Grattan / Gingermann?

[123user]

The old days of racing are over, everybody wants something for nothing.  No devotion.  I want to race bout only if it does not inconvienance me. 

You can thank the proliferation of trackdays for this.  Ample opportunity to "pretend race".  I'm gonna take my streetbike and drag my ass around a "racetrack".  Then I'll show the pictures to impress my friends!  But I'm not gonna drive 3 hours to do it, because I'd rather watch someone else do something on tv then actually go do it myself!

And Gateway sucks so bad it doesn't deserve to be on Google Earth.  Its poorly maintained, the layout sucks, its dangerous, the staff are either ignorant, stupid, or jerks, the facilities suck.  People keep telling me that the Gateway management doesn't really care about having CCS's or MCRA's business and that's why they won't improve, which makes me wonder why we continue to give them business!

[dylanfan53]

Oh and Don, what would you know about driving around the lake? 

I have to fight you FIPs every Friday night just to get back home to God's country. 

[dylanfan53]

You can thank the proliferation of trackdays for this. 

Yeah, track days. That's it.   

[J Farrell / Speed Tech Motorsp]

So is there anybody on this forum that wouldn't go to Grattan or Gingerman? If so why?

I'd like to see those tracks back on our race schedule. Even just 1 race weekend to try it out.

The only issue that I can recall at Grattan is Turn 9 or 10 the hairpin turn. Short on run off. That was before airfence was ever around. If airfence was placed there I couldn't think of a nicer track.
There is no better feeling than turn 3 off camber downhill back uphill, the jump before turn 5, and the bowl. That whole track rocks!!!

Lets bring back a kind of Great Lakes series again!!

[Boober]

From what I've been told in the past there is more to the story than just low attendance.  There is something up with the management at Grattan.  So it was a combination of poor attendance and racetrack management that didn't want us (just like autobahn!)  With the economy the way it is I will be suprised if there are as many races next year as this year much less adding more! JMHO

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

Last time I went to Gingermann I didnt find it that bad of a trip. Track looked like fun. WHat turned me off is getting there and being told I have to run such and such brand of tire in supersport (GLRRA was there even though I thought it was a CCS event and unknown to me GLRRA was running this). Hmm I had brand new dunlops on and like hell I was gonna pay another $300ish bucks for tires (wasnt budgeted for the trip).

Dont get me started on Gateway.

What happened to MAM? Track go bye bye?

[Andi]

What happened to MAM? Track go bye bye?

MAM is pretty fun and it sure as hell would be nice to have it thrown in the mix instead of the GP region consisting of 4 HPT rounds, 2 Gateway trips, and Road America. Sure that it being left of off the GP schedule is because of Track Addix departure from the CCS.

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

In my opinion the reason the Great Lakes Region always seems to fail for CCS is because that area is covered by WERA's North Central Region, the times I raced at Gratten back in the 90's (only with CCS) it seemed like quite a few of the racers that actually did show up were WERA racers. The Illinois / Indiana border seems to be a real territory splitter for both race org's, just take a look at WERA, they don't have any Midwest or Great Plains regions.

Concerning the potential Midwest or Great Lakes Region tracks mentioned in this thread that are East of Illinois:
Putnam was a track I really enjoyed racing at back in the late 90's - but the politics surrounding racing there were a joke. Gingerman is probably one of the safer tracks we raced at - but the CCS races there definately had low attendance issues. I haven't race at Gratten since CCS was there back in the late 90's, but it definately was a challenging track - the negatives I remember from back then were definate race surface issues (which apparently are being fixed), and like Farrell said the hairpin could be ugly (didn't Dave Sadowski crash bad there?) but I also remember the 'jump' causing some red flag accidents.

Generally racing survives if you have a supply and demand situation, if a race track is close enough to a mass of population then your chances of the 'fair weather racers' showing up are greatly increased - those are the racers that cause an event to have great attendance (just look at Road America's events that haven't been on a holiday). Enough racers live in the Chicago / Milwaukee / Madison / Rockford / Quad Cities area of the upper Midwest that racing in this area can do well if the weather is decent (with the exception of the percieved current economy). But as soon as you start getting much beyond a 3 or 4 hour drive from a mass of population the attendance is going to start dropping because of the number of people who would have to start missing work in order to race - that 1 factor quickly elevates the cost of racing because your losing wages (and a limited number of vacation days from work) on top of all the costs of racing. For example I've worked 6 days a week for the last 20+ years, up until I quit my last job back in July I had to miss 3 or 4 days of work just to go to Heartland Park - that's almost 1/2 my weeks pay just in missed wages and 3 or 4 of my available vacation days.

Living by Blackhawk Farms I will admit that the trip thru Chicago sucks big time during the weekend traffic jam hours, but that certainly wasn't ever enough to stop me from going to a Gingerman or Gratten event. But if you look at the mass of population on the West side of the Lake that's where your going to be having the majority of racers commuting from, the added TIME and frustration wasted in the commute thru Chicago can be that 'make or break' for many and cause the loss of 'fair weather racers'.

[russ1962]

All time favorite regional track:  Grattan.  No question.  I'll race there if it's scheduled.  Just need some help transporting my bike from Sicilia.

[TommyG]

Russ!!!  If you need a commercial location to ship to ( semi truck friendly!) you can ship to my business AND I will get that sucker to the track too! Hope all is well in Italy buddy!  

[F2RGK]

I vote for Grattan, you can keep gingerman!  Too bumpy and lots a crashes.  Grattan is worth the drive.  Gingerman has a low turnout because it's usually freezing and rainy when they schedule it and nobody wants to go.  The drive around the lake isn't bad if you stop for dinner first on the way home...then drive on thru./

Bring back Autobahn too!  That was never promoted properly inmyop. 

I'm glad to hear people are bringing this up....CCS should change it too BHFCS.....BlackhawkFarmsChampionshipSeries in the Midwest. 

Proposed Schedule for 2010 just in:
Blackhawk
Road Am.
Blackhawk
Topeka
Blackhawk
Blackhawk
Did I mention Blackhawk?

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

Bring back Autobahn too!  That was never promoted properly inmyop. 

I'm glad to hear people are bringing this up....CCS should change it too BHFCS.....BlackhawkFarmsChampionshipSeries in the Midwest. 

Proposed Schedule for 2010 just in:
Blackhawk
Road Am.
Blackhawk
Topeka
Blackhawk
Blackhawk
Did I mention Blackhawk?

I remember having 6 events at BHF and we started the first weekend of april.

Also have to remember not all tracks charge the same rental fees and BHF is relatively cheap compared to RA. Also BHF is pretty much dead center to where most racers live.

Last I heard on ACC is they dont want racing orgs there.