Practice vs Racing

John250

John250

PR Founding Father
Ok, I am going to bring up a subject that's been beat to death, but it's becoming a real issue with the Race Ohio Buckeye Series. Scott is having a ton of success with this series. The small races have 400 plus riders. East Fork has got to be averaging over 500 entries for sure. Yesterday a late October race had 783 entries. The problem is no matter how good of a program you run can't run 33 motos, 7 one day and 26 with consis the next day without running 3 lap motos. Matthew was running 1:41 lap times. So that is a 5 minute moto at 3 laps.

When in Ohio did did practice days become mandatory? Every track runs a practice day. We are showing up to race, not practice! Ditch it. Get rid of it. You want to go practice great. Do it some other weekend or throughout the week, not on a race weekend.

I would be willing to pay more to race for longer motos. Before anyone else chimes in, I am ok with 3 laps, I am 52! But for my son, I would love to see 6 or 7 laps. Because he can lay down 1:41 lap times on lap one and lap 7. But 3 laps is nothing for a moto.

If I were the racing Zar, I would ditch practice all together. A quick 3 lap practice race day, and you go racing. Run some classes Saturday, and some classes on Sunday so that you can run a little longer motos, and get through your program. And who says all classes should run 6 or 7 laps? 50s and 65s ,4 laps. D or C, Vets 5, 85s and B classes 6 laps. The track time increases. Or go to 8 min motos plus a lap for everyone, or perhaps 6 min plus a lap for slower classes. Think outside the box a little.

I am just making a point. 783 entries showed up to race. Let's spend track time racing. Why even bother with practice on Saturdays.

And to all you people who bitch on FB when you can't have a full day to practice before you race on Sundays, get over it. I read the comments, its like the end of the world if they don't have 20 laps of practice the day before a race day.

Let's spend the time at the track racing on the weekends. Not practicing.
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I'll bite. So if it is successful, which 783 seems successful, why change it? In other words why do you keep going if its truly a problem? Oh so its not a problem? Uh huh. Good luck.
 
BriarcliffMx said:
I'll bite. So if it is successful, which 783 seems successful, why change it? In other words why do you keep going if its truly a problem? Oh so its not a problem? Uh huh. Good luck.
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Valid point I suppose. But perhaps, one way to look at it, is to improve the racing on the track. A longer moto perhaps. Better racing product on the track. There was a hell of a 4 rider battle in the open A moto that would have been great to watch for 3 more laps. Just sayin. And at some point, some people perhaps may say, nah, I am am not driving 3 plus hours for 3 or 4 lap motos. Just a thought.
 
Is it really about the racing at the lets call them mega events? Or is it more about being at a mega event? If people keep going and most dont complain, then Id say its more about being there and riding some rather than racing. The AQs and Regionals are racing events. Those folks are super serious about the racing. Just my perspective on it.
 
I just don’t want to race.

I would love to go practice at a nice facility have some good riders out there to “race” around with and then go home at my leisure.

Maybe stay and watch some races and call it a day.

If there wasn’t practice I would just spend my money at another place. And if that track didn’t run practice they wouldn’t get any of my money.

A suggestion would be to run a few of the bike classes on Saturday along with the quad classes to even out the day a little. Maybe a few more of the 50cc and 65cc classes. 85 and up all on Sunday. I’ve noticed a lot of the 65cc and below the kids will run both. A lot of the 85 and up don’t go back to the 65cc classes.
 
Toddco327 said:
I just don’t want to race.

I would love to go practice at a nice facility have some good riders out there to “race” around with and then go home at my leisure.

Maybe stay and watch some races and call it a day.

If there wasn’t practice I would just spend my money at another place. And if that track didn’t run practice they wouldn’t get any of my money.

A suggestion would be to run a few of the bike classes on Saturday along with the quad classes to even out the day a little. Maybe a few more of the 50cc and 65cc classes. 85 and up all on Sunday. I’ve noticed a lot of the 65cc and below the kids will run both. A lot of the 85 and up don’t go back to the 65cc classes.
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You're one of a VERY few that pay a gate fee, come in and practice and not race. Probably one of the only ones. Buckeye Series does not even have quad classes. So they could add many more classes to Saturday to split up the program.
 
The extra 20 bucks in gate fee is worth the quality of the facility. Now with kids and a wife who would rather not spend the whole day at the track is well worth it in my book.

But I do agree I’m one of the few. With me going to a lot of races this year I’ve noticed 99% of the people don’t leave. They are there for the whole day.
 
We were the next to last moto. We got done, I washed bikes, packed up, went and got our kick ass awards and still pulled out at 630. 1 lap for 20 motos at 3 mins and would have easily been done before dark. I'm calling bs on the can't do it scenario. He promised he would never cut laps again. I'll give him that, it was supposed to be 2 - 3 lap motos according to the Race order so he actually gave us a bonus lap in round 1. Personally I wouldn't drive that far for 3 lap motos, the problem is you don't know til you get there. We went solely to get 40 man gates for Austin, which we got in both of his classes. We went banking on his promise not to cut laps again and got hosed. If he had posted prior to the race day that it was 2 - 3 lap motos I would not have went. We spent about 350 after fuel to get there for 1 day of racing, not practice day riding at all.

Other than cutting laps, Scott did a fantastic job. The track prep was the best I've seen there ever. They finally listened and did very quick watering more than a few times all day. Kept the track great. It easy to see why that series has such a large following. We will be driving to those tracks much more next year, good tracks, good people and larger, faster gates

Toddco327 said:
I just don’t want to race.

I would love to go practice at a nice facility have some good riders out there to “race” around with and then go home at my leisure.

Maybe stay and watch some races and call it a day.

If there wasn’t practice I would just spend my money at another place. And if that track didn’t run practice they wouldn’t get any of my money.

A suggestion would be to run a few of the bike classes on Saturday along with the quad classes to even out the day a little. Maybe a few more of the 50cc and 65cc classes. 85 and up all on Sunday. I’ve noticed a lot of the 65cc and below the kids will run both. A lot of the 85 and up don’t go back to the 65cc classes.
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2 sessions of slop was worth it to you this weekend ? Mother nature stuck it to Scott for sure for Saturday.
 
Fuel for the rig and food for the weekend makes the practice day a little more worth the trip. Who cares about the 60 or so dollars to sign up, I want bang for the buck for the $200 it takes to get the rig out. This theory is based on the current local racing standard which is 4 laps almost always cut to three for the second set. We would attend more races if it was set time per moto, would be fun to get 20 minute motos. Getting your second set cut to 3 sucks, you should be guaranteed your laps you did pay for them.
 
jj584 said:
Fuel for the rig and food for the weekend makes the practice day a little more worth the trip. Who cares about the 60 or so dollars to sign up, I want bang for the buck for the $200 it takes to get the rig out. This theory is based on the current local racing standard which is 4 laps almost always cut to three for the second set. We would attend more races if it was set time per moto, would be fun to get 20 minute motos. Getting your second set cut to 3 sucks, you should be guaranteed your laps you did pay for them.
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Current racing standard? The only time this year I've been to a race that cut laps were both races Scott ran. Not sure if he has done it other than those 2 but I haven't been at a single other race this year that cut laps.

We like the practices some because it's more seat time, time to hang with friends and a fun weekend.
 
BriarcliffMx said:
Is it really about the racing at the lets call them mega events? Or is it more about being at a mega event? If people keep going and most dont complain, then Id say its more about being there and riding some rather than racing. The AQs and Regionals are racing events. Those folks are super serious about the racing. Just my perspective on it.
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I agree with Jeremy on this. We chased and qualified for LL this year. Didn't race 1 local event this season, a first, in the history of the boy racing (12 plus years). I put 26K miles on my Transit since 1/26/21 until LL. We did Daytona, a ton of AQ and several RQ just to ride different tracks. The AQ and RQ were the best racing and biggest gates we have ever seen. None of the AQ or RQ hand any kind of "extras." People were there to race. In the past and as the boy got better, we were firmly in the camp of longer motos, rougher tracks, etc, but I realize now that we were the minority. These events are just that, events. The majority of the people that attend Chillitown are weekend warriors and enjoy the entire weekend, the camping, the cook offs, BS'ng with friends and throw in some racing, what's not to love? Like Jeremy mentioned, the business model clearly works as it is for the majority, hence, there is no reason to change for the minority. As such, we didn't attend, it's just not for us, but I am super glad for Scott that the turnout was solid. For what it's worth, you can attend the AQ and not be scored for LL's if you wish, but the RQ's are so much fun. As the talent is distilled down, the racing just gets that much better.
 
hershey said:
Current racing standard? The only time this year I've been to a race that cut laps were both races Scott ran. Not sure if he has done it other than those 2 but I haven't been at a single other race this year that cut laps.

We like the practices some because it's more seat time, time to hang with friends and a fun weekend.
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Malvern cuts laps just about every weekend, I can remember 62 doing it last year as well. We haven’t really raced a lot of local stuff this year but we have been to Malvern and about every time your second set gets cut.
fluidpower said:
I agree with Jeremy on this. We chased and qualified for LL this year. Didn't race 1 local event this season, a first, in the history of the boy racing (12 plus years). I put 26K miles on my Transit since 1/26/21 until LL. We did Daytona, a ton of AQ and several RQ just to ride different tracks. The AQ and RQ were the best racing and biggest gates we have ever seen. None of the AQ or RQ hand any kind of "extras." People were there to race. In the past and as the boy got better, we were firmly in the camp of longer motos, rougher tracks, etc, but I realize now that we were the minority. These events are just that, events. The majority of the people that attend Chillitown are weekend warriors and enjoy the entire weekend, the camping, the cook offs, BS'ng with friends and throw in some racing, what's not to love? Like Jeremy mentioned, the business model clearly works as it is for the majority, hence, there is no reason to change for the minority. As such, we didn't attend, it's just not for us, but I am super glad for Scott that the turnout was solid. For what it's worth, you can attend the AQ and not be scored for LL's if you wish, but the RQ's are so much fun. As the talent is distilled down, the racing just gets that much better.
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The areas and RQ’s are a ton of fun. We did it for the first time this year, obviously didn’t make it but he made to regionals. It was a ton of fun.
 
jj584 said:
Malvern cuts laps just about every weekend, I can remember 62 doing it last year as well. We haven’t really raced a lot of local stuff this year but we have been to Malvern and about every time your second set gets cut.

The areas and RQ’s are a ton of fun. We did it for the first time this year, obviously didn’t make it but he made to regionals. It was a ton of fun.
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False
 
Matthew was at Malvern two weeks ago. They did not cut anything and got done at a decent time according to him.
 
I think the practice days are waste in my opinion but if it puts extra money in JO & SP pocket I'm ok with it.
These 2 men have single handily saved MX in OHIO.
With racing about 15 times this year I learned that I rather race a couple times a year and practice more. This year since we raced so much I believe my son benefits more by practicing more and racing less.
 
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Toddco327 said:
False
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I actually had to go look we went to Malvern 4 times this year its happened at least twice. I know it did happened a lot last year as well because it was a contributing factor in the decisions to race different stuff and not follow a series. We have only raced 5 locals this year, but rode at least twice a week.
 
MX_Implements said:
I think the practice days are waste in my opinion but if it puts extra money in JO & SP pocket I'm ok with it.
These 2 men have single handily saved MX in OHIO.
With racing about 15 times this year I learned that I rather race a couple times a year and race occasionally. This year since we raced so much I believe my son benefits more by practicing more and racing less.
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Different people are different. I believe Matthew gets faster by chasing people racing. He NEVER practices at race pace. Never. Different strokes for different folks.
 
I thin
John250 said:
Different people are different. I believe Matthew gets faster by chasing people racing. He NEVER practices at race pace. Never. Different strokes for different folks.
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Mine also needs somebody to chase, he does not push in practice.
 
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