Sunday practices

Original44

Original44

PR Addict
Is Sunday practice killing race turnouts? To me it a big part of why we don't have large turnouts today. It cost more to race so turnouts for races are down already. But practices on Sunday also hurts racing. I'm not talking about qualifiers, regionals, battle races, or pro day races. I'm talk about local Sunday racing. It's still the cheapest racing you can do.
 
It's not one single thing and I do not think Sunday practice is the major issue if indeed we can consider it an issue. Folks are gonna do what they want to do. Race, practice, free ride, trail ride, etc. You cannot "force" someone to go race if they do not want to by giving them less options...
 
Been debated a 1000 times. I agree, other events hurt turnouts. Briar Cliff is a perfect example. Held a race earlier this spring, and I expected a huge turnout. I forget, there were like 7 in 40 plus. They said they had more 40+ guys there on Saturday for practice than on Sunday. COCR was racing less than an hour away that day, and Rt 62 was practicing that day. Briar Cliff is one of the top tracks in Ohio, ands you would have thought they would have had a bigger turnout, and it was a bit disappointing.

I have DMC 30 minutes from my house. They are racing on the same day as the next two Battle races. I am driving 3.5 hours to Malvern and 2 hours to BC......why, because I want to ride the best tracks I can, and have big gates of riders. It makes the races a lot of fun, and I always liked going to big races. Tracks need to think a little more when they are scheduling events.
 
Has not as much to do with it as you think. Those 40+ riders that I mentioned that were there the day before weren't riding Sunday at all. If they were and/or "wanted" to race Sunday, they would have been there.
 
Scoob said:
Has not as much to do with it as you think. Those 40+ riders that I mentioned that were there the day before weren't riding Sunday at all. If they were and/or "wanted" to race Sunday, they would have been there.
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True, Vet riders are their own breed.
 
Scoob said:
It's not one single thing and I do not think Sunday practice is the major issue if indeed we can consider it an issue. Folks are gonna do what they want to do. Race, practice, free ride, trail ride, etc. You cannot "force" someone to go race if they do not want to by giving them less options...
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Your wrong, running on top of each other definitely hurts. It's killing local races. In north eastern Ohio it seems like one track is racing and three are practicing on the same weekend. It dilutes the racing.
 
I agree, if someone can ride on Sunday only, and their opinion was only to race, some would go race. But then again, I think there are some people anymore that don't want to race, and only ride.
 
Original44 said:
Your wrong, running on top of each other definitely hurts. It's killing local races. In north eastern Ohio it seems like one track is racing and three are practicing on the same weekend. It dilutes the racing.
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Did you poll the audience at each practice & race for the past year or something? Running on top of each other effects what I do 0%. If there's no one practicing on any given Sunday and I have no desire to race, I'm riding a backyard track, trail riding, or not riding at all.
 
People are racing less, stretching their dollar to do a handful of bigger events instead of running 8-30 local races. The landscape has changed, budgets have changed, mentalities have changed. Tracks need to run Sunday practice to survive.

Now the real question is having too many tracks in Ohio killing the local turnouts?
 
Bill480 said:
Did you poll the audience at each practice & race for the past year or something? Running on top of each other effects what I do 0%. If there's no one practicing on any given Sunday and I have no desire to race, I'm riding a backyard track, trail riding, or not riding at all.
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Same here, family and work keep me from getting enough ride time to think about racing. Just for the fact that if I'm gonna race I want to be at the top of my game and not being able to get any practice in I'm not ready to compete. So if there's a Sunday I'm free and there's a practice track open I'll be there rather then going to a race or staying home, with that being said though if their is practice sat and Sunday I will choose Saturday.
 
BriarcliffMx said:
People are racing less, stretching their dollar to do a handful of bigger events instead of running 8-30 local races. The landscape has changed, budgets have changed, mentalities have changed. Tracks need to run Sunday practice to survive.

Now the real question is having too many tracks in Ohio killing the local turnouts?
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"SHUT THEM ALL DOWN!! 1 MX TRACK ONLY, SESSIONS ARE THE ONLY WAY, AND NO SUNDAY PRACTICE IF THERES A RACE IN CA"
 
Original44 said:
Your wrong, running on top of each other definitely hurts. It's killing local races. In north eastern Ohio it seems like one track is racing and three are practicing on the same weekend. It dilutes the racing.
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Well, there's where we disagree my friend (if I can call you that). I say you're wrong...or at least misinformed.

BriarcliffMx said:
People are racing less, stretching their dollar to do a handful of bigger events instead of running 8-30 local races. The landscape has changed, budgets have changed, mentalities have changed. Tracks need to run Sunday practice to survive.

Now the real question is having too many tracks in Ohio killing the local turnouts?
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I'm sure too many tracks is a piece of it, but not certain any more than running Sunday practice on another tracks scheduled race. Maybe more so as for those that want to race will travel to do so, but some won't...

Bill480 said:
"SHUT THEM ALL DOWN!! 1 MX TRACK ONLY, SESSIONS ARE THE ONLY WAY, AND NO SUNDAY PRACTICE IF THERES A RACE IN CA"
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Simmer down Bill. It's all good. ;)
 
Maybe a better approach than trying to get people to do something other than they want to, is to grow the overall rider pool. Each track could have a vintage race weekend, it's another market, and an additional weekends revenue for the track. I suggested to the Drew Wolfe after the AMA event in June that there is a market for 5 or 6 tracks to start an Ohio vintage series, I think he agrees. Perhaps a few "A" / "B" only practices OPEN track all day, seems like we have heard a bit about that recently. Maybe a "C"/"D" class only day let newer riders gain experience in a more comfortable setting, it needs to be easier for new riders to enter the MX world. Also you could hold junior only days for the same reason. If track owners want to grow their revenue they need to think about being different than all the rest, be creative and meet a need that is not being met. The cost today is prohibitive for many, promote 125cc races, 2 strokes classes. For me the days I get to ride are dictated by many family, business, weather and other issues not whether it is Saturday or Sunday.
 
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Scoob said:
Well, there's where we disagree my friend (if I can call you that). I say you're wrong...or at least misinformed.
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Sure we are friends, alls good on my end. Look at the benefit practice at OIR on August 31. Malvern racing Saturday and TV land is racing Sunday, so don't tell me it not going to hurt both turnouts. Not trying to make this OMA vs CRA.

This seem the norm today to practice on top of races that are close to each other. Why??
 
Mike said:
Maybe a better approach than trying to get people to do something other than they want to, is to grow the overall rider pool. Each track could have a vintage race weekend, it's another market, and an additional weekends revenue for the track. I suggested to the Drew Wolfe after the AMA event in June that there is a market for 5 or 6 tracks to start an Ohio vintage series, I think he agrees. Perhaps a few "A" / "B" only practices OPEN track all day, seems like we have heard a bit about that recently. Maybe a "C"/"D" class only day let newer riders gain experience in a more comfortable setting, it needs to be easier for new riders to enter the MX world. Also you could hold junior only days for the same reason. If track owners want to grow their revenue they need to think about being different than all the rest, be creative and meet a need that is not being met. The cost today is prohibitive for many, promote 125cc races, 2 strokes classes. For me the days I get to ride are dictated by many family, business, weather and other issues not whether it is Saturday or Sunday.
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True, but trying stuff without certainty that it's going to work can potentially cost the track owner money. You have to be stratigic with that stuff and cannot do it all at once. Expecially if it is producing loss after loss. I think Jeremy and Jason are doing things such as that. It would be nice if we could just have one district/sancioning body for all Ohio. May be too large for that, but at least to the extent the OMA, CRA, old D-11 (not sure what they are calling themselves) all work together to some extent.

It's tough though. 'Tis where JO came in with the too many tracks. They cannot be a track without making money. Holding off an event because another track is having one accross the state doesn't make sense...always. Like I eluded to before, it's a bunch of things. Not just one thing. Getting all that stuff to gel and work in unison isn't an easy task. Keeping all you severly opinionated keyboard jockeys happen is the toughest thing of all... ;)
 
Bill480 said:
Did you poll the audience at each practice & race for the past year or something? Running on top of each other effects what I do 0%. If there's no one practicing on any given Sunday and I have no desire to race, I'm riding a backyard track, trail riding, or not riding at all.
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Yes, yes I did. LOL!

I know district12 never ran practice on Sundays, because it hurt race turnout.
 
Old D 11 motocross chairman tried to pass a bylaw a while back that if someone else was racing the same day you could not hold a race that day. In all reality it was a bad idea. If a track is 100 miles away from the other it is not going to affect the other track but maybe a couple riders. The proposal went down in flames.
 
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