2017 track plans

ck1racerx

ck1racerx

PR Addict
As we close out the 2016 season for pretty much all the area organizations, I think it is time to kick the rumor mill into high gear with all the area tracks plans for next year. For sure it has been a odd year. A couple huge turnouts helped pull the averages up some, but pretty much across the board MUST tracks seen a reduction in the numbers from the past few years. Some tracks seen major reductions. And a few may not be coming back for next year.
For me, i think this is a critical time for tracks, organizations and riders (to some degree) to figure out what the future of the sport looks like. Are we going to bury are heads in the sand and act like we dont see it coming? Or are we going to make real changes to try to bring people back to the sport.

If nothing changes, then i can see SEVERAL tracks closing. Not to mention even more racers leaving the sport. And i am not talking about changes like adding or deleting a class or two. Nor am i talking about adding to, consolidating or folding one or more of the acronym soup "organizations" that sanction the sport. I am talking about real changes that can actually impact the bottom line for both track and rider.

Those tracks on the edge of closing or struggling to just break even are the ones that need to make changes more than anyone. The business plan of doing the same as other highly profitable tracks or organization in the area is not going to work. There is only one Chilitown. There is only one battle series and one Red Bud. You can not copy what they do, because you dont have what they have. One thing you can do what they did, was come up with a great plan and execute it. An original plan, something outside the box.
10 years ago, if someone told you they were going to build a track at a fairgrounds in a town that smells like goat ass on a 110 degree day. And they would pull in over 600 bikes each time they open the doors. You would have laughed in their face. BUT, they had a plan. AND they execute every time.

What are these changes? Your in the damn business. Ask your customers. Not the three guys you know that agree with you. Or the club members that paid $100 so they could drink beer in the club house and once seen a motocross race. The actual customers. Then go over and above what they asked for. Everyone who has ever thrown a leg over a bike will put in their opinion. But remember, what you are looking for, they have not seen yet. Until YOU create the next big thing.

I digress...
What are the plans? closing? changing owners? organizations? New track layout? Bigger? smaller? second track? night races? outlaw?

ready? and go.
 
AHRMA Great Lakes is having a 4 day "Spectacular" vintage event at RED BUD, LABOR DAY weekend 17, make plans..............
 
What? Alex needs to chime in, the sport is growing.

Business plan? What is that?

Dude, give up. The right people dont really care. The best we can do is go with the flow or start our own track. Im time short and cash poor so the first option is my only option. Caring about this sport and trying to help makes you an a*****e so Ive given up on my end.
 
I'm going to suggest more incentives/promoting to COCR. I believe most don't go because of their experiences 15,10, 5 or 2 years ago. Things have changed, except for turnouts. Just ask someone that went this past weekend. Most tracks closed Saturday, and COCR worked their butts off to open the track for the riders. It opened an hour later than anticipated, but I think most will agree that it was worth it. The track was very, very nice Saturday. While asking a few of the riders their thoughts, I was even told that it was "DOPE"! I wasn't their on Sunday, but supposedly, they had the best turnout that they've had all year.

I wonder if me promoting on here had anything to do with it. If so, nobody has admitted to it.
 
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COCR should be one of the best tracks in the state... I said, SHOULD. The location is OK (the road sucks but nothing they can do about that) the land its self is better than most, and they have been around forever so people know about it. Possible that is really the problem. Like you said, most racers experience is from a number of years back. My one experience I had with COCR last year, could have happened 35 years ago. It was the same product. Sure, it may have been a different track layout (some) but the overall product was the exact same. THAT, has to change if they are ever going to return to glory.

I am intrigued by the GP format. People know pretty much the exact time they are going to be on the track. I have not seen it first hand but ALL of the feedback has been more than positive. Some form of this (in theory) should work for moto. They have a very limited class structure yet none of the posts I have read say anything about "I would race if you had my____ class"
They just find a class that fits them and enjoy the seat time. One of the things I read in the EROC rules is that also use electronic scoring. But they use the RFID system and it only costs the riders one or two bucks. HMMMMM.

For sure the racers in the southern half of the state got hosed this year. With rain outs on top of limited number of schedule events we got less than 12 races all year. This forced several racers to migrate south to the Kentuckian series (if the big Ten can have 14 teams then the Kentuckian series can have a track in Illionis) Why a few others have tried to hit some northern tracks. It just sucks living the southwest Ohio right now. 80% of the races are 3 hours away. Never going to get new racers if nothing is around.

Any news on DMC return to racing next year?
Action Sports?

Man, this can be an evergreen topic all winter.
 
You can't make people go to the races. People are going to go to the events they want to go to. I used to race MX about twice a month. I got tired of it. Tired of the long days, tired of waking up at 5am to get there in time for sign-up and practice, tired of the injuries, etc. I race HS & GP's now.

So, I'm an example of a person that no matter how good of an event you put on, I'm probably not going. I think a lot of people are starting to jump in that boat. Now days, people are so busy. We're all accessible 24/7 with our cell phones and social media. People have lives and responsibilities. Sometimes they just get tired of the early mornings and long days. Unfortunately, you need both of those to put on a motocross race in today's format.

There are ways to improve those two things, but then the promoters don't make money. That's not good for anyone. The best thing any promoter can do is put forth your best effort in track prep, marketing, and race day schedule. Then let the chips fall where they may. If it works, cool. If not, invest in something else.
 
We have been working on finding different ways to track participation to help our AMA organizers and to better communicate to our members. At AMA congress I gave a presentation on trending activity in the sport. We recieved alot of praise on helping provide data and information back to organizers to utlize.

I came across this crazy number (which is staying pretty consistent though past years), we have been trending around the 35,000 number for individuals who participate in Motocross events in a season. Each year roughly 7,000 individual riders race ONE class during ONE event. Roughly a 5th of the sport, shows up once to a race. This shocked me and I checked my information a couple of times.

There are several ways to look at this. How many of those 7,000 riders had a bad costumer service experience? These 7,000 riders have a dirt bike in their garage and decided to pull it out and race once in a 365 day period. Why? Did they not get the value of the race day versus maybe a practice day? Are these riders off-road riders who try a Motocross event? Do these riders target "special" events like Vetfest, Pro National Amateur Days or Vintage Motocross at VMD (which we had like 250 individual riders at VMD MX). Did these riders not fill comfortable or had a bad experience with the class structure? Was the price to ride too high for that particiar racing experience? Did these riders have bad experiences with other racing families or competitors?

I'm still working delinate this infromation and looking deeper into the data.

If we could get these 7,000 riders to show up to 2 events, it would boost national entries almost 5% across the country plus increase backgate revenue. I think in some cases, we the riders need to step up and support our local racing facilities and also help support local racing by helping spread the information. At the AMA, we are working on developing better communcation to members about local events near their zip code to help support local racing.
 
We're done with the local MX Race scene next year. Sticking to the GNCC and Full Gas series.

I know exactly how much each race will cost me, no guessing or trying to search out the multiple social media sites trying to figure it out. I can budget my race season. I only have to purchase my AMA card and I can collect contingency and they submit the results timely. Matter of fact, I even got my RMC gas cards from the race we did 3 weeks ago. Still havent gotten anything from the 1 battle round we did, and I'm not holding my breath. Both series posts their schedules way ahead of time so everyone can account for their time off from work and travel. And they don't puss out because of rain or because it might hurt their course. I also get my moneys worth, not this bullshit 4 laps because there's 40 classes for a days race.

There's too many big amatuer races that take priority for the really fast guys and too many local tracks in general to see the turnouts on a general weekend. The market is oversaturated with places to ride/race (not a bad thing), but you'll never see the turnouts unless they are the bigger battle races.
 
Alex186 said:
We have been working on finding different ways to track participation to help our AMA organizers and to better communicate to our members. At AMA congress I gave a presentation on trending activity in the sport. We recieved alot of praise on helping provide data and information back to organizers to utlize.

I came across this crazy number (which is staying pretty consistent though past years), we have been trending around the 35,000 number for individuals who participate in Motocross events in a season. Each year roughly 7,000 individual riders race ONE class during ONE event. Roughly a 5th of the sport, shows up once to a race. This shocked me and I checked my information a couple of times.

There are several ways to look at this. How many of those 7,000 riders had a bad costumer service experience? These 7,000 riders have a dirt bike in their garage and decided to pull it out and race once in a 365 day period. Why? Did they not get the value of the race day versus maybe a practice day? Are these riders off-road riders who try a Motocross event? Do these riders target "special" events like Vetfest, Pro National Amateur Days or Vintage Motocross at VMD (which we had like 250 individual riders at VMD MX). Did these riders not fill comfortable or had a bad experience with the class structure? Was the price to ride too high for that particiar racing experience? Did these riders have bad experiences with other racing families or competitors?

I'm still working delinate this infromation and looking deeper into the data.

If we could get these 7,000 riders to show up to 2 events, it would boost national entries almost 5% across the country plus increase backgate revenue. I think in some cases, we the riders need to step up and support our local racing facilities and also help support local racing by helping spread the information. At the AMA, we are working on developing better communcation to members about local events near their zip code to help support local racing.
Click to expand...

Alex, does the AMA ever contact those people directly and ask why they only raced one time? If you just get answers from 10% of those people it could be VITAL information. Stuff a prepaid post card in the middle of the magazine with some general questions and a space to write suggestions. Maybe even a link to an online survey. In my line of work, an online survey is by far the best way to get feedback. And we send out links to a survey monkey 10 question "snap shot" quarterly and I have seen over a 75% increase in timely feedback by using this tool.
 
I think it would benefit everyone if the tracks would try and work together more often rather than against each other. East Fork decided to close during CTMX Moto Mayhem which was a great gesture...I think more of that will in turn show more tracks supporting each other and seeing larger numbers again
 
Straight from the old District 11 rule book:

There will be no more than 1 motocross on any one date. The mileage between

like events and conflicting events will be decided at the start of the sanction meeting.

Example - 60 miles like events - 40 miles conflicting events.

Mileage is determined by a straight line on an Ohio map.

This should be followed for practice dates as well. If you want to hold AMA events, then you need to follow the rules. Problem is we have more then one "organization holding AMA events in a single area. But then again, if we followed the district rules for both, then it would not be an issue. This of course would require some pretty interesting meeting that I would LOVE to be part of.
 
Another great excerpt:


If two (2) clubs/promoters send in for an open race date after the sanction meeting, they can both have that date, if they are

200 miles apart. If they are under 200 miles, the earliest approved AMA sanction will get the date.
 
In 2017 we plan to run a very similar schedule as 2016. On my short list of improvements is expanded parking near the current starting gate location. We will add roughly 2 acres over there. We will be planting winter wheat and fertilizer on all tracks in the next two weeks. I would like to install a bike wash area next year, a more secure gate area, more flagger stands, more fences, relocate the starting gate, relocate the kids track, add more parking than what's already been mentioned, more driveways etc etc. Possibly the first water truck fill tower (like red bud). This is all weather and turn out pending (my guess is half of it will happen), because most of the folks I buy stuff from do not take IOU's which I have found to be common currency in la la land run by the liberal society of the puff the magic dragon people.
 
i bet a lot of those 1 off racers come from fair races... i know plenty of local kids that just go out to fair races only that will never ever consider the thought of racing anywhere else.
 
The mileage requirement works within district or racing organizations but some areas of the country, it doesn't work. For instance, Illinois has a open calendar, they have a "gentlemen's agreement" to stay off each other. It works for them.

Knox your absolutely right (and you can screenshot that... yeah I said it) we don't communicate with those riders at all... that gets into my comments about increasing and having better ways to communicate with our members. They have a membership, use it.

For those 7,000 riders, that's the potential. We as a sport need to find a way to get that guy/girl who has a dirt bike in their garage and raced it atleast once, to come back out.

I was talking with a promoter about the "professional practicer" and what we can do to get them to race. My thoughts, make race days feel like practice days. No idea how to do it... but you solve that riddle and sport grows. A trail ride and a hare scramble aren't much different except for the start, timed racing and the finish line... how do we make a race day feel like a practice day. No idea how to do it...
 
One time I heard a once colorful wise man have a crazy idea. Possibly expensive but not for some tracks currently with RFID....uh hmm...WRMC..... have a normal practice day. Day from 9 am til 6pm. Sign up for practice as normal, everyone gets a tag. At noon have a 1 moto 6 lap race for the fast 41-80 riders followed by a one moto 6 lap race for the fast 40. Afterwards back to practice as normal. It's a win win for everyone.

Don't know what happened to the colorful fun guy who came up with that idea.....
 
Its OK Alex, you will come to understand that I am absolutely correct 99% of the time. The other 1% you just don't understand that I am correct. :)
Maybe if we had a person at the races that show the new people around, give them a few pointers on there first race day and have a handout about all the other fine race tracks in the area. Maybe that would give them the warm and fuzzy feel and maybe, just maybe race again. I don't know... but like you said, we need to grab and hold onto those people. They already made the faithful jump to try it. We as a sport need to make them WANT to return.
Making the day feel like a practice... maybe the GP format is the way to go. Show up, race, leave. Waiting around all day for a 7 min moto sucks.
 
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