GeorgiePorgie
PR Founding Father
He's a 50 year old kid. With a nice wife and good looking pups.
Hi Jason , I miss our chats at the meetings . Thanks for the constructive input ,I've always respected your judgement . Your continued success with Oma is proof that my assement of you was spot on ,I tip my hat to your skills and courage . You and I are probably the only ones Who realize what a Balsley move that was especially being married and a family man and having a family to look out after . Melvern lis a big investment and you put it all on the line just so the bar for the motocross community could be raised , if it didn't work for you there wasn't going to be anybody there to Bail you out , but you still did it . I hope you raise it even higher and continue to reach new levels of success . I still consider you my friend and will always give you credit for jump starting the mx scene in our little corner of the woods . I wish you and your associates continued success and I mean that from the bottom of my heart , good luck with your new stable of tracks and your 2016 season . After all isn't It really about the ryder , I think that's who is really going to benefit with all this !Art, thanks for the kind words. The last five years have certainly been interesting and filled with mixed emotions. It feels like it has been an extremely long and sometimes bumpy road but I truly believe we are on the right track and have a promising Mx season ahead of us.
Pymatuning, where do I start. I have made the 3 hour drive up there to race with you more times than I could possibly count. Starting in the early 90's up until about 2001. I didn't stop going for any negative reason I just got out of racing for about a decade. It's funny to look back now, some of my fondest memories up there were battling with Trevor (who almost always edged me out) in the pro class. Or watching Sammy Yannatelli be the first person (and maybe the only) to jump the big triple on a KX80. Anyway, for the most part I always enjoyed myself. Although I was not around the scene when your decline started, it is not hard to understand. Much like any business, as profit goes down, so does available funds for reinvestment in the equipment/facility and things can just snowball from there.
Trying to rebuild, unfortunately that is usually harder than starting from scratch. A bad reputation is unbelievably hard to overcome. I am still slowly making progress with that at Malvern in regards to the track surface. Anyone who raced there in the 90's knows it had a reputation for being hard pack and slick with large pieces of shale constantly popping up. Well, with over 400 loads of sand and 100 loads topsoil those conditions no longer exist. Point being that it is still a fight to get some people from that era to come because even though they have heard it has changed and even seen pictures, in their head it is still the same.
If I were in your shoes: Obviously I don't know what your plans are, only that you intend to buy more property next to you. Having more property is always a positive, however what you choose to do with it can prove to be a negative. I personally would buy the property for the future but would not do anything with it at this point. Instead I would spent that money on better or more equipment and really focus on making what you currently have good. I mean take a step back and look at it from your potential customers perspective. Here we have a promoter/facility who can not come close to filling the current facility and is not known for taking particularly good/consistent care of the track but is planning on expanding his facility. As a racer I can't see why that scenario would be appealing, it just doesn't make sense.
Wow, no reason to act that way.Your tricycle numbers don't fly. It's a clown class. Once a month spectacle. It's like comparing a powderpuff night at a dirt track. Why isn't there a tricycle class built in any track on a normal basis? I race +50 and we always out number the clown classes at quality tracks.
Also I do have a business. Next time you see me at a track come introduce yourself. I'll grab a few nickels from my tin cup and buy you a burger and a Coke.
And JO thanks for using the words "do not necessarily" , instead of "do not".
Your correct. I got a little out of control.Wow, no reason to act that way.
Tks jo we haven't met yet but that means a lot to me , it looks like we both have our work cut out for us this season , I wish you and Jason only the best and continued success with the Oma machine . Feel free to contac me anytime with PA system or communications problems , trust me I know how to make a PA system sing better than most pro's out there , I've been doing it a long time and I would of course volunteer my services , and that goes for any other track that might be looking for some direction with PA systems on this site. Good luck everyone in the upcoming mx season , remember if we're truly a mx family. Don't be afraid to ask the family for help. After all it's all about making it better for the rider together as a group ! Tks ARTGood luck Art with your renewed efforts at your facility.
As far as catering to the Oma , you and your crew should maybe give the pit more of a chance it's really every riders site and is a great way to get Messages out to the masses of riders weather it be the weather conditions , track promotions or what have you . you see a lot of OMA on here only because they're excited about their new venture and they talk about it a lot . it's only natural perhaps the CRA should get more excited and spout off about what it has to do.
Anyways, glad the meeting went well. I'm seeing some real plans for action brewing. Hope you still talk with Bud Fischer. He has a lot of insight on transforming a dwindling AMA National into a thriving non-AMA event, with 35% exhibition classes that the AMA didn't want, and I have a lot of insight on getting trail riders onto race tracks. Id be happy to talk with you at anytime by phone, in person meeting, or email.