4.30 pm ,so 7 hours, an hour for lunch break and its even. Thats plenty of hard moto track time for just about anyone
180 entries x $ 60 = $10,800 for the day... not a bad take, leaves some fat for overheads
Does the promoter need flaggies? Depends on the track and common sense...no MA , common sense would prevail
Score keepers? Go with transponders.
Finish line flagger, same person that drops the start gate...
Frank Thomasson doesnt have to pay a large contingent of staff does he?
This notion that race days are vastly more expensive than practice days, is simply because MA nakes it so..
Insurance may be more expensive for a race day..but other than the drop of the gate...what difference is there really to a bunch of riders going for broke on the pro track at Baccus Marsh?
The ride park operators will eventually wake up to this.
.
Do you feel as though you are getting a handle on this yet?
I get paid 50 bucks a game by my local footy club, most of my mates are in the same boat. Why would we even think about blowing a weeks wage to race on a weekend?
Going to California opened my eyes to the Beuracratical bullshit.
I can see Ridepark doing events soon enough.
i think your wrong in the fact that most people want to race, for most poeple, taking 3 hours on a sunday to go riding at a ride park is more fun than 6-8 hours at a track for 3-4 races,
also, it takes at least 5 people more, plus flag marshals to run a race day rather than a ride day,
2 extra sign on, 2 starters, 1 finish flag, 1 timer,
a timing system costs 15K plus $350 plus each transonder, so either the riders have to buy them, or you have to rent them, which means someone has to collect them, and ring those who leave with them etc,
I think your right about the bike parks, i just don't think many of them will go into running races,
i'm lucky, i have the choice of at least 2 club day races every weekend within 2 hours drive of me, NZ MX is still going head, plus 3 ride parks within an hour, great place to live here in NZ, i know the access to riding is not as easy over their
Pit Row
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