hershey
PR Elite
Everyone wants to talk about what's killing race turnouts locally from time to time. Now with Bidenflation killing us, it's getting even worse.
So we did 3 regionals this year with Austin. I had 1300 total in gate fees and racing 2 classes at each event. That does not include the MXSports fee I had to pay online. These races are 3 moto formats, 15 min motos and full gates in the main 2 motos and around 30 in his heat races. You ride 3 full days with practice on national caliber tracks. That's a damn good deal IMO.
Last year we did Mini Os. Austin rode 2 SX classes and 2 MX classes. I rode 1 MX class. 500 in racing fees and 260 in gate fees. 760 to ride for an entire week with practice on the SX and another national caliber MX track with 6 lap motos I believe. Lots to do all week, factory rigs there and free Thankgiving dinner that was really good. Good deal IMO.
Looked at going to Lake Sugar Tree for theor motoplayground event. 2 moto format with practice over 3 days. 70 to get in the gate per person. Austin 3 classes and 1 class for me at 85 each. Gate fee 60 each for 4 of us. Camping fee....got to love this one, if you stay the night at the track with no camping hook up it's 150 bucks. WTF??? What is my gate fee for then? Rv hookups are 250 but are sold out. So we would have 730 bucks to ride 2 motos per class (Not sure on the laps) MX and the privilege of staying there for 2 nights in my rv using my electric and water. That's 30 bucks less than mini os for a week and riding sx and mx. Not a good deal at all comparatively.
Let's look at CTMX classic. Week long, sx and mx. Let's not say it's national caliber. No offense, just being real, they only have so much to work with. 50 gate fee, another dry camping fee of 100 or 300 for hookups, they have plenty of those for everyone. And 70 per class. 6 lap SX races and 4 lap MX. So 3 classes for Austin in SX and in MX, 1 class for the over the hill old guy in each. So we have 1060 for CTMX with hookups. That's 300 more than Mini Os and 330 more than LSTMX.
Where I'm going with this is these events are starting to price themselves out of the ordinary MX family budget. Didn't do CTMX because the family went out of town on vacation but honestly wouldn't have spent that any way. And was going to hit LSTMX until I saw the price tag. Still going to Mini Os because the value we get going there makes it worth while. Last year was our first time and it was the most fun race I've been to.
I get having to make money but it seems these big events are getting out of hand. I'm not hurting for money but at the same time I need to see the value in what I'm getting in return. Local races are less expensive by far and still usually fun but it is nice to race more than 8-15 riders in the class.
So we did 3 regionals this year with Austin. I had 1300 total in gate fees and racing 2 classes at each event. That does not include the MXSports fee I had to pay online. These races are 3 moto formats, 15 min motos and full gates in the main 2 motos and around 30 in his heat races. You ride 3 full days with practice on national caliber tracks. That's a damn good deal IMO.
Last year we did Mini Os. Austin rode 2 SX classes and 2 MX classes. I rode 1 MX class. 500 in racing fees and 260 in gate fees. 760 to ride for an entire week with practice on the SX and another national caliber MX track with 6 lap motos I believe. Lots to do all week, factory rigs there and free Thankgiving dinner that was really good. Good deal IMO.
Looked at going to Lake Sugar Tree for theor motoplayground event. 2 moto format with practice over 3 days. 70 to get in the gate per person. Austin 3 classes and 1 class for me at 85 each. Gate fee 60 each for 4 of us. Camping fee....got to love this one, if you stay the night at the track with no camping hook up it's 150 bucks. WTF??? What is my gate fee for then? Rv hookups are 250 but are sold out. So we would have 730 bucks to ride 2 motos per class (Not sure on the laps) MX and the privilege of staying there for 2 nights in my rv using my electric and water. That's 30 bucks less than mini os for a week and riding sx and mx. Not a good deal at all comparatively.
Let's look at CTMX classic. Week long, sx and mx. Let's not say it's national caliber. No offense, just being real, they only have so much to work with. 50 gate fee, another dry camping fee of 100 or 300 for hookups, they have plenty of those for everyone. And 70 per class. 6 lap SX races and 4 lap MX. So 3 classes for Austin in SX and in MX, 1 class for the over the hill old guy in each. So we have 1060 for CTMX with hookups. That's 300 more than Mini Os and 330 more than LSTMX.
Where I'm going with this is these events are starting to price themselves out of the ordinary MX family budget. Didn't do CTMX because the family went out of town on vacation but honestly wouldn't have spent that any way. And was going to hit LSTMX until I saw the price tag. Still going to Mini Os because the value we get going there makes it worth while. Last year was our first time and it was the most fun race I've been to.
I get having to make money but it seems these big events are getting out of hand. I'm not hurting for money but at the same time I need to see the value in what I'm getting in return. Local races are less expensive by far and still usually fun but it is nice to race more than 8-15 riders in the class.