john lilly
PR Addict
I just got off the phone with a guy who raced at East Bend and he was sharing with me that the total race time for all the bikes was 3.5 hrs and they were all done and heading home. He said they always raced two classes at a time and there were no 4 wheelers/quads, just a little more info.. Also, he said the classes were decent size. So here's my question for the track owners and each organization; what could you do differently to speed up the race day (actual time spend at the track)? Btw, I think the enormous amount of time spent at the track is one of the biggest topics of conversation (frustration) that I hear being discussed at the track. People are getting tired of spending 12 hours at the track for 20 to 40 minutes of actual race time. Btw, this is not any type of bash session, actually to the contrary, I would like to see how many good ideas that we can come up with to see how we could maximize our time and efforts and yet minimize the actual time spend at the track. So, here are a couple of my thoughts:
1. Break the racing into superminis and below, starting at 9am. Two classes for almost every gate and if three groups could go at once and be safe by MX standards then let it rip. Then the next class comes at say noon and that would consist of 125's up to 450 A riders. Again group them with two class and two gate drops if possible. Then say at 3:00 pm the quad riders show up and finish up the day.
I think by doing this there would be less track prep and less bitching between the two groups. For example how the bike riders say the quad riders break down the ruts and vise versa.
Here again this is where transponders would help keep everything straight while there may be 1,2 or 3 classes out on the track at once.
Also, for the people that want to hang out there all day they could still do this but for those of us who would like to get in and get out because we have other things we need to get done outside of mx, this would be a welcome change.
I think you would also get some people who would like to come and watch a friend or family member race but don't want to stay for 12 hours to see 40 minutes of track time but if you could sell them that they will see their friend race within a 3 hour window, you might get more people to come through your gates. I can personally say that my wife and daughter would show up more if the race day was cut down. More people through the gate equals more money for the track owners and happier riders, which makes for more pleasant people and probably more complements about the staff, the track and the promoters which gets people to come back more often and talk up how you do things right!!!!
1. Break the racing into superminis and below, starting at 9am. Two classes for almost every gate and if three groups could go at once and be safe by MX standards then let it rip. Then the next class comes at say noon and that would consist of 125's up to 450 A riders. Again group them with two class and two gate drops if possible. Then say at 3:00 pm the quad riders show up and finish up the day.
I think by doing this there would be less track prep and less bitching between the two groups. For example how the bike riders say the quad riders break down the ruts and vise versa.
Here again this is where transponders would help keep everything straight while there may be 1,2 or 3 classes out on the track at once.
Also, for the people that want to hang out there all day they could still do this but for those of us who would like to get in and get out because we have other things we need to get done outside of mx, this would be a welcome change.
I think you would also get some people who would like to come and watch a friend or family member race but don't want to stay for 12 hours to see 40 minutes of track time but if you could sell them that they will see their friend race within a 3 hour window, you might get more people to come through your gates. I can personally say that my wife and daughter would show up more if the race day was cut down. More people through the gate equals more money for the track owners and happier riders, which makes for more pleasant people and probably more complements about the staff, the track and the promoters which gets people to come back more often and talk up how you do things right!!!!
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