2017 CTMX Halloween Moto Mayhem Oct 21-22

I give nitro props for being honest and speaking what’s been on his mind. I always loved chillitown, but the last time I raced there was in 2013 and I swore I’d never go back... they ran our Open A Moto last... did track prep, and reversed the order of the motos, so we were up yet again, now that’s no big deal, but when your parked in the back of the facility and can’t hear anything, it kinda pisses you off when you miss your last Moto due to doing something as retarded as that.
 
nitrofish said:
We've have never missed a Chillitown event including the fair races except for the regionals. We have always loved coming. As advertised, Chillitown is not just a race but an event. Problem is it has moved more toward the night show, party crowd. The event has nothing to offer my family during the day anymore to offset the 5 hrs between Moto's. When we fell in love with you, you had the army contests going on during the day, spin the wheel for prizes on the hill, etc. Now all your event stuff is geared toward the overnight campers that can get drunk and not worry about the kids. Believe me if I was down there by myself I'd have a ball. I swore I'd never go back to your place after the Battle race. The Battle race this year was Freaking miserable. Long day, bored as hell, wife was pissed, kid was tired. This year! Thankfully, you had an 80 extra class on Saturday, so we bit. We raced had fun. As I stated, sign up is a joke. Track prep was horrible, especially the whoops and the face of the downhill table. My neighbor showed up Saturday for the quad racing, he was told to buy a race Ohio card. You don't even have quads in race Ohio. They missed practice during the argument, then got cut short on moto 2 because of daylight. The open practice arguments : I didn't even put the sticker on the boys helmet. I knew you would not check them, just like you monitor pit riding. It's an event, just like the days before Jack was born. Oh wait, that is the Harley days at Chillicothe. My tip, make it moto then an event.
Click to expand...
First off thank you for your review on the weekend. I always like reading these type of posts because typically we find ways to improve from constructive criticism but I'd like to counter some of these comments from a different perspective.

You are asking for more to do between motos. We do our best to bring as many activities as possible but those types of things are typically put on by our sponsors. Custom Powersports always used to do the spin the wheel for prizes and the Army obviously did their contests so don't come down on us, maybe post something on their page. We can't make them do those things. With this statement it makes me wonder where you normally race that has something to do between motos.

I'm sorry to hear that you were miserable at the Battle race. Personally any day spent with my family at the race track along with my moto friends is a kick ass day regardless of the venue.

Moving on to your sign up comment. Our sign up is top notch. We process two and sometimes three times more entries than any other track around here and with minimal errors. We deal with hundreds of people that can't follow directions and do it with a smile. The long waits are because everyone comes all at one time. We try to plan for this by having registration open longer but it doesn't matter. We will still have people show up 5 minutes before practice starts then throw a fit because they missed their first practice. We constantly deal with people who comes to registration unprepared. Most of our patrons are not first timers so I'm not sure why it's always an issue. We get complaints because pre-registration is slow but numerous times we had to tell people that didn't have oma, race ohio cards and transponders that they needed those things before they came to that line but they would still stand in that line for 10-15 minutes only to find out they didn't have what they needed. We had Derek announcing the process over and over on the PA so not knowing was not a good excuse! Yes we had PA issues but it worked perfectly fine down near registration so all those standing in line had plenty of time to figure out they didn't have what they needed so we can't take all the blame for this.

Moving on to track prep. What is your idea of motocross? I spent a lot of time in the announcers stand and I had a great view of the track and from what I saw the track was awesome! I will say I have noticed something that typically happens every race weekend. Most of the people that complain about track conditions are the ones that experience on track mishaps like sliding out in a turn or can't ride ruts. This is always the case but you can almost bet that if little Johnny goes down in a rut mom or dad comes shooting up to the tower to complain about track prep even though 30 some other bikes made it through the same corner no issues. Our track crew is the best in the business hands down.

I personally deal with most of the comments and questions on CTMX media sites and one thing is becoming more and more apparent people don't know what they want but you can bet its your fault.

At the end of the day there is no other track doing what we do and getting the numbers we get. The tracks that are getting the numbers we get they are holding a bike only event over three days. We would love to get everyone out of the track by 3pm on Sunday but when you get 771 entries it's hard to stuff that into one day. All I ask is that when you critique us you compare apples to apples. We are probably more open to comments and concerns than most tracks but if it's just someone ranting because they had a bad weekend it doesn't carry much weight.

Sorry for the long winded response but I wanted to get "my" opinion out there.

Thanks, Joe Easter
 
321mechanic said:
First off thank you for your review on the weekend. I always like reading these type of posts because typically we find ways to improve from constructive criticism but I'd like to counter some of these comments from a different perspective.

You are asking for more to do between motos. We do our best to bring as many activities as possible but those types of things are typically put on by our sponsors. Custom Powersports always used to do the spin the wheel for prizes and the Army obviously did their contests so don't come down on us, maybe post something on their page. We can't make them do those things. With this statement it makes me wonder where you normally race that has something to do between motos.

I'm sorry to hear that you were miserable at the Battle race. Personally any day spent with my family at the race track along with my moto friends is a kick ass day regardless of the venue.

Moving on to your sign up comment. Our sign up is top notch. We process two and sometimes three times more entries than any other track around here and with minimal errors. We deal with hundreds of people that can't follow directions and do it with a smile. The long waits are because everyone comes all at one time. We try to plan for this by having registration open longer but it doesn't matter. We will still have people show up 5 minutes before practice starts then throw a fit because they missed their first practice. We constantly deal with people who comes to registration unprepared. Most of our patrons are not first timers so I'm not sure why it's always an issue. We get complaints because pre-registration is slow but numerous times we had to tell people that didn't have oma, race ohio cards and transponders that they needed those things before they came to that line but they would still stand in that line for 10-15 minutes only to find out they didn't have what they needed. We had Derek announcing the process over and over on the PA so not knowing was not a good excuse! Yes we had PA issues but it worked perfectly fine down near registration so all those standing in line had plenty of time to figure out they didn't have what they needed so we can't take all the blame for this.

Moving on to track prep. What is your idea of motocross? I spent a lot of time in the announcers stand and I had a great view of the track and from what I saw the track was awesome! I will say I have noticed something that typically happens every race weekend. Most of the people that complain about track conditions are the ones that experience on track mishaps like sliding out in a turn or can't ride ruts. This is always the case but you can almost bet that if little Johnny goes down in a rut mom or dad comes shooting up to the tower to complain about track prep even though 30 some other bikes made it through the same corner no issues. Our track crew is the best in the business hands down.

I personally deal with most of the comments and questions on CTMX media sites and one thing is becoming more and more apparent people don't know what they want but you can bet its your fault.

At the end of the day there is no other track doing what we do and getting the numbers we get. The tracks that are getting the numbers we get they are holding a bike only event over three days. We would love to get everyone out of the track by 3pm on Sunday but when you get 771 entries it's hard to stuff that into one day. All I ask is that when you critique us you compare apples to apples. We are probably more open to comments and concerns than most tracks but if it's just someone ranting because they had a bad weekend it doesn't carry much weight.

Sorry for the long winded response but I wanted to get "my" opinion out there.

Thanks, Joe Easter
Click to expand...
I have to agree with Joe 100% on the track prep, working on two different tracks I hear the same, are you going to do more prep on the track because of the deep ruts, I hate this track because of the elevation changes, the track is to fast or to big of jumps. The truth is most riders within our state have not been out of the state racing larger tracks like Muddy Creek , Millcreek, Red Bud, Gatorback, WW Ranch, High Point, Ect. all of these tracks range from deep ruts (even on the take offs) to flat slick corners. The problem is we can't make everyone happy. John 250 as far as both memberships I do believe you have both of these prior to Chillitowns race, once again go to Muddy Creek or Gatorback you have to buy a membership to both, heck if you was to live in Indiana and go race a race in Michigan, Illinois or Indiana you have to purchase a Great Lakes Membership. Race Ohio MX and Chillitown lowered the cost to $5.00 for one day pass. I can entertain the changing the classes to 30.00 per class and eliminating the memberships next year but people would complain. The fact is most racers do not know the upfront cost to put on a race, our average 350+ race cost us $8000.00 for a race weekend, yes $8000.00 this covers AMA sanctioning, AMA insurance, Pro purse payout at 200% , Porta Potties, Flaggers, Medics , Diesel Fuel for the equipment, sign up personnel, pre staging personnel, starting gate person, announcer and track equipment operators. This is East Forks and Buckeye Hills average payout, I couldn't even imagine Chillitowns. This is my 2 cents on the subject.

Rick
 
Last edited:
A couple more comments and then I'll tap out:

Excellent race and event. Our family looks forward to it each year and you did not disappoint. A few things did put me on edge though:

Saturday sign-up: I only signed my son up for practice, which is typical for me. If he gets injured or has major bike issues and cannot race on Sunday I don't want the hassle of the refund process. Once he gets through practice and everything is good we will go back and sign-up for the race with a minimal line or none at all.

This is not our first Chillitown race so we are quite familiar with the sign-up process. That being said, there were four lines to choose from, plus the Escore line. "Pre-registration" was labeled, as was "Memberships", the kiosks and the "pay" window were not. If you were not familiar with the process, you had no idea where to go first. The was no "order of sign-up" posted anywhere, no one in the kiosk tent was offering help unless it was with the kiosks themselves, and there was little to no announcing at this time of morning on Saturday. We knew where to go and what to do, but most of the ten or so people in front of us did not, as evidenced by a lot of very stupid questions to your staff. Maybe a big sign which shows the "flow" of the sign-up process would help.

My son thought the track and prep was very good. I don't know if I have ever seen a track put the time into prep as your crew does. Excellent job. With the many riders, the track is going to break down and there is not a lot of time for prep throughout the day. People need to deal with it.

663Dad re memberships: I have been to Muddy Creek for a non-area / regional, just a regular Victory Sports promoted race that is their regular series. I did not have to purchase any other kind of membership. The AMA card was all they wanted. The dual sanction thing was a fail in my opinion. Thanks for discounting it to $5 though.

For me, the absolute worst part of the day was the PA system in the pits about 100 yards away from the Custom Powersports trailer. I am not sure if you are aware just how bad it was, because it seemed OK down by the track and sign-up trailer. It went on for HOURS and was so loud. I developed a headache on Saturday and it did not go away until Sunday night, and I believe the PA system was the main source of my pain. 18 Advil later and no help. I swear to God, if I had a ladder I would have cut the wires to the speakers closest to us. I am not sure if this has been addressed but my number one priority at your next race is finding a spot away from any speaker pole.

Lastly, and this is the first I have heard about it, if quads were asked to purchase a Race Ohio membership and they do not even have quads in the Race Ohio organization, then that is just wrong. Nothing but a money grab.

Again, great job. You guys always seem to take the Pitracer criticism and make it right. Thank you!!
 
jrminiquad said:
A couple more comments and then I'll tap out:

Excellent race and event. Our family looks forward to it each year and you did not disappoint. A few things did put me on edge though:

Saturday sign-up: I only signed my son up for practice, which is typical for me. If he gets injured or has major bike issues and cannot race on Sunday I don't want the hassle of the refund process. Once he gets through practice and everything is good we will go back and sign-up for the race with a minimal line or none at all.

This is not our first Chillitown race so we are quite familiar with the sign-up process. That being said, there were four lines to choose from, plus the Escore line. "Pre-registration" was labeled, as was "Memberships", the kiosks and the "pay" window were not. If you were not familiar with the process, you had no idea where to go first. The was no "order of sign-up" posted anywhere, no one in the kiosk tent was offering help unless it was with the kiosks themselves, and there was little to no announcing at this time of morning on Saturday. We knew where to go and what to do, but most of the ten or so people in front of us did not, as evidenced by a lot of very stupid questions to your staff. Maybe a big sign which shows the "flow" of the sign-up process would help.

My son thought the track and prep was very good. I don't know if I have ever seen a track put the time into prep as your crew does. Excellent job. With the many riders, the track is going to break down and there is not a lot of time for prep throughout the day. People need to deal with it.

663Dad re memberships: I have been to Muddy Creek for a non-area / regional, just a regular Victory Sports promoted race that is their regular series. I did not have to purchase any other kind of membership. The AMA card was all they wanted. The dual sanction thing was a fail in my opinion. Thanks for discounting it to $5 though.

For me, the absolute worst part of the day was the PA system in the pits about 100 yards away from the Custom Powersports trailer. I am not sure if you are aware just how bad it was, because it seemed OK down by the track and sign-up trailer. It went on for HOURS and was so loud. I developed a headache on Saturday and it did not go away until Sunday night, and I believe the PA system was the main source of my pain. 18 Advil later and no help. I swear to God, if I had a ladder I would have cut the wires to the speakers closest to us. I am not sure if this has been addressed but my number one priority at your next race is finding a spot away from any speaker pole.

Lastly, and this is the first I have heard about it, if quads were asked to purchase a Race Ohio membership and they do not even have quads in the Race Ohio organization, then that is just wrong. Nothing but a money grab.

Again, great job. You guys always seem to take the Pitracer criticism and make it right. Thank you!!
Click to expand...


Victory Sports use to charge I have not been down there in a year but there gate fees and race fees offset the membership cost. I believe there can be two sanctioning, if you think about it there is technically three if you include the AMA, which all of our races are AMA sanctioned and has the most factory contingency per events.
http://www.victory-sports.com/home/big-series/tracks-series-fees/
 
transponder window first, 4 in line in front of me = 12 min.
kiosk next. swipe. Damn, AMA card expired... Membership window next. 8 min later and $49 less, back to the kiosk. touch, touch... touch harder...damn this is not working... the cute girl says "use your fingernail.. bam. works fine. Then I see the sticker on top that says "use your fingernail" yeap, felt stupid. Anyway, another 5 min.
Then on to the "pay window". Time I got there I had 3 in front of me. Pretty sure the lady in front of me was afraid the legal staff was actually going to review her child's release and was taking her sweat time in signing her name P-E-R-F-E-C-T-L-Y. This window took another 12 min.

I watched and waited for the right time to hit sign-up. Even with that, it really does take too long. Not one persons fault, its just the multi step process. Sure, if you pre-enter I assume it would take some of that time off, but really not enough. Steps and documents need to be combined. The release should be integrated into the kiosk. Check the "read" box on the release and it automatically enters it.
Kill the transponders and go to RFID. Matter of fact, your membership cards should come with one included. Use it again and again. Hit the kiosk and it already knows my RFID ID just like it knows my race number.
The bigger the event the more attention the signup process needs, even more reason to do something about it now. Over 700 entries was GREAT wish every race at all the tracks was like that.
Everyone was nice, and very helpful. All were working quickly, its just the process is it too drawn out.

Who ever says track prep was not good needs to have there head evaluated. I have NEVER seen better prep. ANYWHERE. You know what? all the tracks I have been to this year have all had way above average prep. Growing up on hard pack tracks, this is not helping me... so stop it.
 
nitrofish said:
Appreciate the response, my opinion was harsh and you handled it well. Nothing more from this end.
Click to expand...

Lol.... Im reading your response thinking " Wow, Matt must really be having a bad day to post this!!"

You were spot on, dont think it was out of line about sign up at all.

Joe, no offense but your reply basically claims your track is the best at everything and any complaints are unfounded. There is always someone better, and if not there is always room for improvement. I can drive to Red Bud one hour more and have just as many or more guys on my gate and pay half what I do to race CTMX with superior track prep. Matt, and others, have given you nothing more than constructive criticism. When this many people say signup stinks .. step back take a look and ask yourself why are so many people saying this? Track prep is subjective, everyone likes something different. John259 would have loved this weekend, not near as rutted and rough as I am accustomed to at CTMX. Others hated it. Signup however, it either goes smooth or it doesnt. It didnt. One girl doing preregistered entrys simply isnt enough. And the last hour before practice you should have 2 times the people taking entries. Its like going to walmart at 530 pm and they have 2 registers open. And on top of that, you cant fix stupid. Racers are going to be late, plan for this and make their experience better.
 
I was a little edgy yesterday, so I'm sure I was a bit harsh. For the record, we were only there Saturday. As I said in another post, track came around. Whoops were sketchy and the face of the downhill jump was off the first rounds of practice. I heard this was addressed for Sunday.
 
We were very aware of the PA issue. The fairgrounds upgraded to fiber optics and we were scrambling last minute to get upgrades to our system so we could connect. Obviously they failed at getting it patched in and will be addressed before next year.

As for the announcing of windows at registration, we had Derek talking about the process numerous times when lines were long but I think people were just tuning him out.

As for race ohio membership for quads... If anyone knows of someone who was forced to buy one please have them contact us and we will refund their money. It's possible one of the girls got confused.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
Here’s a tip. Nobody listens to the announcer. Everyone feels its their obligation for the announcer to listen to the patrons squeak and squawk. THe announcer can squeak and squawk all day hammering in important points and you still get 70% Of the people going “eh what? When is my moto? Is it staggered? What moto is out here now ? Hey tell them they need to operate the program like this! Hey that sucks they need to fix it now. Hey! What do you mean trophies only pay back 14 positions? I got 15 can I still get one”

I don’t miss that job.

Wanna know how to fix that ? Eliminate the announcer and replace it wirh text messages. Derek can spew out texts instead of talking because every yo-yo at the track has their hand or ass attached to the phone.
 
It's a great event . Put red buds track there and it is the best.

I'm glad I am attending it and not running it is all I have to say.

I like the changes, maybe let the ruts develope a little more to slow everyone down.
 
GeorgiePorgie said:
Here’s a tip. Nobody listens to the announcer. Everyone feels its their obligation for the announcer to listen to the patrons squeak and squawk. THe announcer can squeak and squawk all day hammering in important points and you still get 70% Of the people going “eh what? When is my moto? Is it staggered? What moto is out here now ? Hey tell them they need to operate the program like this! Hey that sucks they need to fix it now. Hey! What do you mean trophies only pay back 14 positions? I got 15 can I still get one”

I don’t miss that job.

Wanna know how to fix that ? Eliminate the announcer and replace it wirh text messages. Derek can spew out texts instead of talking because every yo-yo at the track has their hand or ass attached to the phone.
Click to expand...
I like the announcers...fix the pa or boost the radio signal.


"I say I say I seeee a reeeeeed light shinning bright!"
 
My only wish is the track wasn't so one lined. How about adding a berm at the far end of the track (180*) turn at the very back so one can carry some speed over the jump and rail the berm and not just have everyone dive to the inside. After the finish line jump, instead of going thru the s turns, dump it out onto the start straight for a big sweeper style turn into the first turn. Lot's of line choices and lot's of chances to rail the outside into the rollers. Loved the big sweeper turn of the old layout.

Since everyone was piling on.....
 
This was the first time I've ever been to Chillitown and I thought sign up was pretty good. I got to the track around 7 and went straight to sign up. However, I read directions before coming to the track which said Transponders, Memberships, then sign up and pay. You no longer buy a membership for Victory Sports but the classes are $30 I think. I didn't like the uphill rollers or the face of the table but I thought prep was good. I like a rough track just because that's more fun for me, even if I'm in last which most of the day I was, I still have a challenge to race the track.
 
hershey said:
Where is the promoter race recap??
Click to expand...
To be honest Hershey, I made one on Thursday and posted it on Facebook. I usually put it on Pitracer also, but Thursday night is when things got hot on here. I really felt deflated reading some of the comments. I'll go ahead and post it up, maybe it'll give us all some keyboard motivation on this rainy Saturday morning. Jeremy
 
2017 Moto Mayhem Promoter Review
The sacred Shawnee Indian grounds on which CTMX holds its annual races has been put to bed for yet another winter. The season closer, the 7th annual Moto Mayhem weekend did not disappoint. This event once again outperformed its younger self and also, for the first time in ctmx history, whooped up on big brother, the Battle for Ohio round. Undoubtedly, we knew this day was coming, it just needed all the ingredients to hit its numbers.
So for all of the other promoters reading this, we'll share our recipe for this event. Although not everyone likes our Chilli, 771 entries came out to try the weekends batch!
1. Promotions: started last year, we took notes from 16', made plans for this and that. You can argue many things about our Chilli, but this is one debate you will not win. Joe Easter leads up this department and pushes the limits each and every time. The month leading up to this event is full of promotions, this event gets all the pre-race attention it needs.

2. Presentation: our team slaved over the stove, I mean track, the weeks leading up to this event. We strive to have a glimpse of the "national" feeling when you first arrive. It has always been our hope that you feel like you got your money's worth while at a Chilli weekend.

3. Execution: at ctmx, we get the large majority of our staff, spectators, vendors, racers and families on Friday night. They come from near and far to secure a spot for the weekend. Once we have our main ingredient (people), we load up and start the workable part of the event. We had one heck of a time Friday night under the lights for the "Shelly and Sands Moto Limbo" contest.
Saturday started very sluggish, we had the track pretty soft (which we need to do to lengthen the integrity of the soil moisture sustainability), the first whole session must of still been hungover. The 2nd and 3rd practice sessions were habanero hot man, I mean hot. Things are due to change for the structuring of open practice, it's too out of control. Our wait staff, the lovely gals at the sign up trailer were on top of their game and were able to move us swiftly from practice mode directly to our Saturday evening race program. Saturday racing did run into darkness. The last two classes only got 3 laps for their last Moto, my bad, but they mostly took it like champs.
Saturday after dark really got to kicking, we had hundreds of folks up for the Chilli contest, costume contest, pumpkin judging, live band and Red Bull Straight Rhythm fan zone. I really do believe Saturday night festivities are one of the biggest driving forces behind this events continued success.
Sunday presented us with some huge numbers to process, we originally had 4 classes with 45 racers or more. These bigger races make it really hard to accommodate so many classes. We buzzed through a quick 3 lap practice and moved right into racing. Our Bat Cave Crew completed 3 amazing full track preps throughout the day, all taking less than 16 minutes a piece. Golf clap goes to that group of heathens. Some awesome racing transpired on Sunday, probably none more exciting than the pro class battles. Motocross is supposed to be a young mans sport, yet somehow the more mature gentlemen like Levi Kilbarger and Jeff Gibson still put on a clinic. Some young bucks were still in roost reach at lap six, but that's about it. We moved through Sunday very rigorously and we still didn't get done until 5:55. That's unacceptable, we are going to strongly investigate the solution to this. It's mathematically gotta change, either less classes or one site lap before each first Moto. I don't know yet, what's your ideas???

Review: the last and probably the most important thing we do in Chilli, is we listen. We listen to what you liked or what you didn't like. You can post your comments here or send us a private message to share your experience.

In closing, help us start promotions for 2018, share some pictures of your experience from Moto Mayhem. Thanks to everyone, ChilliTown will always be about you, the worker bee, the racer, the parents or the spectators. As for ChilliTown MX, we'll see you all next July! Jeremy Forcum
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top