Open Practice vs Sessions

DelBalso123 said:
To quote myself "Not that I don't think the mini guys deserve to ride the big track and get their time, but if it means waiting an hour inbetween my rides for a few 15 minute sessions, then I'm gonna have to look elsewhere to ride."

Here's where I get to say "not my problem". I have no problem riding an open practice with minis that are jumping the majority of the jumps. Heck I loved practicing with big bikes when I was on minis. If the parents are not comfortable with jr being out there for open practice, not my problem.
Some tracks used to have mini practice days(maybe they still do). Of course that won't work if dad wants to ride too. Again, not my problem.
If I have to look elsewhere to ride my open practice, isn't it only fair that minis (and dads) have to look elsewhere for their sessioned practices?
If track owners decide to switch to sessions, more power to them I'll just have to look elsewhere. I'm not saying tracks can't do that because I need my open practice. Any reason you have to support sessioned practice is simply not my problem.
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This is why track owners shy away from sessions. I'm not bagging on John here, I'm simply explains to others. For example if I offer straight sessions the whole day, then I would guesstimate 30-40% of the riders I could have attracted will choose one of the other five practice tracks running open session. Right now a chunk of the riding customer prefers this setup. This is the demand. It's hard to pay bills with less riders. Again, if they didn't have five other tracks to choose from on any given weekend, well then that might be a different story. Or if there was a way to get everyone to agree to run practice the same, but that is never going to happen. Battle race weekends, sessions are accepted, not liked always, but accepted. Where are they going to find another Battle for Ohio race happening in Ohio that weekend that's running open practice on Saturday? Exactly. Over a barrel. Plus that's the fair thing to do allow people equal seat time for the race.
 
BriarcliffMx said:
This is why track owners shy away from sessions. I'm not bagging on John here, I'm simply explains to others. For example if I offer straight sessions the whole day, then I would guesstimate 30-40% of the riders I could have attracted will choose one of the other five practice tracks running open session. Right now a chunk of the riding customer prefers this setup. This is the demand. It's hard to pay bills with less riders. Again, if they didn't have five other tracks to choose from on any given weekend, well then that might be a different story. Or if there was a way to get everyone to agree to run practice the same, but that is never going to happen. Battle race weekends, sessions are accepted, not liked always, but accepted. Where are they going to find another Battle for Ohio race happening in Ohio that weekend that's running open practice on Saturday? Exactly. Over a barrel. Plus that's the fair thing to do allow people equal seat time for the race.
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Maybe an answer for tracks that have 2 tracks is to flip flop the tracks every hour. In BC case (as an example not saying this should be done), but every hour superminis and under ride one track and big bikes the other. All day. Of course, the number of people that show up at BC, the c track would have to be made bigger, but at least in this case, one would never have to stop riding. Just a thought. I realize it depends on the number of minis that show up in order to make this viable, but I bet it would be successful once word got out. My 2 cents.
 
I remember the days when Outlaw would have easy 50+ riders out there all just ripping around. Quads, mini's, big bikes, utility quads it didnt matter. Everyone was just having fun riding their off-road machine.. what happen to those days? Now it just seems that everyone has to take this thing full-bore like Mitch Payton is writing your paycheck.

Also, rich would be watering the track right when everyone was riding and get a kick out of spraying all the kids... If you did that now, someone would prolly get put in cuffs.
 
Open sessions are no big deal really. As long as people ride with COMMON SENSE when they are passing people, etc. Problem is so pro practicers are winning the National practice cup and ride like idiots sometimes.
 
John250 said:
Open sessions are no big deal really. As long as people ride with COMMON SENSE when they are passing people, etc. Problem is so pro practicers are winning the National practice cup and ride like idiots sometimes.
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That is the problem. There's always gonna be a few hotdogs out there jumping over people and not riding smart. This could be an A, B, C, vet, mini, quad rider.
Main thing for people is to hold that line if you're being passed. If you know you aren't doing a jump(especially a blind jump), choose a line on the side of it well before you are going up the face of it.
I practice long race speed motos, but I won't pass a mini over a jump, I won't even jump a jump with them, I don't care if it takes me a half a lap to pass a mini.
May not be my problem now, but when I have kids maybe I will be looking for those sessions
 
My company TEAM186 Promotions Inc, which ran the Toyota Trucks Bluegrass Series and one off fair races in KY & IN from 2006 - 2009 (until my partner took a job in f'ing Ohio), also had role of running Ballance's non-Victory Sports events; we used a very creative open practice order and race order that some may like. It slowly morphed over the years to what is below. This is split and practice order, other notes are what Ballance ran at their last practice/ race with Team186 help. It was set up to get vets their own track, separate youth and adults and of A, B C, etc...We never ran a open practice without flaggers, track insurance and an EMT on site.

Maybe some might adopt...I thought it worked well, normally 7 laps for "Adult" bikes, 5 for "Youth" and 1 for ATVs, unless they had 10 foot whipper flag, jeans and chest protector with no shirt then we would give them extra "parade" lap.....

OPEN ROTATION PRACTICE ORDER
1. 18 - 29 yrs A/B
2. 30 - 50 yrs
3. 18 - 29 yrs C/D
4. 65cc
5. 125cc/ 250F Youth 13 - 17 yrs
6. ATV’s
7. 85cc/ Supermini
8. 51cc

No 51cc Bikes in Practice 4
No Supermini or 85cc Bikes in Practice 5
No 65cc Bikes in Practice 8

PRACTICE IN YOUR PROPER GROUP AND ACCORDING TO YOUR EXPERIENCE

*** WE CARRY NO RIDER INSURANCE ***
NEVER RIDE WITHOUT MEDICAL INSURANCE
 
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SUNDAY (RACEDAY) PRACTICE ORDER
1. Schoolboy/ Supermini (Youth Riders Only!!)
2. 65cc Bike (NO 50’s!!)
3. C & D (Beginner) Bike 18-29 yr old
4. A/ Pro & B Bike 18-29 yr old
5. 85cc Bike (NO 65’s!!)
6. ATV
7. 51ccBike
8. Vet Bike 30+, 35+, 40+, 45+, 50+
WATCH THE FLAGGERS!! NO JUMPING ON YELLOW or RED CROSS FLAGS

PRACTICE IN YOUR PROPER GROUP AND ACCORDING TO YOUR EXPERIENCE

*** WE CARRY NO RIDER INSURANCE ***
NEVER RIDE WITHOUT MEDICAL INSURANCE
 
Short sightedness put moto in Ohio on its death bed. Tracks everywhere began to bow down to the demands of the "C" riders and started changing track layouts, class structure, number of laps and EVEN practice times. Why did track owners and promoters do this? Because the C classes had the most riders. Sounds like good business sense until you factor in the MOST C riders are only in the sport for less then 3 years, and then they are cycled out to be replaced by the next set of crash test dummy C riders. Tracks would then change things again for this group of "I am going to race forever" C riders. Of course 2 years later they had moved on to the next "cool" thing. All the while, the kid that was being told. "its not my problem, go find another place to practice" was still racing going into year 6 or 7.
What is the value of a return customer? A youth riders tends to stay in the sport a lot longer then an amateur rider.
 
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