I was just looking at results for Blackhawk...Are the results pages correct? Not many entries this year. Especially lightweight and sportsman...
Just wondering...
you are correct sir
The economy? The war? Any concensus as to why? For the last 5 years, it seemed like the number of entries increased every year.
we talked about this the other day. I'm not sure. Very odd though in comparison with last years grids.
Possibly because of the large amount of scheduled dates this year, and not so good weather at both BHFs
Most likely the weather. At the last Blackhawk, the forecast was for damaging winds Sat night, with high winds and rain on Sunday. After riders school, I packed up and went home. I don't race for pionts, only for fun. High winds and rain aren't fun.
Something that no one has mentioned was the fact that the 2nd BHF event was only a single region event (Midwest), combine that along with the bad weather and it was bound to have a lower turn-out.
Gingerman last week was a fairly low turn-out also, even though it was a double region event (GL & GP). That particular track is to the extreme east of the midwest regions, which I think could be a deterant too. That event had perfect weather, but but did not including the MW region (which is closer than the GP region to Gingerman).
I just got back from the Mid America Motorplex event which combined the MW & GP regions with FUSA. I arrived Friday night, raced Saturday, and returned Saturday night. The weather on Saturday was raining all morning and continued into the first couple races, then after it stopped a slight wind kicked up and helped dry the track, then around race 13 it started sprinkling again. For this being a FUSA event I would have expected larger grids than we had, but taking into account the weather, I am not suprised.
Another variable can be those racers that don't follow the CCS schedule exclusively and race with other organizations. On weekends that have events in more than one organization those racers will often go to the track that they like better, regardless of the organization.
John at Road Racing World has preached in the past how the fragmenting of motorcycle road racing into numerous different organizations is a bad thing. The reason is that now you don't have the numbers of riders in any one particular organization that you could have, which in turn will end up costing everybody more money in the long run. Many of the smaller organizations are formed to help reduce the costs of racing, but in the big picture they actually make it more expensive by reducing turn-out elsewhere. Also these smaller organizations will usually not be able to maintain their lower prices for ever, eventually their fees rise.
Sure wish I was still at MAM. Darn wedding got in the way, no not mine lol :o
BHF was not only very stormy and a single region event, but also Mother's Day. These 3 things combined are bad for attendance, obviously. :(
Talking to Larry this weekend at MAM, I suggested that 3 regions was 1 too many for the Mid-West area. Had there not been a Gingerman the week before, and assuming OK weather, between the 2 there would have been enough to have some decent grids. Last year, 2 lightly attended Gateways were cursed by 2 BHF's the weekend before....
The rising popularity of track days is both a blessing and curse, imho. Blessing in that hopefully more people would be exposed to riding cycles on the track, and hopefully some of those would take the next step. Curse in that you don't ever need to get a race license and you can still get lots of track time, and its generally cmuch cheaper.
One other factor, the schedule seems "front loaded". By the time my region, Great Plains, gets to July there is only 1 race per month. This can cause financial hardship early trying to attend 1/2 the schedule in the first 2 months or so....and then some people decide to not race other races because they are no longer "in the points"...
Too many races on the schedule this year. :-/
QuoteToo many races on the schedule this year. :-/
Your preaching to the Choir!
I need the brake after BHFs just so I can say hi to non-racing frieds... its been awhile!
QuoteToo many races on the schedule this year. :-/
I agree, but I 'heard' that CCS was looking at changing this for next year. We'll see.
Dawn :)
QuoteI agree, but I 'heard' that CCS was looking at changing this for next year. We'll see.
Dawn :)
Thank Goodness!