A behind the scenes look into the TrackAddix GP

[TrackAddix]

I thought some of you might be interested in a look behind the scenes of our inaugral event, but first I want to thank everyone for all of their support, encouragement, emails, phone calls, and positive comments regarding our first race weekend at MAM.  As you witnessed by my blubbering  on the PA, this was an incredible feeling of pride and accomplishment for me personally to see this racing series come alive after more than a year of planning.  I can't tell you what a feeling it was to be up in race control and see you guys launch in that very first race.  Incredible!

Well, what a weekend!  We had a little bit of everything to deal with...rain, wind, crashes, protests, training new personnel, and issues with the AMB software.  All and all, things went even better than I had expected and we even finished right on schedule with the last checkered flag of the day being flown at exactly 4:59 pm.  Not bad for our first time out of the box.

SATURDAY RAIN
I really feel badly about cancelling the Team Challenge.  I know that some of you travelled a long way just to do that race and I really appreciate your understanding of the situation I had to deal with.  Bottom line is we lost the entire morning of practice, and we only had 6 entries for the TC.  I could think of only 3 options:
1)  Just finish the remainder of the day as planned and open the track when possible (I keep your money, you lose practice time).
2)  Re-open registration and allow racers to enter the TC in order to get more track time (good for my wallet, but would really piss you off).
3)  Cancel the TC, refund the entry fee, and extend the day until 7 pm.  (bad for my wallet, but good for the majority of you).

I made my decision based on what would be the most fair to the most racers.

GRID ISSUES
The biggest issue that occured over the weekend had to do with the AMB software.  I have to say that I am a little disappointed in the software package of this system and surprised that it is not as motorcycle event friendly as I had hoped.  The timing and scoring aspect of the system works great, but the registration and grid building part of the system does not work very well for our style of events.  Here's how I thought it was going to work.  You send us your pre-entry form, I enter your information into the database except for the transponder number, I then enter you in all your races.  You show up at the event, check in at registration, we assign you a transponder.  The yellow copy of your entry form goes up to race control where we then link your transponder number to your file in the database.  Now, you would think that once that transponder number is linked to your name, the database would update it throughout the system.  WRONG!!!  When we pulled up the races, all of your names were there but no transponder numbers associated with your names.  SON OF A!!!  We called AMB tech support who were of little help.  Long story short we had to go through 126 entry forms and re-enter all of you in all of your races and manually add the transponder codes.  So for example, if you entered 5 different races, we had to pull your record 5 different times and type in your transponder code each time.  We couldn't build the grid until you were re-entered in the race.  Grids have to be posted for at least 30 minutes before a race to give you time to protest.  So we started with the first race of the day and started frantically building grids and posting them as we got them built.  At that point, finalizing, printing, and posting race results was very far down the priority list.  We all worked through lunch getting the grids done so we could then start getting your results posted.  We are currently working on a solution for this problem and should have the issue resolved before our July event back at MAM.

TRAINING NEW PERSONNEL
There is just no way to really train someone about how to work a race weekend other than just by doing it.  Last month we took a bunch of our crew to Road America and worked side by side with Kevin Elliott's crew to give them some exposure to what a race weekend is like.  This past weekend we took them from the purverbal frying pan and threw them into the fire.  Our race announcer, Keith Washburn, in particular really felt the heat.  He is an experienced race announcer but did not know anything about motorcycle events.  Doesn't know our racers, doesn't know our race classes, and doesn't know our bikes.  Keith showed up Saturday afternoon, we took him and skipped the "frying pan" part and just threw him directly into the "fire" and then threw 2 cans of race fuel in with him just for good measure.  Well, his experience showed and he stepped right up to the task and did an outstanding job.  In fact, considering that this was the first time that any of us had actually operated a race weekend, everyone did an excellent job.  Think about this, most of these people were meeting and working together for the first time.  As we all develop a working relationship, things will continue to get better and better.

RACE DAY SCHEDULE
Well hell guys and gals, this is a really tough issue    No matter how we do the schedule it is never going to be perfect for everyone.  With the original schedule the LW racers were bitching about back to back races.  The new schedule got better for them, but worse for others.  If you're one of the people racing multiple bikes in multiple classes, there is just no 2 ways about it, you're going to have back to back races.  All I can say is that we will continue tweaking the schedule until we find a happy medium that most of you can live with.  When sending us your suggestions please remember the 3 major goals we had in mind when creating the schedule.  "Prime Directives" for you Star Trek fans.

1)  Reduce overall race expenses by providing lots of practice time on Saturday so racers don't have to take an extra day off from work to travel and attend a Friday test and tune.
2)  Minimize dot vs slick tire changes throughout the day.
3)  Majority of racing on Sunday to make this the main event day in order to begin building a spectator base for the series.

DEAN CONTINUING TO RACE
I've seen some comments on this board from some of you who don't like that I am racing in my own race series.  Come on guys!  Don't take my passion away from me.  I am so busy tak'in care of business these days that I hardly even get to ride any more as it is.  The Formula 40 is the only race I plan to do this year.  The only practice I got for the race was my warm up lap.  At least allow me that.  It was funny that afterward I was approached by a racer who found it odd that I was gridded on the second row.  He fully expected that I would be on pole or at least on the front row.  Ladies and Gentleman let the record show that I never want to be accused by any of you of any misconduct.  So, believe it or not, I faxed my entry in just like you.  I was so busy getting this race series ready that I got my entry in late and ended up in the second row of the grid.  Let the record also show that I went to registration, signed all the same paperwork you sign, and took $25 out of my wallet and rented my transponder just like all of you.

PURSES
I am rather surprised that their has not been much chatter on the message boards regarding the fact that we pay purse money for both Amateur and Expect classes in several races.  Considering that CRA does not have any purse classes, MRA only pays for Race of the Rockies, and even CCS main office now only pays 1 class, we thought all the purse money we give back to the racers in our series would be a BIG deal.  I'm kind of disappointed that you guys don't seem to be more excited about it.  I mean hey, if you don't want the money I can sure use it to pay my bills

EXPECT LOTS OF CHANGE
Bottom line here is expect things to change often as we grow and evolve this race series, especially throughout this season.  Our intent from the beginning is to design a race series that is run by racers for racers.  We want to know what you want "your" race series to look like.  What works, what does'nt?  However, please keep in mind that we will never be able to please all of you all the time, and on occassion may even piss some of you off.  We will "fix" what we can but some things are dictated by our sanctioning agreement with CCS.  The best advice I can give is to please go to our website and join our newsletter so that we can get you the latest information as it becomes available.

ON OUR RADAR SCREEN
Here are some things we are working on:
1)  Find "work arounds" for short comings in the AMB software package.
2)  Get grids posted sooner.
3)  Posting results sooner.
4)  Create a webpage on our site where racers can get confirmation that we have received their entry.
5)  Create seperate registration lines for pre-entries and post entries.
6)  Continue to educate racers on the advantages of pre-entering and prepurchasing your gate passes and transponder rental fees.
7)  Improve timing of 3rd calls.

SPECIAL THANKS
I want to offer a special thanks to CAFE RACER for doing a fine job of operating our tech inspection.  Unless you placed in the top 3 of a race you may not know that they were providing tools and bottles of water during post race surprise tech inspections.  Excellent job Greg, Nick, and John!

Also THANKS to the CCS crew who came out to assist us with our first event.  Bill Feurman, his daugter Amy, her friend Sara, Bill Ritger, and his wife Claudia all were vital in making this weekend a success.  Bill Feurman complained about being bored and I told Bill that is exactly what I want.  I wanted him to be able to tell Kevin Elliott that he was bored because TrackAddix had all in hand.  Mission accomplished!

See you all in July!

Dean

[Jeff]

outstanding post Dean...  Thanks for the inside scoop!  It helps people make sense of everything they went through this weekend.  Again congrats on a job well done.

As for you racing (I was the first to comment here), that's cool, I mean I don't race F40 so I don't care.  Just so the whole shit doesn't shut down if you take a tumble.

On the purses?  I thought it was cool, it's one of my normal classes (HWSB), and one I normally place well in so I was looking forward to getting some $$ back, but had a mechanical problem on lap 3 so no money would come my way.  Definitely something I like though...

[TrackAddix]

Speaking of the purses....we still have a few unclaimed checks.  Guess Kim and I will be going out for a nice dinner!  Not really, we'll mail them out this week.
Dean

[Jeff]

Dean, another question (well, 2 actually) which I'm sure everyone has.

1.  When will results be posted?
2.  When will times be on mylaps.com?

Thanks!

[Super Dave]

DEAN CONTINUING TO RACE
I've seen some comments on this board from some of you who don't like that I am racing in my own race series.  Come on guys!  Don't take my passion away from me.  I am so busy tak'in care of business these days that I hardly even get to ride any more as it is.  The Formula 40 is the only race I plan to do this year.  The only practice I got for the race was my warm up lap.  At least allow me that.  It was funny that afterward I was approached by a racer who found it odd that I was gridded on the second row.  He fully expected that I would be on pole or at least on the front row.  Ladies and Gentleman let the record show that I never want to be accused by any of you of any misconduct.  So, believe it or not, I faxed my entry in just like you.  I was so busy getting this race series ready that I got my entry in late and ended up in the second row of the grid.  Let the record also show that I went to registration, signed all the same paperwork you sign, and took $25 out of my wallet and rented my transponder just like all of you.

PURSES
I am rather surprised that their has not been much chatter on the message boards regarding the fact that we pay purse money for both Amateur and Expect classes in several races.  Considering that CRA does not have any purse classes, MRA only pays for Race of the Rockies, and even CCS main office now only pays 1 class, we thought all the purse money we give back to the racers in our series would be a BIG deal.  I'm kind of disappointed that you guys don't seem to be more excited about it.  I mean hey, if you don't want the money I can sure use it to pay my bills
Dean

Hey, Dean...

I'll put in my two cents...which usually ends up being forty bucks that I put in...

Dean races.  I like it.  Afterall, you should have delegated authority to the appropriate people, so, things should go reasonably well, I would hope.  If someone is looking for you during a race, well, you'll be easy to find.

Purses?

I think it's great.  I'll say that again.  I think it's great.  I think it's outstanding, actually.  I think that it's a necessary thing to change how club level racing works, and I've stated those things many, many times before.  Blah, blah, blah.

For some, unfortunately, distance and scheduling have made it hard to come to some of the TA events.  Would like to make it out sometime.

[Team_Serpent]

Speaking of the purses....we still have a few unclaimed checks.  Guess Kim and I will be going out for a nice dinner!  Not really, we'll mail them out this week.
Dean

Thanks, when I went down to collect the plaques and ULMTD GP purse I didn't realize there might be other purse paying races and no one there mentioned anything about it so appreciate ypou mailing out what wasn't picked up - feel free to deduct an administration fee.

Congrats on getting through your fist event and doing a pretty darn good job!  Anyone attempting to do what you have is going to have teething pains but overall I think you guys did a great job and things will only get better.  We'll be back as often as we can, thanks again!

Jason

[Bigsexy]

Dean when do you think the Results will be posted along with points updated

[racrx451]

Dean when do you think the Results will be posted along with points updated

Diddo that.....

[Mongo]

Dean - on the AMB stuff, if you need eny help just yell - email me at wera@wera.com and I'll get you my cell number.  I've been using the AMB stuff for a while now and you're right it's not perfect for bike racing and grids but it's great for scoring.

[Burt Munro]

One attaboy for Mongo and a +1 on the applause tally.   

Have to mark this day down in history


By the way, are there formatting options on AMB software for printing the grid sheets?
All we had were Rider #'s...  would be nice if we could Rider name, hometown and Bike info like we have with the software that other CCS regions are using.

[PJ]

Congrats on a great event, Dean.

And, yes, you should be commended for offering purse/payback classes. How about sharing some of that love for LW class racers? Would you consider a smaller purse, not paid as deep, to Thunderbike or LW GP?