Hay Bales at Summit Point

[Jim_Martin]

I just read on the MARRC Web site that a contribution of some 40 haybales was made and will be placed in front of the tire wall at turn 3.  This contribution should be acknowledged this weekend, and is another continuing example of racers helping racers.  Where is the air fence I contributed $ to RRW.  I have yet to see it show up at Summit on a regular basis.  Next time I will contribute to my local track like I did for Move the Mountain, at least as an amatuer I see immediate results.

[varacer]

You are right about the $ sent to the RRW air fence fund that club racers never see very much of it. That is why on the WERA BBS a lot of people are trying to get WERA to raise the prices of races or gate fees or something to start there own air fence fund, but all we get from the ass mongo is that it can't be done. As a racer I wouldn't mind one bit paying more if I knew it was gfor airfence and that I would see something from it soon. Maybe CCS would like to do something like that. I think CCS has more members than WERA anyway and hopefully not an ass like Mongo running things.

[sportbikepete]

As I understand it each track needs to have the air fence in order for us club guys to see it. So it would be up to us to get things moving at individual tracks to get the air fence money. If I remember right I think the $$ amount needed for Summit to have good air fence is $40,000. Again memory has never been good after that brown acid but either way we need some major cash. With Summit building the new track I do not see them having alot of free cash so I think the racers and friends would have to make the biggest contributions. It's hard to do something like this without having support of a RRW type but does anyone have any type of experience in setting up a LEGAL non profit funding operation that does not require a staff that makes $100K a year per individual? Personally I hate all that proceeds crap because what they are saying is after we over pay these 10 people for the little bit of work they did the rest gets donated.

[varacer]

As I understand it each track needs to have the air fence in order for us club guys to see it. So it would be up to us to get things moving at individual tracks to get the air fence money. If I remember right I think the $$ amount needed for Summit to have good air fence is $40,000. Again memory has never been good after that brown acid but either way we need some major cash. With Summit building the new track I do not see them having alot of free cash so I think the racers and friends would have to make the biggest contributions. It's hard to do something like this without having support of a RRW type but does anyone have any type of experience in setting up a LEGAL non profit funding operation that does not require a staff that makes $100K a year per individual? Personally I hate all that proceeds crap because what they are saying is after we over pay these 10 people for the little bit of work they did the rest gets donated.

That's why I'm saying maybe the racing org's themselves(CCS, WERA, and others) need to raise the fees and set-up their own air fence funds. Even if they can't store it at the tracks and don't want to hire the personnel or buy the trucks to haul it around maybe they could just get some storage units decently close to the tracks they are going to use it at, or they could just use the $$ to hire Dan lance to bring it and set it up. He has prices alreay for this. If the racing org's themselves do it and just raise the prices then the racers wouldn't say I don't have the $ to donate right now. We all know as racers that we hardly ever have the money to donate, but if it cost $5-$15 more a race then we will pay it. We might complain some, but I think if all racers knew it was going for safety barriersa they wouldn't complain very much once they started seeing air fence at tracks. Plus this might be a way for CCS to grow even larger seeing as they would be the safest racing org around if they had air fence at tracks that needed it. I can't thik of any track that doesn't need at least a little even though I have never been to some tracks.

[corien]

lrrs (ccs affiliate) has their own airfence. the racers donated and the track owners donated. this is the first year they have airfence for EVERY club race weekend. it is a great example of how a tight knit racing organization like lrrs can get things done.

corien

[varacer]

lrrs (ccs affiliate) has their own airfence. the racers donated and the track owners donated. this is the first year they have airfence for EVERY club race weekend. it is a great example of how a tight knit racing organization like lrrs can get things done.

corien

That's great and shows that it can be done.

[EX#996]

This sounds like a good idea, but....

How much more for race fees is each racer willing to spend?  Right now, a typical race weekend for entry fees and admission for the family is at least $300.00.  Raise the fees too much and there goes a few race weekends.

Just my .02

Dawn

[sportbikepete]

Also consider tis about raising fees, when all is said and done do the fees come back down? ???

[varacer]

I really doubt that the prices would go back down completely, I would think they could go don some. The stuff still has to be maintained, stored, and get set-up at the tracks. Also I do see what you are saying about there goes a coupel of race weekends if the prices go up, but how about never racing again due to injury or death from hitting something other than air fence. I think that would be worth not doing a couple of weekends if there was airfence when I did race. If you've never hit a concrete wall you don't want to it sucks.

[Eric Kelcher]

Well FUSA/CCS has been given Air Fence by the RRW Action Fund. It is great stuff but it takes a bit to set up and move around. We haul 4 sections (~115feet) to all our events with one venue not requiring any. It is possible to do but it does require at least one individual to be trained and responsible for getting there early and finding 1-2 more people to get it set up before every event and 2-3 to put it all away at the end. We have managed to get all the race gear and the Alpina Air Module into a 18x6x6 trailer but it is tight. We already had trailer but to do it right a 8 foot wide and 20 foot trailer would have been real nice.

I had to give up racing because of doing this there is too much going on to do both. I was part of the crew that decided to purchase the 4 sections so I elected myself to deal with it. How many regions would have someone give up their racing to deal with the air fence for just expense reimbursement? The logistics is a bigger issue than purchase price for most regions.
Haybales may not be as safe but they are faster and easier to deal with.
If for every region the logistics of Air Fence/Air Modules was already dealt with then I think it would be easier sell to get some purchased for each region.
Persoal opinion here but I think the infaltable sections are better than the foam sections for two reasons the inflatable has a flap that directs crashing rider into "air bag" and the inflatable is larger section that has more volume to dissapate the energy. Plus the fact you cna haul inflatable sections to diffeernet venues thus having more usablity from it.

I am unsure where I was going with this just some insight into a region that owns some air fence (Alpina Air Module) and races at track that has it own(Air Fence Bike).

[Will Torbert]

Big thanks to Kevin Elliott for the cash payment for the haybales at Summit this past weekend. He has agreed to pay for more (supplied by Greg Harrison of Louden Motorsports) for future races.
-Will Torbert

[varacer]

Well FUSA/CCS has been given Air Fence by the RRW Action Fund. It is great stuff but it takes a bit to set up and move around. We haul 4 sections (~115feet) to all our events with one venue not requiring any. It is possible to do but it does require at least one individual to be trained and responsible for getting there early and finding 1-2 more people to get it set up before every event and 2-3 to put it all away at the end. We have managed to get all the race gear and the Alpina Air Module into a 18x6x6 trailer but it is tight. We already had trailer but to do it right a 8 foot wide and 20 foot trailer would have been real nice.

I had to give up racing because of doing this there is too much going on to do both. I was part of the crew that decided to purchase the 4 sections so I elected myself to deal with it. How many regions would have someone give up their racing to deal with the air fence for just expense reimbursement? The logistics is a bigger issue than purchase price for most regions.
Haybales may not be as safe but they are faster and easier to deal with.
If for every region the logistics of Air Fence/Air Modules was already dealt with then I think it would be easier sell to get some purchased for each region.
Persoal opinion here but I think the infaltable sections are better than the foam sections for two reasons the inflatable has a flap that directs crashing rider into "air bag" and the inflatable is larger section that has more volume to dissapate the energy. Plus the fact you cna haul inflatable sections to diffeernet venues thus having more usablity from it.

I am unsure where I was going with this just some insight into a region that owns some air fence (Alpina Air Module) and races at track that has it own(Air Fence Bike).

That is great, but what about when FUSA and CCS have races the same weekend at different tracks. That is why we need more airfence and people to set it up. I will admit though I wouldn't be able to quit racing tto set up and haul around the air fence. It is great that you did that though. Now we just need figure out a decently quick way to get more at all the tracks that need it.