OK. I made the trek out to Treaty City for the first time in 15+ years. After I refused to go back. Evidently the guy on here that post all the time that if I ever showed up he would let me in free and race free just to get me back, well he forgot to tell all his friends, they said no one is free, lol. So I even paid them money for the race.
I will say one thing. It was a better experience than the last time I was there, but far from a great track. Just my opinion, this is not the quality track that if I am a series promoter, I am including in my series. Just my opinion. It is one of those tracks you go to because its the only place racing, or because you need series points. We fall into the last one. There are benefits to winning your class for the series, and my son is in the running for both his classes. Because of all the rescheduling, there are two races at Eastfork next week, and we have to be out of town for wedding. So off to TCMC we went yesterday.
The good.
1. $10 gate fee (some tracks are moving to $15)
2. Best pits hands down next to Chilitown. Shaded areas, flat areas, paved drive. All the grass is nice and cut short, not a lot dirt areas, etc. Great pits.
3. Biscuits and gravy. Pretty good.
4. Track was not over watered for the first time I can remember. Thanks to the little bit if cloud cover, it never got dusty. Good Job.
5. The jumps were much better than they used to be. Used to be, whoever made them, the take off were always the kind that would just pop you straight up. The landings were usually small and sharp. That's been fixed.
6. They ran a pretty quick program, started a little late, but were done by about 4pm or so.
The bad.
1. The track. It is like a backyard track, not a track that you would want to have a series race at for people to travel to.
2. It is way too narrow. Too many 90 degree corners. They do not make for good racing, and there is one fast line. the inside.
3. The gate it is angled one way (to the left) while the track goes to the right.
4. First turn. Start is 100 yards long that funnels into a very small tight 180 turn. One that is slowed down to almost stopped and goes back the other way. Turn is just too tight for the start. In my opinion.
5. Location of the start / finish line. The last straight is where the first turn is located. So you cant start the next moto until the very last bike is off the track. Small crowd yesterday, so not as much of an issue, but if you had a big race and crowd, it would cause loss of time.
6. Track is just very short. We went 5 laps and I can assure you it did not feel like 5 laps. I am an out of shape old guy.
7. Equipment. I watched them prepping some areas at intermission. The chisel would not even go down in the ground. And I did not see a disc to follow behind it. They had chiseled the start, and ran a side by side over it to break it up a bit before the motos. They need a disc with a drag behind it to break it back up. Prepping a track is all about having the equipment
It was not a horrible day by any means. But am I going to be making special trips to race TCMC? No. Is it worthy of having Buckeye Series races, not in my opinion. And I would think that the people who travel a little distance to get there, might agree with me. Nothing against those that put in the effort, but they are working with what they have to work with.