How was opening day at OIR? worth the wait?
- Thread starter hondarjw
- Start date
Meister
PR Founding Father
There were a few..
I cannot remember the kids name on the Honda. Was wondering if anyone would be able to update.
Thoroughly not impressed with the way the EMT's handled issues, specially with their 1987 Ford Econoline van.. Didnt see a c collar once either.. There was a group or atleast one EMT from Cleveland that was just spectating (or there with a rider) that did a good job helping..
I cannot remember the kids name on the Honda. Was wondering if anyone would be able to update.
Thoroughly not impressed with the way the EMT's handled issues, specially with their 1987 Ford Econoline van.. Didnt see a c collar once either.. There was a group or atleast one EMT from Cleveland that was just spectating (or there with a rider) that did a good job helping..
dmx153
PR Founding Father
There were two major crashes both from the same place, the downhill jump. Mark Cuva was the first one and then
Austin Pateous was the 2nd. I'm not sure of the extent of their injuries and hope they are both ok. After Austin
crashed they took the dozer and cleaned up the face of the take off. That take off sucked in the first lap of
practice and I nearly crashed off of it a few times. Just a sad excuse of a race track in general. The Hands had
that place operating like a well oiled machine. Ohhhhh and the worst of all was no toilet paper in the port-a-johns!
I had my family there, my younger brother and his family too.... and the worst thing for any female is no TP!! I remember
Holly coming back saying, how can ALL the port-a-johns have no TP left in them and it's only 1 o'clock?
Talk about a fall from grace as now OIR is simply pathetic.
Austin Pateous was the 2nd. I'm not sure of the extent of their injuries and hope they are both ok. After Austin
crashed they took the dozer and cleaned up the face of the take off. That take off sucked in the first lap of
practice and I nearly crashed off of it a few times. Just a sad excuse of a race track in general. The Hands had
that place operating like a well oiled machine. Ohhhhh and the worst of all was no toilet paper in the port-a-johns!
I had my family there, my younger brother and his family too.... and the worst thing for any female is no TP!! I remember
Holly coming back saying, how can ALL the port-a-johns have no TP left in them and it's only 1 o'clock?
Talk about a fall from grace as now OIR is simply pathetic.
SCHAFFERNOCKER
PR Addict
Really must have been bad. Glad I didnt waste my time.
Meister
PR Founding Father
I ran into this issue as well as I had Court and Ariel with me.. Someone put some tp in the crapper on the far right about 2pm (Thank God LOL).. That was the only one with any in it for most of the day..
tell me about it, they hauld me out of there a couple years ago and let me tell u, if i had ne neck or head injuries they would have just made them worse trying to transport me to the ambulance.
bmackenzie
PR Member
I was spectating and some of the more notable observations were:
It may have not been the best opening day, but the issues that I saw are all fixable.
- Very dusty – A good soaking of the obstacles would have greatly reduced the amount of dust. Rolling any of the jumps kicked up a torrent of dust.
- The first grouping of jumps after the sand section/turn were very sketchy. I’m not sure what this section is called but it has two distinct paths you can take. It’s located by the entry gate into the property. Besides looking awkward for the riders, the face of the right-hand jump had a nasty kicker. The frequent panic revs and dismounts in that section was a clear indicator that it needs to be reworked.
- There were not enough track workers to assist in the event of a crash. I saw several of the little guys go down and get stuck under their bikes and no one was around to pick them up.
- The track workers could have used radios. This would have minimized or eliminated the confusion with track prep and medical situations.
It may have not been the best opening day, but the issues that I saw are all fixable.
MarctheSharc
PR Founding Father
But that would have ruined the Suprise………
<O
P.S........ Briarcliff is the way it is because of its strong leadership….</O
hershey
PR Elite
Well I was sort of asked to keep silent by Chris ( the track owner ) but Seeing so many already know the truth I cant keep it in.
From the time I pulled in the gate I knew we were in for a bad day of racing with heat in the 90's. They had only starting watering the largest majority of the track that morning.I went out in the second and third practice group. The first lap of my practice I couldnt see bikes 30' ahead of me in the back section. The jump faces were chunked out wash boards the would kick your back end in any unknown direction if you missed an exact line. Unlike a rutted jump face these were dry slippery and much more difficult to hold a line on. It was obvious to me they were built with no moisture in the dirt. The landings on many of the jumps were very steep and those and the new whoop/ roller section just had a weird feeling to them.
That being said, the only real complaint I had was the prep. I could easily lived with and raced with aggression on the track had there been proper moisture in the track. But in my opinion the track prep made visibility to dangerous to ride. The accidents on the down hill jump were the result of the take off face being complete garbage but in all honesty if you slowed up and didnt jump to the down hill section you were fine. The rider had control over this but who wants to slow down if your racing just because you MIGHT get kicked funny on the take off.
I went to sign up and asked for my money back after practice, the first time in 25 years of racing. I was directed to talk to Chris. When we met he asked what my problem was with the track. I said it was too dusty and I didnt feel the track was going to hold up. I didnt want to race in these conditions. He then stated they had done a very good job with the track. At that I said ( and in hind sight it was a bit mean) If I were you I would be embarrassed about the prep. I told him I had never been to a track that had that much dust in the first practice session. At which point he made every excuse under the sun for why it was dusty. DMX153, who was right there with me says, did you water friday? Chris says .. 'no' Dave says what about saturday? Chris says 'yes' ( which later found out was only the rollers and one other corner with a hose, not the entire track). Chris said that no track could possibly water a track and have no dust in this heat. My reply was ' Briarcliff does it! ( dont get a big head Jeremy! lol) ' I then told him I would be happy if he just refunded my for one class. He proceeded to pull out his wallet and give me $20 back and asked me to ride anyway. He stated that he didnt want me to get on the internet and bash them since he refunded some money. He also asked me to ride anyway so I could see that they had a handle on it and it would be nice by race time.
I will give him credit on trying too late. A good 3 hours of the race day was spent on prepping between motos. One session was during the grass fire incident. But there wasnt near enough water put down to help let alone what should have been put down the two days prior to the event. But the most disturbing thing to me was Chris's attitude. From what DMX 153 and I got from our conversation was he truly felt they had done the best they could and it wasnt bad at all. He actually stated that they had done a very good job. I may have put him in the defensive right off the bat but that is no excuse to think those conditions were even ridable for a racing venue. If a track owner cant even admit that the conditions were poor how are they going to improve on them?
The amount of downed riders is one show of the conditions but if you can look at the final results and see that a majority of the racers left after the first set of motos that should tell everyone how poor the conditions were. Even with the long delays the day wasnt over the edge long. Sure it should have ended much sooner but I left after the 8th moto was on the track or done and it was 5 pm. they only had 7 3 lap motos left. thats about 45 mins of racing laps left. People were leaving because the conditions only got worse as the day went on.
Its too bad that the first race they held tanked so bad, its difficult to recover a bad name let alone a devistatingly terrible name. I would be hard pressed to ever return if the same people are running the facility. Maybe after two days of rain prior to the event.
From the time I pulled in the gate I knew we were in for a bad day of racing with heat in the 90's. They had only starting watering the largest majority of the track that morning.I went out in the second and third practice group. The first lap of my practice I couldnt see bikes 30' ahead of me in the back section. The jump faces were chunked out wash boards the would kick your back end in any unknown direction if you missed an exact line. Unlike a rutted jump face these were dry slippery and much more difficult to hold a line on. It was obvious to me they were built with no moisture in the dirt. The landings on many of the jumps were very steep and those and the new whoop/ roller section just had a weird feeling to them.
That being said, the only real complaint I had was the prep. I could easily lived with and raced with aggression on the track had there been proper moisture in the track. But in my opinion the track prep made visibility to dangerous to ride. The accidents on the down hill jump were the result of the take off face being complete garbage but in all honesty if you slowed up and didnt jump to the down hill section you were fine. The rider had control over this but who wants to slow down if your racing just because you MIGHT get kicked funny on the take off.
I went to sign up and asked for my money back after practice, the first time in 25 years of racing. I was directed to talk to Chris. When we met he asked what my problem was with the track. I said it was too dusty and I didnt feel the track was going to hold up. I didnt want to race in these conditions. He then stated they had done a very good job with the track. At that I said ( and in hind sight it was a bit mean) If I were you I would be embarrassed about the prep. I told him I had never been to a track that had that much dust in the first practice session. At which point he made every excuse under the sun for why it was dusty. DMX153, who was right there with me says, did you water friday? Chris says .. 'no' Dave says what about saturday? Chris says 'yes' ( which later found out was only the rollers and one other corner with a hose, not the entire track). Chris said that no track could possibly water a track and have no dust in this heat. My reply was ' Briarcliff does it! ( dont get a big head Jeremy! lol) ' I then told him I would be happy if he just refunded my for one class. He proceeded to pull out his wallet and give me $20 back and asked me to ride anyway. He stated that he didnt want me to get on the internet and bash them since he refunded some money. He also asked me to ride anyway so I could see that they had a handle on it and it would be nice by race time.
I will give him credit on trying too late. A good 3 hours of the race day was spent on prepping between motos. One session was during the grass fire incident. But there wasnt near enough water put down to help let alone what should have been put down the two days prior to the event. But the most disturbing thing to me was Chris's attitude. From what DMX 153 and I got from our conversation was he truly felt they had done the best they could and it wasnt bad at all. He actually stated that they had done a very good job. I may have put him in the defensive right off the bat but that is no excuse to think those conditions were even ridable for a racing venue. If a track owner cant even admit that the conditions were poor how are they going to improve on them?
The amount of downed riders is one show of the conditions but if you can look at the final results and see that a majority of the racers left after the first set of motos that should tell everyone how poor the conditions were. Even with the long delays the day wasnt over the edge long. Sure it should have ended much sooner but I left after the 8th moto was on the track or done and it was 5 pm. they only had 7 3 lap motos left. thats about 45 mins of racing laps left. People were leaving because the conditions only got worse as the day went on.
Its too bad that the first race they held tanked so bad, its difficult to recover a bad name let alone a devistatingly terrible name. I would be hard pressed to ever return if the same people are running the facility. Maybe after two days of rain prior to the event.
hershey
PR Elite
Not unless the track owners get a better attitude........
John250
PR Founding Father
AMA rules state that after you practice, "if you do not feel your abilities are up to the track conditions, or that you can not safely participate in todays event, please see registration for a refund of your entry". I had one track one time try to tell me they would not refund all my registration, because I had gone out for practice. I reminded them of the big yellow card every track has to read at AMA sanctioned events, and they gave me a full refund.
MarctheSharc
PR Founding Father
Yup that's right John........But OIR is not AMA.
dmx153
PR Founding Father
I haven't seen them on here trying to defend themselves either. Sad, very sad.
hershey
PR Elite
Not long ago you posted in the OIR update about how you and Chris were friends. It also appears you ride a quad. Why all the animosity towards OIR and Chris all of the sudden if you wouldnt have rode at the race yesterday? Why are you asking Chris if he believes in karma?
MotoXRacer88
Noob
I too went to the OIR expecting a great day of racing but left extremely dissapointed with the way everything turned out. like some other people i too thought they should have ran practices or races or something/anything before a big event like a pro race, Im sorry but itsd just not a good idea to host A big/any event without having current rider feedback about the track especially if there were changes made. the thing about surprises is you dont know if its going to be a good surprise or a bad one. i raced in 450c and 250c whch both had over an hour delay, in 450c i sat on the line for over an hour while they prepped the track and put out the fire some kids started in a field then sat and waited for an hour on the line in 250c for another ambulance to arrive because another poor rider crashed on that absolute joke of a downhill jump(seriously 1 step above a mound of dirt in front of a 30+ ft drop). by the time the second motos started over half the riders in every class had gone home(supermini which was the last moto of the day only had 1 of 14 riders in it and the pros didnt even race the secound motos. if just about everything about OIR dosent change for the better FAST! ther is going to be no reason to help save this track that once was one of the best tracks/if not the best track around
cbb brandon
PR Addict
if i would of said half the stuff u guy r saying i would of been kicked off pr and called everything but a white person,lol
i said a month or 2 ago why arent they having practice to pay 4 there precious track.
i said a month or 2 ago why arent they having practice to pay 4 there precious track.