Ok, so this was my first OMA event and here we go... First, totally agree with the uncontrolled kids on pit bikes and the idoits in the Razors.. Get your fat ass out of the go-cart and STAND NEXT TO THE FENCE. you don't have to drive up. NO ONE is impressed that you have a razor, douche bag. Chilly is the perfect place for this rule. If you bring a pit vehicle it MUST stay on the paved roads in the pits. Don't drive it to the fence and don't start it during the riders meeting. again you are a douche bag.
Second issue... Way, and I mean WAY too many classes. IF you are going to run that many quad classes then run them on Saturday and bikes on Sunday. Now I found out that you guys are big quad lovers but come on... Mini QUAD, really?? that was painful... Just run the cars on Saturday.
While I did not ride, I did see some issues with the track. Not EVERY straight needs jumps. Outside the start straight, every one of them had high speed jumps. Not sure how many if any were transported but the high speed, Evil Knevil jumps are going to really hurt someone. How about some corners, slow the bikes down, add some whoops that mite cause someone to LET OFF THE GAS and not hammer everyone of them.
With two good water trucks and all that equipment I would have expected no dust all day. But my second statement fixes that.
Disk the WHOLE track, not just the starting line. I, for sure do not get that one. The starting line looked killer all day. But the landing area on all the Evil Knevil jumps where super hard pack and blue grooved.
Now the good. Love the garage/yard sale idea. I got some gear for my little one and it was a cool way to meet people. On the radio = cool.. With it that hot it was nice to set in the air condition and listen to the race. (maybe a little more play by play and less music.) The mist tent was great. My son loved it and, well, my fat ass appreciated it as well. Track presentation was excellent. It was nice to see mowed grass, straight banners, clean track markers and fresh paint on the starting gate. NICE TOUCHES GO A LONG WAY WITH ME. Free sign up for the pro class was great. I have been trying to get that since I was racing. All you have to do is watch the crowd when the A class hit the track. EVERYONE was on the fence and watching. (I did not see that with the "A" cars) Sure the big pot (and Im not talking about Mcdade) of money is nice, but when you make it to that level, Pro's should be rewarded with free racing since they are the show.
All in all, Nice event. friendly people, good crowd and descent racing. Cut the classes to 10, run 15 to 20 min motos and then you got it. Right now, you have an average District 11 race from 1988. If your going to be special then you have to be different. Love the team work between promoters.
Good job guys.
Good review Chris however did you have on your anti whoop/roller glasses? There were too many dam whoops. The first straight after the start there were 5, turn the corner and BAM an entire stadium straight full of them, go to the top of the hill and 3 rollers around the left hand corner, This isnt SX its MX.
This race was far better than the first I went to here.
The good Chris hit the nail on the head. Also it is good to see such large turnouts coming to the OMA. It is great for our sport and for Ohio riders as a group. These are the types of events and races that get riders acclimated more for moving on to the bigger picture.
Ideas to throw around and not just about yesterdays race:
1. If you want 26 motos then try this. The 2 day events with sat practice and sunday races is cool and it seems saturday crowds are large. Since tracks are fully mobilized (ie. flaggers, vendors, food and crew) Run sat as follows, or close to..... 10 am 2 rounds of practice for everyone. immediately following 1st motos for quads and pee wees. Prep. 2 more rounds of practice for everyone with 2nd motos following.
Sunday minis and bikes only.
2. Laps---- make all motos timed. So for example the average 4 lap moto at any given track is (just pulling this out of thin air here) 8 min. So you make all motos 8 min. Possibly the pros get 5 laps in , the average moto is 4 laps and the painfull pee wees get 2-3. The key to this is EVERYONE GETS THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME on the track. Then everyone can stop complaining about waiting 20 min for 3 mini quads or 50cc beg riders to do their 4 laps.
3. Dump the reversed moto idea. The day still took WAY too long so in this case (and it would be reversed for quads on their day) I rode my motos at around 1130-12 am then waited till 630 to get on the track again with nothing to do. Thats BS. I ride 2 classes so I dont have to sit around all day bored. Lets face it you can only watch so much racing at our level before getting bored.
4. With the finish line directly behind the start gate there is no reason to wait until the last rider is off the track before dropping the next gate. It should fall when the last rider(in most classes obviously not with the very slow ones) is just past the half way point. The second set of motos this was better and not like the first set when there were no bikes on the track at some points.
5. Same rule for morning practice. The next group should be on the track in the same fashion. Practice should go by times. 830,845,9,915 ect. NOT by when people show up to the gate the first time. Run 6-8 practices or what ever is needed but only by times. It starts at 830 ant end at 10. And non pro riders shouldnt be allowed to go out in that practice. More than a few vet riders were spotted there.....
6. Stick to the scheduled times for practice and motos. This isnt the riders fault its an efficiency and coordination problem. At least a couple hours could be saved right here.
7. Try prepping in small increments. Move around the track with equipment and hit a corner here and there through out the day. Mist water on parts of the track regularly, I mean MIST not soak. That means actually taking the time to train those with hoses or in trucks what that means.
8. Also worth mentioning ----- and this applies to almost every race Ive been to this year ----- Yellow flags, in all but the Pro ranks it means NO JUMPING OR PASSING. I have seen at least 2 injuries caused by abuse of this rule and I have seen dozens of riders not follow the rule without punishment. No piece of wood or plastic is worth getting injured over. Even LL isnt worth breaking the rules and hurting someone or yourself for.
Not bashing anyone or any track. These are just observations of mine from being to many different tracks, organizations in many areas in the eastern US this year. You get a good idea of what works and what doesnt. Twice the amount of riders with 3 motos get pumped out by 2-3 pm on sunday at qualifiers. They run about 28 motos the first set with 4 laps then about 22 motos twice at 5 laps. They were done by 3 pm on sat and sunday at the 2 I went to just as one example.
Nonsensical ravings of a lunatic mind now concluded