Why is it that no one is racing in District 11?

Racing is a spectator sport. I'd rather ride for 2 hours and sit for 15 mins rather then ride for 15 min. And sit for two hours. Race for a plastic trophy? Barely get to ride... ill stick to paying less to ride more... its simple math really.
 
Just my thoughts, but personally I give Chillitown 2nd thoughts every time I think about going. It's a great track, and just about right for everyone, but me. Having only been out on the bike three times this year, I was gonna go, but.........

Not as many people are racing every weekend like 10 years ago, so they pick and choose. And more than likely, though they won't openly admit it, they'll go where there is less likely a " percieved" chance to have something happen. Don't believe me? Just look at the numbers. If they don't change, they'll go under soon. The track is a little intimidating for less experienced, or rusty, riders. Look at AMS. The last three races they had in Marysville, just for example, they had:

4/3 5/30 7/4
40+: 14 riders 24 riders 16 riders
openB: 18 riders 24 riders 16 riders
openC: 20 riders 16 riders 22 riders
micro
7-8: 17 riders 18 riders 11 riders

Now look at Chillitown's first two:
5/14 5/15
40+: 4 riders 2 riders
openB: 5 riders 4 riders
openC: 4 riders 2 riders
micro 7-8: 7 riders 5 riders

Now, my wife absoutly LOVES Chillitown, as does my son. But he quit racing and just trail rides so he doesn't race, just a spectator. She love the facilities there. Very neat and clean and tidy. Plus she can get her "walk" in while I'm out on the track.
 
KTM5555 said:
Racing is a spectator sport. I'd rather ride for 2 hours and sit for 15 mins rather then ride for 15 min. And sit for two hours. Race for a plastic trophy? Barely get to ride... ill stick to paying less to ride more... its simple math really.
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I totally agree with that. But if the question is what is wrong with D11, for me it's the fair series. If you look at the schedule it's 75% fair races with a few MX races thrown in. One reason to race a district and pay the membership is to race a series and maybe get some good year end stuff. unless you have 2-3 nights a week to hit the fairs you have no chance at this. I understand that the district makes the most money with this setup but there should really be seperate divisions for the fair and MX races.

Not saying that thats the solution but thats why I will hit 2-3 races at the tracks I like rather than hitting a district race once a weekend.
 
I'm about 45min south of pittsburgh. I use to race D-12 when they were running races due to the fact of d-5 PAMX raising the prices of racing to rediculous amounts. When d-12 quit running races I quit racing and now I travel to ohio whenver possible to pay to practice. The furthest I'll go is Briarcliff and that a little over 2hrs for me and when I come out there its like 4 of us that come out in the same truck and split the gas between us to make it affordable. I agree with others I think the price of gas, bikes, traveling expences, prices to keep up-keep on your bikes and bike haulers is killing everyone. I dont mind paying $20 to practice all day, heck I didnt mind pay $20 or $25 to race but the B.S. gate fee of $10 was rediculous for the racers who was putting the entertainment on. In D-12 you got your $20-25 worth in racing 2 practices and 4-6lap moto's most places I went. In d-5 PAMX you got a 3 lap single practice with 100 riders out on the track at the same time and 3 lap motos and waited for 3hrs between motos if not longer, and you paid $35 to race per class plus some of the places were trying to get a $15 gate fee to get in. Buying bikes I bought a 09 450 and its got around 30hrs on it and I'll probably keep it for a long time due to the fact of what bikes cost. Also I raced series races in d-5 and at the end of the year what they gave ppl was rediculous. I got shirts that were either 3x's or way to small, stuff for a quad which I didnt even have when others who were favorites got new gear stuff for their exact dirtbike they had, money big plaques ect. Where was that fair? I raced every weekend same as they did and all I got was junk and other people I knew got the same stuff junk.
 
I love to race but racing in Ohio mostly boils down to 4X the cost, 1/4 the seat time on a track I don't even want to ride on. Any promoter who fixes 2 out of 3 of these issues with racing I'll show up every weekend.
 
1. I dont have the time I did even 5 years ago.
2. It is no fun racing 5 guys in your class
3. Its too damn expensive, fees, bikes, parts, fuel , food....all of it
4. My woman hates it



Personally I would race any day of the week over practicing. It is the adrenaline and competition that drives me. You just dont get that practicing.
 
There arent any tracks in D11 worth racing. AMS Marysville is flat the fair races blow. COCR has a few and are bone dry or mud. DMC is a little bigger than a fair track. D11 is gone. If we still had tracks like Grumpy, Honda Hills, Wild Wilderness, Muskingum Valley, Highland Lakes, and such I would still be racing and I'm sure I can speak for others in saying they would participate more as well. Im not blaming the track owners or anything like that. Thats just where the heart of D11 was!
 
YouMadBrah? said:
There arent any tracks in D11 worth racing. AMS Marysville is flat the fair races blow. COCR has a few and are bone dry or mud. DMC is a little bigger than a fair track. D11 is gone. If we still had tracks like Grumpy, Honda Hills, Wild Wilderness, Muskingum Valley, Highland Lakes, and such I would still be racing and I'm sure I can speak for others in saying they would participate more as well. Im not blaming the track owners or anything like that. Thats just where the heart of D11 was!
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2nd that one!!!
 
We didn't race at all last year and probably won't be doing any this year. Biggest reason is no time and money. Work has picked up and the pay has gotten smaller. While everything is getting more expensive. Add in the cost of paying for college this year and there really isn't the money available to race or even practice.
 
some of the reasons are true money and everyone being so busy. but think about the district allowing tracks to compete for us to attend people have those favorite tracks they like to ride maybe if things would change people may find other tracks they would like if not being ran at the same time. put those cards to work go voice ideas at meeting you pay for it. as for the fair races think about the young rider who pays the same money as anyone else to race at that backyard fair those are fellow ama,district members and riders. also chillitown has tried to do everything right from the start with expanding in mind come out for open practice july 23 the track is safe i have rode the track myself its fun and safe.
 
This is exactly what I thought I would get out of this thread, "no time or money". Think of the time and money these tracks are putting up just to put on a race for 80 riders to show up. It`s truly sad to hear of so many people not realizing the waste of "time and money" by aimlessly riding around a practice track. Isn`t the whole point of practice to better your self for competition? Or to at least see how you stack up? If you want to start playing tennis do you buy a raquet and just go to the courts and hit a bunch of balls over the net to no one. Buy new golf clubs just to go to the driving range? Maybe just save some riding money and hit a local race every once and a while. Maybe the track won`t be all that great but everyone else there will be riding the same one. Come on people!
 
you are right about all the money promoters put out to make a save challenging place for people to race and watch but some just won't take a chance to change for new and better. also when just riding you get the perfect line not under pressure.
 
To me it seems D-11 has never been the same since Kenworthy's closed. I can see where rising costs will slow peoples racing down some(it has mine). But Brenner made a good point about why we practice, to gain speed and confidence to race. If i couldn't race anymore and just practice i'd quit now! I love gate drops and the race to the first corner. On another note with the lack of racers showing up it seems some tracks aren't prepping the way they used to be. In my opinion if things don't change i don't see D-11 being around much more
 
It is not just D11....

I think the both the economy & the higher cost of racing 4-strokes are taking their toll on racing.

There was an article in tonight paper stating the past decade was worse for personal income growth
that the 10 year following the great depression of 1929…..go figure that one.

Fuel, health insurance, home insurance, food, taxes (don’t get me started on that one) have been
on a steady increase for quite a while now & the cumulative effect is showing.

On the flop side corporate profits are at their highest level ever as a percentage of our GNP along
with skyrocketing CEO pay but the average person is not getting much or I know of a few who
have lost their jobs or had to take pay cuts.

Looks like Washington & our politicians have been doing a fine job of driving us into the ground.

The extra couple of grand for a new thumper & higher rebuild cost than the old 2-smokers
could also be adding up as people don’t have the spare change they once did.

We are into the Vintage stuff only so bike cost are low once you get one set up but 4 bucks
a gallon makes the longer trips rather costly.

Hope all the track survive but they may need to thin out to allow a few to prosper.

Don't know what they need today but 20 years ago a guy told me thet need 225 - 250
rider to break even on race day so you have to feel for the track promoters as many
have to be taking a beating as Love for the sport will only carry them so far.

Maico Mark
 
I think it is a trickle down effect.. In my opinion there are less new racers than ever. the C class has been down for several years. in the hey days there were tracks that were so popular that they drew new riders, Kenworthy's (just a chance to race where the pros race), Honda Hills (back when Klamforth owned it) dirt country back in the day. probably the most popular track in ohio right now is the cliff. and they don't hold races
 
I have few ideas about the low turnouts. First of all the district 11 promoters have no interest in working together to put together some kind of event or series that would interest riders and have the ability to payout decent awards. There are several small groups or even single tracks (promoters) doing their own series. The other issue I see is that the race tracks just arent what they used to be. I do attend events at every D11 track and have since the early 80's. I remember it used to be common place for the track to be a little muddy (soft) in practice. That would let the track develop multiple lines for racing. Now they all seem to be doing just enough to get by and thats it. It makes for a one lined race track for the motos. I took interest in the district this year and got involved. I have been to every D11 meeting and let me tell you it is going to take alot more than the district can do on its own to turn things around. The other side of all of this is the tracks can't afford to make improvements or even keep operating if the turnouts don't improve. If they don't make money they can't keep going. I would welcome any feedback or ideas that any D11 members have and be more than willing to share them at the D11 meet at the end of the month. I feel it going to take a real effort on both the district and the promoters behalf to get things going again. There is a reason some venues and promoters get god turnouts and I would encourage the other promoters to do some investigating on their own to see what is different at those events and implement some changes at their own facilities. If something doesn't happen then it is inevitable that the district will come to a screech halt. I don't feel it will go away but it will be in hibernation. Think about that for a while. If you think things are bad now wait untill there are absolutley no guidelines for scheduling classes. It would be great to get some more people involved that are willing to spend some time and help round up sponsership and such for the district. All of the people involved are donating their time and efforts to try and help but it is not an easy task. There is alot of competition for the support of the industry and we are the little guy in the scheme of things right now. Well thats enough rambling from me right now. See you at the races! Hopefully!
 
Well, I personally dont know how any track can continue to take losses in holding races, it just doesn't add up. If I ran a traditional race tomorrow, I still think we would be lucky to see 200 signups, not actual racers. Way too many factors leading to this. But this sends an omnious signal to me, it says "hey, there aren't enough racers to make this work". Its simple math, at even 200 ENTRIES (not racers), you might have 125 unique riders. Anyway, I guess thats only important if a price break for a 2nd class is offered. Lets assume optomistically that it is not. so, 200x $30 = $6,000. Now i know what you're thinking, what about spectators? Well we might as well throw another 100 people in there, so thats another grand. so we're, bringing in $7,000. My average race expediture was roughly $5,000 to do a series. Now, I'm rolling in some added expenses that other tracks may not consider, but its cash out, so i include it. So, you make a couple grand for 5 times the effort, and about 100 more things that could go wrong, and probably will. Also, running races is a huge wager, getting 200 + is allot of luck too. You're gambling $5,000 on the weather, economoy, other events, injuries, a bunch of other little nit-picky factors. In the end, I would be more inclined to run a race, if the costs were about half, and even then its just a total different vibe. Not nearly as laid back and fun as open riding. Its not called practice anymore, because riders are not practicing to race, they are just riding.

More than likely, you'll hit 135, so thats a loss of about a grand.
 
It's a vicious circle of things that effect each other on this whole issue of why there aren't more racers and any given race....... and I'm a racer that hardly races for the past 6 or 7 years. I usually race 1 Loretta Lynn's Area Qualifier, 1 Loretta Lynn's Regional, 1 Loretta Lynn's National Championship (if I make it), 1 OIR Hand Racing Promotion race, 1 Red Bud Vet Fest Race, 1 Red Bud regular season race, and 1 High Point Vet National race............ all of my other riding is spent at open riding / trail riding / practicing. For me it's about the seat time and things that I like.......... I won't go to a track that I don't like anymore as it's a huge waste of time / money to be up at 4am and get home at 9pm on a Sunday for about 20 minutes of riding during a race day. Plus, if the class is empty, I just paid to basically ride by myself anyway............ so I only do big events where I know there will be big numbers of riders in my class because if I'm paying to race......... I wanna RACE!

That being said, I enjoy open riding and chasing people around too......... going to a track and being able to ride for 20 - 30 minutes at a time is more fun to me and gives me the exercise that I want moreso than a 7 minute moto does at a normal race. I ride for fun with the occasional race for competition......... my time and money are spent where I enjoy myself is why I don't do more local races..........
 
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