Smith Road Wednesday (4/6) Practice format changes Please Read

Smith Road Raceway

Smith Road Raceway

PR Addict
Hello! We've been thinking about implementing a split practicefor quite a while now, we have been asking around and trying to get input from everyone, after last weeks crazy awesome turn out we have decided its time to try out some changes to keep things safe and fun, which is always our top priority! This is temporary right now, we will make adjustments as needed. This Wednesday we will have 2 groups( A/B will be 1 group and C/Vet/Mini will be the 2nd group), we will let each group run for 1/2 hour at a time FROM 4-5 we will run open (anyone can ride), from 5-5:30 is A/B, 5:30-6:00 C/VET/MINI alternating until 8:00 after which everyone is welcome to ride until dark. We will let our riders chose what group they feel they belong in, however we will be monitoring and if we believe you are in the wrong group we will ask you to move into the other group. Some examples if you are on an 85 or smaller you are in the C/VET/MINI group, if your easily clearing all the jumps your A/B. All signs will be posted in front of the starting gate which is the main entrance to the track. If we have a smaller turn out we will post a sign that says "Open" when this sign is posted anyone is welcome to ride,again we will have things set to "Open" when we do not have a huge turn out. Another thing we'd like to point out it that we do have a track safety officer who rides and walks around the track and pit area making sure that people are riding safely. John is a retired firefighter/Paramedic and an avid MX rider, for the past 40 years, he has lots of experience and he truly cares about the safety of our riders. We ask that your respect his authority and listen to him just as you would Larry. If you see something happening out on the track, or in the pits that you feel needs his attention, his trailer is parked next to the concession stand, if hes not there, come to the concession stand and I will find him for you.
 
Also. We handed these out last year but just as refresher ; )

SMITH ROAD RACEWAY PRACTICE DAY SAFETY REGULATIONS



· Follow the course that had been groomed for the day

· Slower riders should maintain a line, allowing faster riders to pass safely

· Preferred entrance is in front of starting gate

· Enter the track in a way that other riders are not impaired

· Preferred exit of the track is after the table top near the railroad tracks, staying to the right of the start/finish table tops, and exit safely

· Before exiting track, a signal with hand or foot should be given in advanced, allowing riders behind you to know your intentions

· Spectators are to stay in designated areas and not cross the track at any time

· Concerns or safety issues should be directed to the track staff
 
Now this post is not to throw a jab at your plan, but more so to open up discussion because I see it at other places too. Why do a half hour? 99% of the guys out there can not ride 100% for a half hour at a time. After 15 minutes your just out there because you think you have to be to get seat time, and at that point your tired and more likely to make mistakes and get hurt or hurt someone else.

Maybe its just me and all my out of shape beer drinking friends, but it seems it would make more sense to do shorter sessions, to allow you to give it 100% when you are out on the track. It does me no good to ride around at half speed cuz im tired, but nobody wants to pull off and then wait 45 min to ride again so they stay out there.

Whats anyone elses opinion? How long can you run at 100% on the track? Im not against split practices when needed (and i like that you plan to monitor it and adjust as needed).
 
We decided to try the 1/2 hour because when we asked everyone last year, that was one of the comments made over and over that people didn't feel 15 minutes was enough, we felt this would also give people time to not feel rushed getting on and off the track, however if it starts to seem like people don't need/want/use that much time we can adjust to a smaller increment of time . This is all new to us and we are trying to find something that works. Thanks for your input we've all been really surprised that no one had chimed in yet
 
TwentyThreeMX said:
Now this post is not to throw a jab at your plan, but more so to open up discussion because I see it at other places too. Why do a half hour? 99% of the guys out there can not ride 100% for a half hour at a time. After 15 minutes your just out there because you think you have to be to get seat time, and at that point your tired and more likely to make mistakes and get hurt or hurt someone else.

Maybe its just me and all my out of shape beer drinking friends, but it seems it would make more sense to do shorter sessions, to allow you to give it 100% when you are out on the track. It does me no good to ride around at half speed cuz im tired, but nobody wants to pull off and then wait 45 min to ride again so they stay out there.

Whats anyone elses opinion? How long can you run at 100% on the track? Im not against split practices when needed (and i like that you plan to monitor it and adjust as needed).
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Should be 15 min . No one gonna last 30 min !
 
Been going to smith road since the late 90's. I've never felt the need for sessions. Last Wednesday was busy, but you also have to consider many people were prepping for the Malvern qualifier and it was a rare nice spring day. If you have to do sessions, limit it to 20 minutes for big bikes, 15 for kid/vets/c class. Don't ruin the good thing you have going.
 
agree with "doing ruin the good thing you have going" comment. If I have the choice of riding somewhere w/ open practive vs sessoins, ill mostly chose open unless its a rare opportunity to ride a track you dont get to often (like red bud or something)

especially during the week, its hard to get there after work and have a ton of time. maybe try to leave week practices open when possible and split on weekend practices. nothing sucks more than to drive 90mph after work to get down to the track, get unloaded, get ready and then see your class just pulled off the track and you sit and wait 20 min to go out! every minute of day light during the week is precious lol
 
30 min is stupid and ends up just wasting time battles burg does the same thing and after 15 minutes there is only about 2 people on the track plus everybody is just going to go when they want anyway
 
Again we will be tweaking this is a trial And if you re-read you will see that this is a plan we will use on busy nights, when we have a quiet night we will run open, we just need a game plan for nights that are busy. We like the open format too, but we had quite a few nights last season that would have benefited from some splits as well as last week. We are trying something out, if it doesn't work out we can change it.. In the end we won't please everyone but we will try to continue to provide a fun safe place to ride and we hope you guys will help by giving us constructive feedback and allow us to try some things and develop some plans for when we do have a busy night. In the past 3 years. We have tripled nearly quadrupled our average turn out (average not last Wednesday but what we normally get) and like any business we'd love to see the turn out continue to increase but in order for that to happen we have to have a plan for when we have a large turn out
 
My son was out there with the 160 plus people that showed up for practice. He is pretty good about keeping his lines. He runs 85 and he was out there for about 40 minutes before I could get him to come in! His hands were tore up the next day. I'm good with whatever you decide but if I was to make a choice it would be 20 minutes per session.
 
It's 230 we haven't got any rain so we're prepping and putting down water we will see everyone at four
 

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I would go with 15 or 20 minute sessions, very, very few riders can run full blast for 30 minutes. I just asked my son and he said 15 minute session are about as long as he can go wide open and that is pushing it. I also, agree that when you show up to a track you want semi-quick sessions because it will get you out there sooner if you don't get there at just the right time. Also, just like tonight if you do 15 minute sessions and after one hour of being open, it starts to rain, at least everyone got to get a session in (with half hour sessions some would get no seat time). I am glad you are open to suggestions and hopefully your attendance will keep increasing. Good Luck!!!
 
OK we got about five minutes of pouring rain so the tracks a little slick but we are still opening and and think it should shape up nicely once it's all said and done
 
mawilk6 said:
Do you guys even look at the radar
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We watch forecast and radar all week long it is our job I was going to say "like it's our job" but no it actually is our job so yes we do follow the weather, however with that being said if we close every time they said it was going to rain we might as will never open, how many times do you see something on the radar and it ends up moving to the left to the right skipping right over you going right past you stopping altogether and dissipating. We do the best we can we try to open as much as we possibly can
 
My message about canceling seems to be disappearing it seems like you guys are seeing it since you're replying but I can't see it so just in case let me post again we are canceled for this evening
 
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