CCS Class Structure

[Lightnin]

This thread is in reference to the "new class" propasal. This not intended to offend, but rather to contradict current sentiment, and possibly iduce some debate.
More classes means less track time for all of us. In a "politicly corrtect", perfect world, everyone would be included, but that's not the way it works.
The quality of the CCS program has slowly deteriorated over time with the atempt to "mass market" to the general public. In the late eighties Sprint races at Road America were 8 laps (32miles). Now they are 4 laps. Practice sessions now have upwards of 150 riders at times and some classes Gridding 125. The last thing we need is more classes.
In my opinion if you want to race, you should probably consider a bike that is intented for that purpose. Why should the quality of my experience suffer because you want to run a dirt-bike?
Motocross is straightforward and fairly structured. Wy do we have to turn this into a cluster F*@#.
If I want to retrofit my R1 to race moto's, tuff luck!
If I owned a XR 70 I would not expect to Road Race it!
This, unfortunatly doesn't matter to SFX or Kevin Eliot. CCS is a Cash Cow and the more classes they can squeeze into a weekend, the more $ they make. .
Participation has grown tremendously. This is a double edged sword. While enlightening many more to one this worlds truely great experiences, there has to be a limit to the # of bikes we'll attempt to run in one day.  

Just my .02. Curious if anyone else is concerned.

Rod

  

[Eric Kelcher]

I follow your setiment exactly even though I was the one that came up with the Ultra Lightweight sportsman class. It is not for converted dirtbikes even though those fit into the rules.  It was a "new" beginner and a true low budget class for the EX250 size bikes that can be bought and raced for under 4000 for a brand new off the showroom floor no discount.  The level of expense has grown over the years such that to get into racing you either had a street bike and converted it and most people only do that once, or you are resort to picking up used crashed bikes that are not always at the top of the performance heap.  This allows someone to get into and continue to race each year without a whole big expense each and every year to stay on the "current" equipment.  How eonough do you ever hear of Joe Average racer buying a new bike why the price point is so high a 600 is over 10,000 to purchase and put race gear on.  Out of reach of most people that have been racing for a few years.  These bikes have proved to be immensely popular on the left coast for these and I am sure many more reasons.

[Mahly]

Basically, that's what I thought the current sportsman classes were for. You can get a competitive LT sportsman bike for under $3000...and there are plenty to be had.
I can see the vast majority of "new"' racers quickly outgrowing the 250cc bikes in an ultra light class.
For inexpensive racing, sportsman is hard to beat. Yes, you can spend an @$$ load making some hot rod SV for heavywieght....but you can also get on the track by getting some old GS 500 (which is a proven race/championship winner) or EX500.
As much as Ultra light sportsman sounds like fun...CCS needs another class like it needs a hole in the head.

[CCS]

Hey Rod,

From it's inception in 1983, CCS's standard sprint length was 16 miles. (4 laps at Road America)

Sprints at Road America used to be 5 laps, Unlimited GP 8 laps and the Solos usually went 12-14 laps depending how fast you were/are.

Late eighties to early Nineties the turn out at Road America was 470-550 entries, and now it is 1700-2000.

With the track length at 4 miles, even a conservative track density is 100 machines, (considering the widest front straight in the business and the distance from the grid to turn one, that number is very conservative) and since 1999 we have never allowed more that 100 bikes on the course at one time, even in practice where you can safely allow 125% of track density. The biggest grid to start this year was 89 machines, with 6 no shows. The only class that possibly could have started more than that was the Unlimited SuperSport Combined which would have been 112 machines, BUT we split that race along with one other so we ended up with 18 races on Saturday instead of the 16 that were scheduled.

With our new classes, we are only adding one race to the weekend, AM UL GP, the other classes will run in conjunction with races already on the track, like the GP Single / SuperSingle / Ultra-Lightweight Sportsman combination. By 1988, CCS already had 30 classes, and that number has fluctuated up and down over the last few years, but now it is set at 40 and is likely to remain there for the foreseeable future. (WERA offers 49 classes at it's races, so I am not sure where you get that we are only interested in the "CCS cash cow".)


Oh, and thats two "L's" and two "T's" in Elliott. ;D

Good Day.