Come on...give us some tracks to race

[Super Dave]

There is a track organization that has used it to its fullest with a free trackday with the purchase of a new bike. Have you seen the turnout? Busy, very busy.

There have been other organizations that have used that which have not had very, very busy turn out because of those things.  There are other market variables that can account for changes, one way or another.  Often the complexity of business is beyond any reasonable immedate recognition.

Simple math buddy...one rider comes, one rider brings friends, they see the racers, the excitement and rider/friends pay admission just to get in to get thier free trackday. Many may do it once, but some will become racers. This all shouldnt be a problem...because everyone works for little or nothing :-X But in the long run...it will bring in a larger number.

Theres one bone for ya. I have made this concept work for 12 years in a business I owned and its working right now in the valley.

Now write me an excuse....

Few become racers.  

Very, very few.

NASCAR is not promoted in a way that pushes spectators to race cars or try a track day.  Again, it's a minor few.

NASCAR, and other successful racing organizations, are promoted on the premise of watching individuals try their best.  The spectators recognize that they are not capable, not always, of functioning like the drivers/riders.

Spending money on continually trying to get new racers (CUSTOMERS) into road racing is just the wrong end of the program.  

The little equity that most racing organizations pay to racers is points.

Who really cares, honestly?  I've asked for a few more purse paying classes to push up the competition level for two reasons:

• Get some money into the hands of racers though purse money.  It's not going to be a lot, but anything helps.  "Free" is always an interesting term, but usually only a small trinket is necessary to get a reasonable response from customers
• the level of competition usually goes up with cash.  Competition will pull in spectators.

AMA racing is ok, but if you're only racing to try and win a $4700 purse for first...

You're better off chasing YAMAHA money at a club race.  And those events are usually exciting to watch.

I prefer promoting what I do to people that have no understanding of motorcycles.  To see what we do is just about impossible to them.  The value of that entertainment is exciting to them.  We fall over and get back up.  Changing tires, etc.  Those people generally "respect" the abilities of those on track.

[Super Dave]

You and I both know, we never had "trackdays".  You just showed up and raced. Now everyone and there brother, puts on a trackday.  CCS included. So I say, shut up and ride.

Yeah, no track days.

Promoter practice?  That was an odd one too.  Cool when it was available, though.

I think that the track day programs spell the doom for club road racing.  

There was a time when club road racing was the avenue for racers to learn and move up to professional road racing.  

Schwantz, Polen, James, Russell, Stevens.  Those are some decent examples.

Currently, how many Austrailians are in the US Superbike program?  Brits even?  Haydens came through a different route.  



Back to an organizations' responsibility.

There needs to be a person at the track actually writing about the event.

To not do so is ridiculous.  Yeah, each racer/team should have their own press releases, but you're not gonna read every release in RRW.  But if you're racing at Blackhawk Farms, hey, CCS should take the responsibility to have someone write something for RRW, CW and those mags.  

Let's look at that one specifically....

Blackhawk Farms is a race track that was built in 1967.  It's located near Chicago, Rockford, Milwaukee, and Madison.  How many million people?  WERA used to race there but lost interest or something.  CCS took over.  You could win a Suzuki Cup race there and get no recognition.  Win at a smaller race track that had some press going on and you'd get offered support packages, etc.

For a peroid of time, Blackhawk was hosting six CCS road racing events a year.  Good turn outs.  Enough to pay for events that didn't have such a good turn out.

What are you guys getting?

Points don't pay equity.  PR does.

[brian213]

Nicely said Dave...that writing thing goes for EVERY org.  It kinda seems that WERA partially has some sort of act together...or it's Vesrah/Army of Darkness.

-Brian

[Super Dave]

Vesrah filled the shoes of Team Hammer/Team Suzuki Endurance/Team Valvoline in the WERA series.  WERA has the only "real" (my words) endurance series.  The team challenge races just aren't long enough.  And they have gotten shorter.

CMRA has done a decent job.  They have sponsors for individual races during a weekend.  Not much money, but if you're Ty Howard, it certainly helps.  And then someone actually bothers to write about it and submit it.

Same with WSMC.  

WERA is good about releases for their National series.

[Stone]

Oh, and Stone, a friend of mine has been racing with about 5 orgs (AFM, WERA, WSMC, CCS, USGPRU) ever since he got a "free" track day when he bought a street bike.  So, that does work!  He spends way too much money doing it, and dropped CCS since they left CA and just dropped WERA for "technical" reasons.  :)

-Brian


And "Bingo" was his name!!! Holy cow...it does bite some people. It happen to me as well and proves that there are people out there that once attracted to the track by "one trackday" become...addicts.

Heres a few more that did the same as your buddy and myself just this year.

Me....Stone, Boge, Gianni and Greg. We race every race date and as many races as we can per event. And guess what...it all came from one trackday.

Go figure...

[Stone]

Hey Dave Stone, It sounds like you have all the answers. Why don't you start your own racing business. You are wrong the way you think.  I have been racing and working with Randy&Heidi and crew for 12 years. Guys like you have come and gone.  One thing for sure, They are a Damm good crew.    That being said,  and this goes for everyone.  If you don't like the program.  Go race somewhere else!

SW New Riders Instructor
john

Dont forget that John runs the riders clinic for racing. And speaking of coming and going....John are you not just coming back from "going"???

Need I say..."Dont cast Stones in glass house" ;D

[Super Dave]

Me....Stone, Boge, Gianni and Greg. We race every race date and as many races as we can per event. And guess what...it all came from one trackday.

Go figure...

Based on what you're saying...each rider that goes to a track day goes racing?

That's a generalization.

My generalization...coming from being an instructor for a CCS school and being an owner of an independant school...few track day/school riders actually go on to race in this era.

The four of you had a unique opportunity.

[Super Dave]

Dont forget that John runs the riders clinic for racing. And speaking of coming and going....John are you not just coming back from "going"???

Need I say..."Dont cast Stones in glass house" ;D

Ok, so are you saying that their is something improper about his endorcement?  Or is he not allowed an opinion to be voiced in a forum based on his personal generalizations?

[Stone]

"True.  Would more money or different people actually change the result though?  Again, generally not."

Well spent money and well placed effort always net good results.   
  

"Racing is the option of individuals that decide that the risk that they involve themselves in (money, health...family, friends)...is the endeavour that they'd like to try to be successful in.

It's a drug that doesn't immediately become addictive to everyone."

Again I am going to state that there will be "some" that are willing to take to it. I have never seen any business get 100% on their promotional dollars back the instant they do it. What CCS(SW) is trying to do is grow its business without spending any money or effort to grow it. The current forumla is failing.

"If all the track day programs were the answer, racing entries would have sky rocketed.  I don't see it.  But I know that track day programs have grown to out of control proportions."

Ding, ding, ding, diinnnnnng! Your answer! Trackday orgs are promoting themselves without print in papers, without ads on clear channel and they sure as heck are not promoting CCS at their trackdays.


"I'm sure it spreads out the cost of the weekend.  Can't answer specifically on it."

Its either a nice sidestep or ya just dont know. I'll just let that one lay there and we'll see next year what has come to light.

So far for the silly season on the CCS SW rumor mill we have...

Firebird adding more track pavement to the East track. God I hope its true.

[Stone]

Ok, so are you saying that their is something improper about his endorcement?  Or is he not allowed an opinion to be voiced in a forum based on his personal generalizations?

Nope... just clarifing his association to Randy and CCS.

[banzaib132]

30 rider grids? That will be hard to come by in club racing unless you go to a wera or fusa national. In case any of the old timers have been asleep the last several years or so, club racing in this country has taken a serious dump. In the early 90's, grids used to be 30-40 deep in just about every regional race. Now ccs MIGHT get 40 riders at the race of champions. I'll give you all some reasons why:
Track days started about 1996 or so in the US.
Cost; $1500 for fork internals!!! WTF! Pipes; $750. Bodywork $600. Shock $1200. DOT nearly $400.
Gas prices: $100-$200 for a nearby regional race
The economy; With China and India offering companies the ability to make more profit, our jobs are drying up.
Not to mention all the other things that are steadily going up in price.
   Kevin Elliot is probably told by clear channel that he has to turn a certain profit or loss margin or guess what? Clear channel will fire him! Now knowing that CCS, wera and the AMA are all battling for entry fee money to keep going, I hope that I have given you all some insight (or lack thereof) to the way things are in racing today. tTo quote Ozzy Osbourne, "don't look to me for answers, I don't know"
I really like motorbike racing alot, I just can't afford to do it that much anymore.


Obviously Super Dave hasn't been sleeping! He's been paying attention.

[brian213]

30 rider grids? That will be hard to come by in club racing unless you go to a wera or fusa national.

Actually, you can get a lot more than that at an AFM round, and most WSMC rounds for some of the MW stuff.

-Brian