Chillitown roll call!

I forgot.
I know I talked to at least 15 different "vehicles" Piloted by 7 to 11 year olds. I would first ask, Are you 16? = No, Do you have a pass for that thing? = No. I would tell them to park it and even try to follow them to there pit to give a "slight correction" up side the parents, head but not ONE would listen. Just look at you like F-U and keep going. I am asking all promoters of tracks that I will attend this year to give me permission to shoot.
Yeah, it was called that the under 16 without a license thing would not be policed. Maybe it was per JO's comment below. I have nothing specifically to compare it to. Understood to some extent with the weather and the # of riders...maybe, but Kim and I watched 5 or 6 hellions, ranging from 6 to 12 or 13 I'd guess, drive, twist, turn, ride on the back, front, side, argue about who's turn it is to drive, that they had to pee, not watching for others at times, etc. until they almost flipped the gold cart. Good thing was shortly there after they quit or got shut down...

Another kid, seemed to almost hit me on a little motorized scooter. I told Kim if he hit me, I would have asked if he was OK, if he told me yes, I would have picked up the scooter and slammed it too the ground, hopefully exploding it into pieces in hopes I could get his parents to come find me... Kim said them kids should have their arses whooped. I said no, not the kids so much, the parents of them kids...

In the end, no harm no foul from my standpoint, but it's more aggravating to hear, "we are putting the smack down on pit riding" and not see it than to have nothing said at all and letting it run rampant. Words are just words. They do not scare anyone really. Action is where it's at. Just sayin'...

Hey, did I tell you I had a blast yesterday? :)
 
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Knox... I was at Chillitown and rode some myself. It was a awesome day of racing, even though I got spanked in the Open A. Big thanks to the Chillitown/OMA crew for a great job. I believe this past weekend might be the largest AMA one-day format event so far in 2015. Hopefully that puts everything in perspective how great AMA Motocross is in Ohio.

As for the yellow flag stuff... I respectfully disagree. I thought the flaggers were in good positions and very visible when I was on the track. I personally saw three accusations of racers simply not obeying the flaggers, the flaggers were doing everything right, funny enough two of those were in the 50cc classes. It doesn't matter how great the flaggers are when the racers simply don't care.

Maybe it's time for a new flag, with a new meaning, with a severe penalty...
 
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I dont know what race you were at Knox, but the pitriding was 1000% better. Not perfect, not a done stamp it solution, but way better than the past. That was a major improvement. The PA was a major improvement. And I too was shocked at how the track dried up, Im not sure you could ever cancel there unless it was pouring at 8am on race day.
 
We were there. Matthew raced, I did not. Mud, ruts and a blown disc in my back are not a good combination when its already sore. He raced and I saved myself for Briar Cliff in two weeks. Will need to look you up at the next race your going too.

Did meet another new Pitracer, Reed Simpson. Nice guy.
Well some how, I missed you guys. Next weekend I'm not sure what we're doing but the Spring Series at Briarcliff we will be there weather permitting.
 
Oh I agree, the pit riding WAS 1000% better. I just want to string up the few that did not obey. OK, maybe just a taser.
The flaggers were good, but the one that sticks in my mind was the uphill double before the giant triple. The flagger was on the first jump and could not see the backside of the second jump. The dude that got off on the quad was down for a good 20 seconds before the flag came out. (Yes, I watched a quad race. Old dog learned a new trick. Don't tell Woody)
Yes, a few of the riders did not obey the yellow but maybe we can us that taser on them as well. A new flag would be cool but if they are not going to pay attention to yellow then electrical correction must be made. :)
What a great weekend for Ohio mx. No, a great day for amateur mx for the country
I was all over the place, running around like I was 21 year old again. Chasing my son and picking up 50's in every corner. Went home with a big smile when my son asked if we can come back next weekend.
Then get up this morning and throw my back out reaching for the car keys just to go to work. Sucks getting old.
 
Went home with a big smile when my son asked if we can come back next weekend.
Love that comment. Looking forward to things like that... :)

Then get up this morning and throw my back out reaching for the car keys just to go to work. Sucks getting old.
I feel you there. Well, not really. My back tweaked at BC the weekend before just landing wrong? on top of center tunnel. Only was maybe 3 feet in air max and went a massive 10ft. Not sure what the heck I did there. Put me down from all activities all week in hopes I'd be able to hit the track this past weekend.


When are results and points going to be posted?
 
Here's my take on the Chillitown weekend. First off, the place as usual had a lot of cool things going on, was well organized, the staff was friendly, the pits rock and even though the weather was trying to ruin it for all of us, it didn't succeed! Starting the practice early on Saturday worked out great and was a good call, my son got 3 sessions in which was ample. Also, the crew did a good job with having the track ready for the race day and it turned out to be a great track. I love the water and electric hook ups and while I understand why it's there ( fairgrounds), I still wish some of the other tracks would consider having 10 to 20 sites that were hook up sites ( I know some of you do). Just a wish. Anyway, a big thank you to Chillitown MX because I thought you did a great job!!!!!

Now, I do have a couple suggestions and an admission of guilt:
First off there was some pit riding going on but it was waaaaayyyyy better than usual. I believe the guy driving around the off road vehicle with the flags was patrolling it so, that's good. However, I think the real problem is with the parents not giving a s**t or as a couple people told me, if they pay for a pit bike then they are going to let their kids ride them. There's the good old "American Spirt", I'm going to do what I want and screw the rules. Why is it that kids can't just ride bicycles, seems like solution to me and leave the riding of the dirt bikes to the track.
I do think that on muddy days the quads should go out first, then the big bikes and work their way down from there. That goes for all tracks.
As far as flaggers go, I didn't see any glaring issues but my son did get passed on a yellow flag in the whoops which I thought was really crappy, so I hope his father explained to him that's no way to beat someone. My son passed him shortly their after so it really didn't matter in the results but that wasn't a flagger issue but a poor sportsmanship issue!!!!
Here comes the old transponder delimma. At least at the big races if not all of them, we've got to start using some form of a transponder. Here's why, in the supermini race my son came in 6th or 7 th in the first race when I went up to look at the results they had him in the 28th spot, not good. I know they had some new people and other things going on but I still think in the long run this would alleviate a lot of frustration for all involved. The Chillitown staff very nicely addressed my issue and made a correction and placed him at the 7th spot, so that I appreciate but I still believe transponders are the way to go at least for the large races.
My admission of guilt is, I did see my son riding in a golf cart with an under age driver and I did have a talk to him about it. He also was jumping his bicycle on some dirt pile that he got in trouble for so, I told him to obey the rules and stay away from the dirt pile which he did.
I also got to meet a couple new faces from the Pitracer community, so that was cool. However, a couple of them, I think we're hidding from me... Lol
Great place and great weekend... We even had our bikes running right by the second set of moto's so that was a nice change.
 
Oh I agree, the pit riding WAS 1000% better. I just want to string up the few that did not obey. OK, maybe just a taser.
The flaggers were good, but the one that sticks in my mind was the uphill double before the giant triple. The flagger was on the first jump and could not see the backside of the second jump. The dude that got off on the quad was down for a good 20 seconds before the flag came out. (Yes, I watched a quad race. Old dog learned a new trick. Don't tell Woody)
Yes, a few of the riders did not obey the yellow but maybe we can us that taser on them as well. A new flag would be cool but if they are not going to pay attention to yellow then electrical correction must be made. :)
What a great weekend for Ohio mx. No, a great day for amateur mx for the country
I was all over the place, running around like I was 21 year old again. Chasing my son and picking up 50's in every corner. Went home with a big smile when my son asked if we can come back next weekend.
Then get up this morning and throw my back out reaching for the car keys just to go to work. Sucks getting old.

I see what you did there!
 
Thanks to everyone that attended. We definetly had our fair share of obstacles this weekend, some built by Mother Nature and some self made. The scoring issues came in small pieces to form the perfect storm. We had big classes full of mud covered number plates, going faster than normal from the new section. One of the classes had multiple similar numbers, I think it was 7, 07, 7/, 7x, 171 and another 71. Being a big event, early in the year also caused some back up issues at sign up for OMA and AMA. I think if Saturday would have been better weather we coulda got more folks to preregister, therefore alleviating Sunday morning chaos. We did want to run quads first Sunday morning but we'd already passed out over 200 practice stickers and I felt that change alone would cause more problems during practice. Track conditions were awesome for first moto, second moto got dusty, but the wind was quickly moving dust away from the track and spectating areas. I made the call to roll on, eliminating any more delays. We are already working on changes and plans for our Battle For Ohio round. We are damned proud of our success up to this point, but I will still continue to push for things to get better each and every event. Thanks, Jeremy.
 
Great job Jeremy (and crew), wanted to stop and say hello but every time I saw you where working your arse off.
Now get back on the dozer and push all the good dirt back on the track.
Did I mention transponders take care of the 7, 7x, /7, anything 7 issue?

A huge thank you from the MX community, great EVENT. Now get some sleep.
 
Good time for us as well, boy really likes the track. Good job flaggers.
I did leave frustrated after seeing his scoring, yes I should have checked it earlier but his results never were on the table. I think his results were drew from a hat. Thanks for the help Tina, but I never did get anything resolved after you left. I'll just chalk this race up as a practice with a gate day. I left even more frustrated when I stole a new kind of fu-fu beer out of a cooler, this dude must be a real man to drink that stuff I almost hurled!
 
Good time for us as well, boy really likes the track. Good job flaggers.
I did leave frustrated after seeing his scoring, yes I should have checked it earlier but his results never were on the table. I think his results were drew from a hat. Thanks for the help Tina, but I never did get anything resolved after you left. I'll just chalk this race up as a practice with a gate day. I left even more frustrated when I stole a new kind of fu-fu beer out of a cooler, this dude must be a real man to drink that stuff I almost hurled!
LOL Sissy!
 
Alright one more story.
So I am setting on the bleachers by the starting line with my son sharing one of those special father son moments that we all have had, when the conversation took an odd turn.. (And this is all true)...
"Dad?"
"Yes Son."
"I think I want a quad."
At that very moment I though to myself. So this is what it would be like if my son told me he wanted to work at Fashion Bug... So to speak....
As to not show my inner feelings I said. In my best Non-judgmental tone.. Really? what for?
"Well, it looks fun and easy, so I can ride it for fun then we can give it too Libby (His baby sister) so she can race with all the other girls"


We walked back to the pits, I had a beer, he had a Capri Sun and I said "Welcome to manhood my boy"
Never a prouder moment could a man have.
 
You should of said:

"Well son, it is easy, all you do is sit on that couch potatoe, hit auto pilot, and enjoy the views of the stand--while you're hammering around the track--leisurely."
 
Alright one more story.
So I am setting on the bleachers by the starting line with my son sharing one of those special father son moments that we all have had, when the conversation took an odd turn.. (And this is all true)...
"Dad?"
"Yes Son."
"I think I want a quad."
At that very moment I though to myself. So this is what it would be like if my son told me he wanted to work at Fashion Bug... So to speak....
As to not show my inner feelings I said. In my best Non-judgmental tone.. Really? what for?
"Well, it looks fun and easy, so I can ride it for fun then we can give it too Libby (His baby sister) so she can race with all the other girls"


We walked back to the pits, I had a beer, he had a Capri Sun and I said "Welcome to manhood my boy"
Never a prouder moment could a man have.

Haha! Now that's comedy, at least he gets it honest. I knew there had to be more to the story if you were ever to be seen holding down the bleachers during the quad motos.
 
One of the reasons we had a hard time scoring first few motos, first gate drop had 43 bikes. Second moto had 43 and third had 32. The score girls want transponders worse than you guys! PC Zayne Watson
 

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Overall had a great weekend.... Got to meet a few new people and track ended up great both days. Turnout was huge and competition was tough for sure. Wish my son didn't end the day with a big crash but all is good. He walked off the track and was begging to watch the go pro on the way home. lol Thanks for all the hard work.
 
Knox... I was at Chillitown and rode some myself. It was a awesome day of racing, even though I got spanked in the Open A. Big thanks to the Chillitown/OMA crew for a great job. I believe this past weekend might be the largest AMA one-day format event so far in 2015. Hopefully that puts everything in perspective how great AMA Motocross is in Ohio.

As for the yellow flag stuff... I respectfully disagree. I thought the flaggers were in good positions and very visible when I was on the track. I personally saw three accusations of racers simply not obeying the flaggers, the flaggers were doing everything right, funny enough two of those were in the 50cc classes. It doesn't matter how great the flaggers are when the racers simply don't care.

Maybe it's time for a new flag, with a new meaning, with a severe penalty...

We do not need more rules or flags. Enforce the rules we have in place now! People were jumping on the yellow flags and nothing was done. Flaggers should have radios and be calling off numbers of any violation so they can be penalized. We hear a lot of talk about it from the AMA refs and the track owners at the rider meeting but no action.

There was an issue in my sons class were a rider went down on the uphill double at the red banner and the flagger did a good job but several of the racers jumped that blind double anyway. That could have been bad news for the downed rider or the jumper. I was glad to see my son check-up for the flag, even if it did cost him a position he had to earn back, but if he didn't I would have no problem with him getting docked too.
 
One of the reasons we had a hard time scoring first few motos, first gate drop had 43 bikes. Second moto had 43 and third had 32. The score girls want transponders worse than you guys! PC Zayne Watson

There were more issues with running orders, scoring and results than those caused by muddy number plates. I don't want to open that can of worms here, but let's not minimize the issues and own the need for much more organization with the staff and the process.
 
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