Hey art,
I haven't gotten around to putting my two wits in but I think here on PR is a good chance to. I've been racing pymatuning since before my balla dropped. Almost a decade an a half, now I don't know why it was like back in the 90s but I do remember having people pitted in our pit because it was so packed on the 3 day summer events. I've probably spent more laps on that track than anyone and over the years going from nobody mini rider, all the way to the Pro Bike class from riding pyma to riding national caliber tracks I've learned some things. Now you can take what I have to say with a grain of salt and accept it, or ignore it but it's your baby and you'll run it how you like. For starters. 1. Over the years you have cut track length and squished the entire track together in order to make it more spectator friendly. The sad truth is art, your pleasing the wrong crowd. You need to pease the riders first. You charge $10 for entry to spectate, but you charge at minimum $35 per rider. I'm not mathematician but if you don't bring riders, you won't bring spectators. Simple as that. So extended the track back like it used to be. Spread it out. If we wanted to ride a scrunched up high peaked jump track, we would go rider summit or switchback indoors. It's a outdoor track. My favorite parts of the track now are the bowl corners and table tops where you can really open the bike up. I understand you have to look at it at a safety stand point too, but right now, as soon as you land your already slamming on the breaks hoping you don't blow through the corner. You have all the open field in the back you used to work with. Not to mention all the dirt from the failed truck night! You she. The ability to have an amazing facility! Make the track faster, more spread out, more sweeper turns less U turns. Add more distance jumps, less height jumps.
Secondly, STOP COMBINING SO MANY CLASSES!!! I get it you wanna get the event over with quicker and get everyone home but there is nothing fun about being an A rider and running into +40 lapped traffic of being a B rider and getting pinched off on the start by a schoolboy rider. We're here to race our own class, not other classes. I also understand it's because lack of turnout but make the higher caliper track, you'll have higher caliper riders coming. Fact.
Third, you need to start appealing to the pro riders more. You stopped holding your pro race on the 3 days weekend. The amount of people that came to race that and the people that came to watch that was surreal. If you bring the pros you'll bring everyone else. Chillitown did it and so did bcliff now malvern is doing it. You make an incentive for the pros, the rest will follow.
Lastly for now till I can think of anything else, water. You've been doing this a long time and I know your not stupid but a lot of the flag gets and such water the piss out of the faces and I'm an expert and it's hard and dangerous for me, you're going to get someone killed. Easy on the water of the faces. Soak the track down the night before of the morning of a race. The water will soak deep down but not be a slipping hazard. I've bit the billet several times due to poor watering methods.
Oh one last thing, new gates because the old ones are too low and people can jump them absurdly. Also make the track wider, the only way someone can make a pass on a bike is aggressive block passing or basically riding off he side of the track. A lot of the jumps in he back are only big enough to fit one bike in the air at a time. I don't even wanna imagine how bad it is for quads.
Like I said you can take what I say with a grain of salt, or you dont. It's your facility I just know it could be great like it used to be, actually greater, but it will take a lot of hard work.
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