Anybody wanna ride a new track?
- Thread starter hippiemcgrath
- Start date
JBrown118
PR Addict
Honestly...this is the first time I've been excited about going to a motocross race in a while...probably a couple years. Sounds like we will actually get to race on a track that will be prepped properly for a change. May actually get to use my water barrell instead of dumping it all out on the ground before heading home. Although most don't like it...the tracks HAVE to be soaked and sloppy for practice in order to be good throughout the day. I've only been to one race this year that wasn't dusty in practice which was dirt country last weekend. Was only that way because we had the rain through the week....yet it still wasn't that good with just powder in most corners. Track could have been sweet with minimal effort if they would have actually watered the track. Instead we ended up with only two or three corners that had any lines. Think part of this lack of maintenance is due to some of the racers and somewhat the economy since it takes more $$$ now to prep the track due to fuel and equipment costs. I hear a lot of guys whine and cry if theres a little mud on the track. That happened at the AMS Buckeye race that was cancelled when it stormed for 20 minutes. Sun was shinining with bright blue sky when announced. Track would have been good seeing as how it was already a big dust bowl at that point, but guess a few guys whined and didn't want to get their dirt bike dirty. LOL Every race I've went to this year, I've said I'm done with mx after this year aside for a select few places I will go. Just not worth the $60 in entry fees to race a dusty, hard packed track when I can ride that in my back yard or most anywhere for free. I remember years ago the Buckeye Series races would draw nearly 500 riders each event and don't ever really remember a dust/hard pack problem. Cheers to COCR for listening and following through so far.
Also, if you have open practice days...they should be prepped the same as race day! Sloppy and muddy to start!
Also, if you have open practice days...they should be prepped the same as race day! Sloppy and muddy to start!
Woody
PR Addict
Thats exactly it. Prep for practice like its raceday, perfect opportunity to tune your prep skills and learn what you can do better.
hippiemcgrath
PR Addict
Hey everyone, we are trying to work in a practice for sept. 25. We have our club meeting Tuesday and the decision will be made then. Someone mentioned our GP scheduled for tommorrow. Well we cancelled that due to the fact Fastrax was running a rider appreciation day GP, scheduled right on top of our race. We felt we wouldn't draw a big enough crowd, so we cancelled. Sorry. I also promised a helmet cam video for today but it will be up tommorrow as I didn't get to ride today. Too much work to do. We should have the video posted on here tommorrow in the early afternoon. Everything is going good, have to run all the equipment tommorrow and be certain we are ready. Post back then later
John250
PR Founding Father
And here is the second thing wrong with D 11.......No one takes into consideration when other tracks in the district are racing! You want to draw people in to try your new track out prior to your race day.....but at the expense of another D 11 tracks race. DMC is racing that day. They are one of the few tracks along with Dirt Country drawing any riders at all. I would just say if you do run your practice that day, dont get pissed when DMC runs something against you, and you draw 100 riders.
hippiemcgrath
PR Addict
Alright still no video. I chisel plowed the track today hoping to catch this rain tommorrow, and cut down on dust in the video. Then as you can imagine it was rough. A few of us was down there tracking it in and just when we got it about good enough to go fast my bike blew up. A little over rev too much. So we are gonna post the Go Pro helmet video Tuesday. Harold Goings will be your test pilot. He hopes to get the video Tuesday before our club meeting. Hopefully we will be starting a new thread on the "open practice" spot on the forum. Sorry to not come through with the video but, I asure you it's not from a lack of effort. And if you don't believe me, you can ask my wife. Later
MarctheSharc
PR Founding Father
If you’ve got issues with coming while on video…I’d suggest you close your eyes and pretend that you are somewhere else…(say BC). This way you can relax knowing everything has been planned out and taken care of before the shoot even starts.
…….your wife will thank me…
…….your wife will thank me…
RobinsonRacing
PR Addict
Yeh no kidding!!!! If your going to get mad at COCR for having a PRACTICE day vs. DMC's race day then blast all the other tracks that are running practices this weekend around D11!!! They're trying to better there track for us and our district, dont stand in the way.
RobinsonRacing
PR Addict
Its tuesday night...any info on practice or helmet cam?
hippiemcgrath
PR Addict
We are having practice Sunday the 25th. I will be working the dirt Thusrday till we practice. Have to see what the weather man says before I Know when I'll start watering. We did not want to run on top of DMC. There was much discussion over it but to get it prepped right, we just wouldn't have the time. We as a club appologize to DMC. I was told Saturday on the video, unless some one has some time and a go pro, I have a key. Practice will run from 11:00 to 4pm. We have changed our track and hope you all come out to ride it. We want to know whats missing. We will be doing some dress up work before the practice. But the club decided to have a practice and get feed back from you. I will assure you that the track will be disced up and ready for some deep ruts. I'll make a post in open practice tommorrow. later
John250
PR Founding Father
I am not mad at anyone for holding a practice...but any other thread on here about tracks NOT drawing enough riders to make money draws tons of posts about too many people practicing and not racing. I am just saying that this is an issue, and if 10 riders go to COCR to practice rather than DMC to race, it cost a promoter money, and they need the revenue. Lets estimate 10 riders........
10 riders with support lets say 2.5 people per rider through the gate= $250
10 riders 1/2 riding two classes = $375
Food = $100
Cost the promoter of the race $725 in revenue for just 10 riders not showing up.
Other "pratice" tracks that do not belong to the district do practice, but they do not belong to the district. My point is simple. The tracks are screaming for more people to come to their races, they need the money, etc. Then those same promoters within the district need to support the tracks within the district, and not race against another race or hold practices against other races within the district. That hurts the districts and draws down on riders at races. These are my opinions, and if I were at a D11 meeting, I would say the same thing. Guess I do not want to see D11 go away like D12 did.
10 riders with support lets say 2.5 people per rider through the gate= $250
10 riders 1/2 riding two classes = $375
Food = $100
Cost the promoter of the race $725 in revenue for just 10 riders not showing up.
Other "pratice" tracks that do not belong to the district do practice, but they do not belong to the district. My point is simple. The tracks are screaming for more people to come to their races, they need the money, etc. Then those same promoters within the district need to support the tracks within the district, and not race against another race or hold practices against other races within the district. That hurts the districts and draws down on riders at races. These are my opinions, and if I were at a D11 meeting, I would say the same thing. Guess I do not want to see D11 go away like D12 did.
BriarcliffMx
PR Founding Father
John250 - DMC will not see any less of a turnout. If people trully wanted to race, then they would go. If they only get 100 riders thats par for the course. The place that will loose riders is BC, because its the practice/open rider market that is being affected, not the racer group.
I plan to head down there in the afternoon, after I have terrorized my track for a couple hours.
I plan to head down there in the afternoon, after I have terrorized my track for a couple hours.
TCracing
PR Addict
I agree with everyone.
@ John250. I see what your saying, all the posts about poor turnouts and conflicts / competition among tracks within a district. Then they go an schedule a practice right on top of another scheduled event. So I see the reasoning.
On the other hand this is sort of a list minute thingy for a completely rebuilt track, Sort of special circumstances, I think could be forgiven. and I think those that are going to race DMC, will race at DMC. Plus they're a good ways apart, like 120 miles or so.
Looking at the weather forecast its not going to matter either way!!!! LOL!!!!!
@ John250. I see what your saying, all the posts about poor turnouts and conflicts / competition among tracks within a district. Then they go an schedule a practice right on top of another scheduled event. So I see the reasoning.
On the other hand this is sort of a list minute thingy for a completely rebuilt track, Sort of special circumstances, I think could be forgiven. and I think those that are going to race DMC, will race at DMC. Plus they're a good ways apart, like 120 miles or so.
Looking at the weather forecast its not going to matter either way!!!! LOL!!!!!
mooch
PR Elite
I'd agree with what Briarcliffmx had to say on the topic of practice vs racing.
If someone is in race mode they're gonna hit up a race...if someone is in practice mode their gonna practice somewhere.
Can't blaim the tracks for having practice days, the way I see it, if someone is just wanting to ride then there are plenty of private tracks they could go to if there wasn't a pay to practice track open.
If someone is in race mode they're gonna hit up a race...if someone is in practice mode their gonna practice somewhere.
Can't blaim the tracks for having practice days, the way I see it, if someone is just wanting to ride then there are plenty of private tracks they could go to if there wasn't a pay to practice track open.
MXracn746
PR Addict
Where? Where are these so called private practice tracks? Not on the south side of c-bus! I lived here since '90. As far as I know there ain't nothin', in fact I don't know of any anywhere else around town either. This town sux for riding!
hippiemcgrath
PR Addict
John250, we at COCR have been complaining about that very thing. There is soo many tracks out there now that with open practice and races on top the same dates. That the race gate turnout has suffered for years. we suffer from the very same thing and would like to work together with the other tracks. The problem is that with so many tracks and only so many weekends, you can't help it. We did not want to overlap DMC but the Thrills is next weekend. We changed the track and think it should be ridden to correct any flaws, and give us enough time to fix them before were racing. Having practice Saturday was an option. BC is having a open practice/pit bike race Saturday and some of us members would've had to take off work Friday to make it happen. It was either Sunday or nothing. The district did have a 200 mile rule years ago, but that was changed to like 50 or something ridiculus several years ago. In order to give the number of promoters fair opportunity to schedule enough events to stay alive. Plus the district gets sanctioning fees for every race scheduled. So the 50 mile rule makes them more money. If you've never been to the sanctioning meeting in November, don't go it sucks. everybody has a number of events and only so many dates. I do believe that we the motocross community should be able to come up with a solution. Less events per track per year. But when it is your weekend, your track would get everyone. Big 300 plus turnouts for all the tracks. If the tracks got those turnouts for fewer events they would make more money due to less expense. But if nobody comes to one of your only two scheduled races your sunk for the year. If we, as a whole go to different races together. The tracks would come around better, better racing, totally better events. A dream aye? I just wanted to explain to you why we scheduled on top of DMC. And agree with your point. We talk about it every year but never get it solved. I think COCR as a whole is willing to give and take a little to try and make this work. In this situation we just ran out of time and had to schedule on top of them. Sorry again to all of those at DMC. I hope our practice does'nt hurt your turn out too much. At the same time, we need a good turnout also. Sorry so long winded. I get that from my Mothers people. Ha Ha
mooch
PR Elite
Yep, maybe you're on the bad side of town as far as private tracks. Within a half hour of Johnstown, I can think of about a half dozen places.