For real. Lets put $ to it.
For the sake of this comparison we will say only the racers are coming in the gate at both races.
Farfignugen charged $35 a class and $10 at the gate. x 95 riders = $4275
Logroad is $20 a class and 10 in the gate = $5490
Lets say you go CHEAP on awards and it only cost you $15 per class. Having 21 less classes saves you $315
Now we have the difference down to $900 Assuming all other expenses are all the same.
Unless i read the ad wrong they are planning to be done with the day by 1:00
Where a normal race format is (total guess) 4:00 = 3 hour savings.
J.O. i am sure you have down the hourly cost analysis on a race. What does an hour of race time cost a track?
Furthermore, this format clearly does not make sense for all tracks, all of the time. J.O. as an example again. Why would you change ANYTHING? If you can mail in a typical practice day in bring in 3-5k then i would ask why would you EVER run a race? Maybe just do one so you can still call yourself a "racetrack" and then just watch money fall into your account. Not being a d-head, its a solid business decision.
Perhaps other want to try new stuff to actually improve the sport of racing. But having the same product for years, then change it for one day and say it failed, and go back to old reliable, is not a fair trial. Especially if you are only looking at the entries numbers as the determining factor.
I'm sure costs vary as some pay different amounts for similar items. But if you were to take the typical battle format 2 day event, practice saturday, a few motos saturday, full race day sunday, on average I bet your in the neighborhood of $500-$600 an hour ish. Now that can vary based on what level of event. you are realistically talking about 20 hours in a weekend however. That assumes you have very minimalistic cost in Friday, Like $600 for the six hours your gate is open to let campers in, and that's probably low, all things considered. Very general round numbers here, but carry on with this pipe dream at 500-600 an hour.
The reason I run races, pretty simple, I love racing. I don't love it so much that its all I want to do. Its way too much work to run all racing events. And way too much of gamble. For me anyway. For some guys, go for it. That's their gig. Not me. I've explained this to many who want to be track owners. Running a practice event is very simple compared to racing. Its like 1/16th the work, and about 1/16th the cost, and far less of gamble. For racing, now you stand make more money (greater volume of money, weather pending), but you stand to lose more, plus you are risking more, working way harder, and it requires more stuff, more of everything. Including luck. Plus, unless your chillitown, how many racing event home run turnouts can you have?? If your filling your schedule with races, you might have 2-4 good ones, and 12 crappy ones, but you still would work exponentially harder for the bad results. I like the lower pressure practices, because people are nicer, less risk, less money, less gamble, more fun. Honestly what I've found is the more you make the more stuff you change or improve. You never really benefit yourself financially much, but you end up with a pretty cool track.
www.michiganmotocross.com
