What if you could start over new?

If something like this happened??? Men in front would be called fools by the ones who don't understand. They would be encouraged by the ones who do understand. America before it was formed was thought foolish to propose a government based on freedom and equality while raising the standard of quality of life and the body governing those people. Anyone with courage to do something in life, if right, will be spit upon and honored at the same time. So many great names come to mind. This reminds of Abraham Lincoln during the civil war, hated by half the country and loved by others, but if not for his leadership in that time period while submitting his life to God, we would probably still be separated. He changed the course of history. Even more so is Jesus Christ, who was crucified because He is God. Abraham was murdered. Now this is not about eternity or slavery, but it is important. If something like this happened.................................................EVERYTHING RISES OR FALLS ON LEADERSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Thank you BC for keeping quads in mind, even though it was in your "dream" series/schedule.

I find it ironic that track owners and promoters are creating threads lately about how to fix the low turnout problem when so many of you won't let quads through your gates and you're talking about not even offering a womens class. These 2 groups may be the minority riders in some areas, but you're taking money out of your own pockets when you foster a regional attitude that these two groups are unwelcome on your tracks. Be more welcoming of quads and women by letting them in and giving them equal track time, and you'll have taken a step in the right direction towards boosting rider turnout. That speaks to the whole problem in Ohio when it comes to a lot of track owners and popularity. A moto rider is a moto rider. Cash is cash.

Affordability also is key. Charge a straight gate fee of $25 and that includes your first class. Charge $5 for the next class, not $15 or more. That extra class is breaking some people with the continuing increase in costs of hauler and race fuel. Why does a rider want to buy a rider license for $25, then pay $25 on race day and then pay another $15 if he wants more than 1 moto or more than 8 minutes on the track? Why pay all that when it's so much cheaper to just pay $20 to practice and get waaaay more track time for your money.

Cut the awards and end of year parties/banquet. This speaks to affordability. Winning a class title and getting a number 1 plate that you pick up at at the last race of the season should be recognition enough. Us local guys don't need 4 foot tall trophies. That's a wasted expense that could have put fuel in a dozer or water truck.

Go back to your roots and get the basics right. Quality track prep, clean and safe facilities and efficient running of the schedule are key. Many tracks in Ohio only get 1 or 2 of these right. Only a few tracks in Ohio get all of these right.

Cutting all the redundant school boy, mini and extra classes is a good idea. Bigger gates means better rider experience and a more efficient day. If only 3 guys sign up for a class, bumping them into the next higher class also is a good idea to keep the day run efficiently with fewer motos. BC's "dream" class list is a great one. Practice on Saturday and Race on Sunday. A 2 moto format, start in the morning around 10am and you'll be out by 7pm. What's wrong with that? Who doesn't like spending the weekend at the track?

Lastly, promoters and track owners must listen to the riders. Take our input and use it to make improvements, whether on the race track or race day. And riders also need to understand they can't be overly demanding, and sometimes you have to take what you can get — understanding you should get what you pay for.
 
Dreaming away here Georgie. I can dream and have some say, but like to see the thoughts of others from time to time and let things play out..... which they have been doing on this thread. There are a great many ideas out there and some are old, some are new, some appeal to me, some appeal to others, and no matter what you do...... some people are going to be unhappy with the change. But change is necessary as the state of racing in Ohio is in a miserable state right now..... the good racers don't race here, and that doesn't promote new good racers from being bred here so how do we draw people back home to race????

1. I like shorter days at the track (seems that everyone wants this if their class isn't cut). So come up with a more common class list for shorter days. Have a Min Bike count to have the class, so we're not wasting time for 3 rider classes.
2. I like more ride time at the track than most race days produce, longer motos will make people feel that they get more track time. And with longer motos, the need to ride tons of classes reduces and less complaints from back to back motos or too close together.
3. Proper track prep is a must! Blinding dust is not acceptable at any time ever.
4. People like awards but don't want to go to 150 events to get them..... make a series (Spring / Summer / Fall) then you race 4 - 5 races for the series and don't have to race all year to get an award.
5. Stop competing against each other for the track owners - shut down and attend the other guys race weekend and help out...... good for him on his weekend, and good for you on your weekend. One destination per weekend makes it THE place to be.
6. Make membership affordable but worthwhile....... some perks of being a member vs not being a member. Like Members only count in points / awards - non members can race but don't get in the points / awards for series (so everyone can race). Also, members get discount on practice days....... and non members pay more for the practice day (get more money out of your pro practicers who aren't going to help the racing cause anyway, but give a discount to die hards who are there for both days).
7. Make it fun somehow...... have some silly contest at each track that is fun and entertaining. Whether it's pit bike race, wheelie contest, golf cart parade, whatever, do something fun for the folks to get interested in something outside of the normal that might be special for each track. Like Pitbike race at BC, Wheelie Contests at Malvern, golf cart race at Dirt World, BMX race at TV land....... something different at each track.

Those are some of my thoughts on this thread......
 
BriarcliffMx said:
Now this is me dreaming very loudly, and i know this idea will not work, we are way too set in our ways and scared for this to work.

But what if we ran each of the following groups in a 2 moto format, each moto is 15 minutes:

10:00am:
Vet A
Vet B
Vet C
Dual Sport
Open Extra

10:15 am:
Quads A
Quads B
Quads C
Utility Quad
Side-by-Side

10:30 am:
50cc 4-6
50cc 7-8
PeeWee/Oil–Injected
Mini Quads

10:45am:
Open MX A
Open MX B
Open MX C
Open MX D

11:00am:
65cc 7-9
65cc 10-11
85cc 7-11
85cc 12-15
Open Pit Bike
Junior Quad
Youth Quad

11:15am:
Lites A
Lites B
Lites C

11:30am:
School Boy
College Boy
Plus 25
Bomber
Plus 40
Women's
Open/Super Mini


The the same rotation after prep, 12:30 til 3:00.
Click to expand...

There are really only two problems here......

The A guys on an MX track with the C or D classes for 15 min motos spells trouble
Put 5 Min between motos to keep the times on schedule

Other than that it is possible.....
 
hershey said:
There are really only two problems here......

The A guys on an MX track with the C or D classes for 15 min motos spells trouble
Put 5 Min between motos to keep the times on schedule

Other than that it is possible.....
Click to expand...

Yeah, I saw that. Probably could make an A/B group and a C/D group. With some deep thinking you could get likely classes to go together. But I think its far too radical for the majority.
 
Attract events like this....Durhamtown is a neat facility in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Not near as nice as BC but really cool in its own way.

Shift event

I think you guys could learn lots from Durhamtown. They throw a bunch of cool events and have multiple riding areas for all types of riders.
 
Back to Honda Hills and my experience racing mini's there. If I remember, 1st moto was 10 minutes and then a white flag lap and the second moto was 15 minutes and a white flag lap.

Was Honda Hills the only track that ran a Saturday night schedule?
 
There are some great ideas in the previouos 11 pages and some that simply would not work. we tried to address the format, turnout, tracktime issue over here in Pa. It may be easier to solve the ongoing crisis in the Middle East than making everyone happy at an MX race. Anyway, we were very successful this year in our Spring series with the following adjustments. We trimmed a few calsses away like Vet C, Schoolboy 2 etc and came up with a standard moto format between 14 and 17 motos depending on A Class turnout (we would split 450/250 A and B if a large A turnout causing the 2 extra motos), anyway we also came up with standard gate groupings that no one had a problem with such as 2 stroke/4stroke always on the same gate, Plus 25/College Boy always on the same gate (most likely staggered but always on the same gate). we would flip the last 5 motos with the front 5 motos every couple of weeks to give the last guys early motos and really left the middle 5 alone as that is a good spot. it took some time to figure the order as we had to make sure that we did not put anyone back to back and EVERYONE had another class option ie. 2 stroke, 4 stoke , plus 25 etc. if they felt that a one moto break wasnt enough in between their classes. basically this program allowed riders to know when they would be racing and who would be staggered with them. we used the 50 classes and some mini classes to buffer any back to back potential, ALWAYS giving the little guys a good spot in the program and ALWAYS making sure 250A and 450A had prime time motos. this format worked well for the most part and allowed long motos for everyone and we were finished at 4 or 5:00. what people dont understand is that each promoter has their own thoughts and tend to vary, sometimes good sometmes bad and consitency is difficult and the sanctioning organization has little enforcment. MX promotion is not a business that I would ever want to do, there is simplpy too much risk for not a lot of return. The most important factor (OIR had this down pat) is riders want a "festisval" event feeling when they race. otherwise we could just go to a practice track. making the day exciting...good announcers....nice track dressing...good A class racing make a racer feel the excitment of racing.
 
I have kicked around so so many different ideas and always resort back to the standard.
- Way to many classes but everyone wants their own class with a better chance to win. They may tell you different but thats the case. I have made and added classes just to try and keep everyone happy (which is impossible).

- People want track time BUT they don't want it all at once for general mx racing. 4-5 lap moto's and no more or less as more you wouldn't believe the people just riding/not racing by the end of a 8 lap moto for the average rider/racer.

- Tired of giving out plaques and etc... try something different and people complain so your better to have a store of awards and let people pick. Huge up front cost and most always resort back to the standard plaques.

- I think I am going to add yet another "class" but this is going to be a $5-$10 class and open class race with not plaques etc...for those that want more track time and don't care about awards? Thoughts?

- * A GP series would work and work well if done correctly - Hey BC open this OH deal up to a PA track (hint/hint) not to far from OH for a GP series * not just any GP series but a huge/good one with even less classs than what I have offered and a little different structure. Look at elsinore GP - while I know I don't have the area they do but a 2 day GP event would be huge if done the correct time of year. I have ideas as well to beat the contingency deal good idea just never acted on as of yet.

- People are like sheep (all people) for the most part. They follow one another get a good event, give it a good name, make it enjoyable for most and they will keep coming and it will grow. The current way is so repetitive but it works and I agree there is room for improvement but the mass majority has to understand and agree. Once people get set in their ways it's hard to do anything different without making the majority mad.

For a huge turn out event and consistent turnout people are going to have to work together as there are way to many options and lots go to what ever is close and convenient. Look at the nationals they are down attendance wise from years past. One I believe the Saturday has hurt spectating attendance not sure what their TV deal is as this may off set it but the TV broadcast times I feel are horrible. The 4 strokes have hurt racing cost wise. Alot of people can not afford a bike let alone fix it when it breaks. These are people that grew up riding and once you lose them it's hard to get them back along with generations of "dirt bikers/motocrossers".

Something different needs to happen but it's going to take again everyone or something off the wall to get the vast majority to leave the current ways. Plus as the event grows so does the track time/day again and your back where you started for a lot of people and thats at the track for a long day.
 
Thanks SBRW! I would love to figure out a fall GP series. I think it would do very well. I will kick it around.

Here are some of the final names that are being considered for a dream world:

Ohio MX Association - OMXA
Ohio MX Racing - OMXR
Ohio District X
Ohio District MX
Ohio MX Organization - OMXO
 
In my opinion, I feel it would be beneficial to have Saturday races again. Sunday makes for an extremely early start/travel, late travel home, plus, most have to work the next morning. For the most part, practice sessions are successful on Sunday because you get there and leave at your own convenience? I feel races would have better turn outs if they were on Saturday? All D11 races, with the exception of maybe a few, besides fair races, were all on Sunday, turnouts were not good? If you were racing on Sunday, you decide, was it due to the fact of a Sunday race, the track, or a combination of them both? I also would like to see better/more MX Series Races, multiple tracks, and/or a single track. Series such as a Spring MX Series, or whatever, that provides good awards/benefits for the participants, in return, this would be more appealing to riders and sponsors. Rewards could consist of tires, riding gear, gift certificates, jackets; I think you get the idea? Another benefit that some may not think about is the appearance and quality of the facility; banners, flags, markers, announcers (If Applicable), night races (If Applicable), vendors, sponsor trucks/vendors on site, all can contest that usually the facility reflects the track. I know I enjoy rolling into a track that gives me the wow factor just from pulling in the gate, I don’t know about you, but it gets me anxious to ride and an everlasting memory of the facility. I understand the work that is involved in maintaining a track and the costs associated, however, I truly feel these are crucial elements for a good turnout. As a track owner, consider, would I ride on my track? One more thing, a good, manicured, watered, challenging, and fun track helps tooJ

Just a thought…..
 
True on the District. Just an opinion and based on past experiences. I believe at the end of the day, riders just want tracks that truly care:)
 
Ok in a perfect world I would run Friday practice ( pick your time ) sat. 3 lap practice followed by moto 1. Sun. 3 lap practice moto 2. Enough time for morning shakedown laps and adjust moto laps accordingly. Saturday night we party.
 
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