Exactly how may times can you petition?

[spyderchick]

Larry Denning and I were talking at HPT about him coming back as an amateur next year.  

Well, he's probably a bit rusty. 
What is it, like 2 1/2 years since he quit?

[funsizeracing]

Does that mean he's doing  a ton of trackdays with NESBA this year?

Great you had to go and start that again!

[JBraun]

we really don't want a repeat of the Marshall/Kurt show a couple of years ago.  I've got no interest in racing them - we're different classes.

It's funny that people are still bitter about this. Kurt and Marshall were both in their first season, therefore amateurs.

[gkotlin]

This is a topic that always leaves me on the fence.  You could have a person that has done plenty of trackdays and has a good pace.  They however may not have a clue about racecraft, tactics or defensive lines etc.  The art of racing we'll say.  Should they be amateurs because they don't have a race season of experience on their resume.  I personally think it's better to get some track time doing track days before racing.  You see how passes are made. You develop experience in gauging closing speeds and learn the abilities of yourself and your machine.  You learn how this new world of track riding works.  I personally think it's not the best idea to have people that got their motorcycle street license six months ago, come out and get a race license to race the next weekend.  Without having more then and hour of track time.  I know that was how it was done back in the day.  But times have changed.  It's such a tough thing to deal with and will always be a point of controversy.  In a perfect world we could have a true novice class for people with little or no track experience.  Then have a class of experienced riders that are in between.  Last you'd have experts.  Seasoned veterans who are battling with all their talent and experience.  Obviously with the size of club racing and the trouble getting the current races all completed on time, this is an unrealistic option.

I don't know what the answer is.  But I do feel conficted about the current system.  As to the original point that started this thread, I guess we really need to hear from a decision maker at CCS as to why an individual did or did not get moved to expert.

[r1owner]

It's funny that people are still bitter about this. Kurt and Marshall were both in their first season, therefore amateurs.

So was Ron Hix...

[tstruyk]

So was Ron Hix...

so was scott myers... oh wait... that was your first 5 years... 

[SV88]

It's funny that people are still bitter about this. Kurt and Marshall were both in their first season, therefore amateurs.
[/quote]
No no, I don't care about the track day experts.  However some of them (like Ron Hix) do the right thing.  Others want to win a championship @ all cost even if they don't have real competition.  For most of us (who will rarely see podium @ Exp level) the fun is in dicing with someone else.  It's probably more fun to go back and forth than leading a race from start to finish.  Don't get me wrong - I do like to win and have done so.
The Marshall/Kurt thing was more the extreme agressiveness to the point where seasoned experts were complaining.  I had a bit of that yesterday during the GTU race last lap.  Had a couple of AM almost T-bone @ Canada corner, one went off the track but kept it up and did the same thing on T14 - total morons - that's why I stayed away from MW/C class AM.  Yesterday CCS combined races and I almost got taken out by these jerks; guess I need to get faster so that I don't even have to deal with them.

[r1owner]

so was scott myers... oh wait... that was your first 5 years... 

Hehe... yeah, well when you only run 3 weekends a year and place mid pack, it takes a while to accumulate enough points to go expert.  Plus in my defense I had a little problem called Cancer thrown in for good measure.  Oh yeah, that's right, I pulled the cancer card... :)

As soon as I made the bump list I took it without petition.

BASTARD!  :)

[tstruyk]

blah blah blah cancer blah blah blah... 

you could have included that in your petition... 

you should have stayed AM... you raced like one expert year and "retired"...

btw how is the cancer thing?

[r1owner]

6 years the past March....  Getting a CT scan this week.

[backMARKr]

blah blah blah cancer blah blah blah... 

Mr. Struyk is no longer associated with the Road Race Prep.com race program.

[tstruyk]

6 years the past March....  Getting a CT scan this week.

right on man, lemme know how it comes out!

Mr. Struyk is no longer associated with the Road Race Prep.com race program.

when was my Dad involved in the race program?  you would think he would have told me...