Most of us promoters got into the promoting business because we love this sport.
We love the sights, the smells, the sounds, and we love seeing others enjoy something that we ourselves have enjoyed.
We love 50cc riders with eyes as big as saucers when they leave the gate for the first time. We love seeing a Beginner rider that has struggled to improve their skills finally get their first win. We love seeing a +30 rider beat some cocky 16 year old, (and the other way around too). We love racing.
Fuel prices and grocery prices are putting a real squeeze on our sport at the local level as participants and their families have less and less disposable income.
Trust us, it doesn’t make running a track any easier either. Our expenses go up and up and because our customers are being squeezed everywhere else we are seeing fewer and fewer of them come out. By the time we pay staff, awards, and overhead most events are break even at best.
There are some expenses like flaggers, staff, rescue squad, and track prep, that we can’t cut without affecting the quality and safety of our events.
So after considering these dilemmas we have decided to try some new things in hope of getting the number of participants back up. If we are going to just cover expenses (or make a minimal profit) we would rather do it with 250 entries rather than 150.
So here is how these events are going to be different:
- Fewer classes – We are going to start with 16 classes.(listed Below) If a rider wants to run a second class, they simply run up one class (examples: an unlimited D rider would run Unlimited Novice, an 85 Beginner would run 85 Novice, etc)
- Lower entry fees –
- Possibly try Lower gate fees –
- Awards – awards will be optional. Riders will be charged a fee at the window for any awards. Fees will be posted in the event information.
Say for example, you are a 7-9 year old rider in the 65 OPEN class. We run the 65 Open race just like any other moto. You finish ahead of all the other 7-9 year old riders so if you like, you go to the window and ask for a first place award.
Another example would be women riders. They would sign up in the class they feel the most comfortable in and then if they want to get an award based on their finish against other women racers they would ask for an award based on that finish.
If it happens to be your first race, or your first win, just ask for an extra award so you can give one to your grandparents/parents/aunts/uncles/second cousins/whatever.
There will be no protest time. You can walk up at any time and pay the awards fee and get an award for any position. Stop by the window on your way back to the pits from the track.
- With fewer classes we may be able to run 2 rotations of practice and/or longer motos/more laps without keeping participants at the track any longer than we already do. This is one of the things we may play around with. Tracks may also offer specials on practice days proceeding or following these events (example: Saturday practice before a Sunday race or Sunday practice after a Saturday race.) There may also be some trials with Morning practice before a night race or evening practice following a day race so that participants can get plenty of track time with just one trip out to the tracks.
- This is all an experiment and everything is subject to change as we go along. Please be sure and read the newsletter prior to each event for the details.
We welcome feedback and may implement suggestions that may help this work so that during these tight times we can maybe lower the expense of racing, cover our expenses, and all have fun along the way
Tentative Back To the basics classes:
- Peewee
- 50 Beginner
- 50 Novice
- 50 Open
- 65 Beginner
- 65 Novice
- 65 Open
- 85 Beginner
- 85 Novice
- 85 Open
- 150 NOVICE
- Unlimited D
- Unlimited Novice
- Unlimited C
- Unlimited AM/C
- +30
