CCS Raised daytona fee 30 bucks a race!!!

[cardzilla]

Guys, it all boils down to 2 things - Lawyers and insurance companies.  They have you by your, pardon my french, hairy bean bag and insist on squeezing frequently.  It is a simple supply / demand curve... Waaay too many lawyers, not enough cases... what to do?  Of course, the option to take your obvious intelligence and branch out until you're needed doesn't occur.  Instead, let's beat the ol' sueing war drum... doesn't your neck hurt, "no", no seriously, I mean does your neck HURT "uhh, no", what? impossible.
Insurance companies are just as bad, a tight knit bunch of fat cats.  They take $x in from the public and hold it until the public needs some or all of it back.  You'd think they'd be content on the interest, but they're not, they also need to middle you on the payout.  Frankly, I tired of it and I'm pi$$ed.
As bad as insurance companies are, the real problem is still lawyers.  If you do ONE thing this year, call your congressmen / state rep. and tell him / her, you would like to see a "loser pays" system of law.  No more idiots getting paid because companies don't want the hassle or expense to fight it.  Personal responsibility needs to return to our society, and quick.
   - stepping off soap box -

[251am]

   Lawyers and lawsuits are not the only reasons for insurance rates getting hi-jacked. That is a scapegoat answer. The new insurance scams are put on by the insurance companies, in many cases; they may lose big time in a natural disaster, terrorism, or on Wall Street. Then pass the loss on to you and me in rate hikes. It's just the old shell game. Our homeowner's insurance has almost doubled since 9/11. Why? Farmer's lost their ass in New York. Here's another unrelated hike for all you Alliant Energy purchasers.

  Some years ago Alliant bought three hydro plants in S America. Part of the purchasing power was  stock shares of a company Alliant held. Purchase price for 3 hydro plants; $4 billion. Then 2 things happened-the rivers that the hydro plants were on dried up, and the stock price to be used as cash fell through the floor decreasing Alliant's purchasing power, but the deal had been made already!! Voila!! Alliant petitioned the Public Service Commission for one of the largest rate hikes we've ever seen, just a few years ago. Supposedly to adjust for Natural gas prices, right? Wrong. It was to make up for their losses in S. America, and we'd pay for it.

  So while some of our price increases paid are related to litigation, the majority of the actual reasoning probably lies somewhere else in a pile of memos on an exec's desk in New York. The solution lies in searching for another insurance company, plain and simple. Somebody's gotta do some shopping around. Who is it gonna be to shop around? The Speedway itself? CCS? CCE? LP?                  

[motobenco]

How come we don't have more spectators at Daytona? Oh wait, because no one knows about it. I've talked to several people in that area during that time and many are unaware that we are even racing at the track.  If CCE is a promotion company, ok a company that "puts the races on" what are they doing to draw more crowds?  Wouldn't more crowds equal more money from gate fees? Insert "all of that money goes to the track" here, well then negotiate with the track owners.  If we can increase our perceived value as an entertainment aspect then maybe those who were spectators would jump to the racing side.  I know the "promotion" aspect starts with the racer but our voice is only so loud when just one person is yelling.

[wizard]

weren't you the one who got knocked silly there last Feb? This is all your fault!! :D :D

uh i have insurance, and im to stupid to go to the dr

[Super Dave]

How come we don't have more spectators at Daytona

You think most of the people are at Daytona to ride their Fat Boy or to see mc racing...

What, this is the 21st Daytona race for CCS in spring?  How many Daytona 200's have there been?

How would you promote it?  Could you get a return?  Then the racers, like me, are looking for a purse and a hand out to show up to race...

AHRMA....

In the mid-90's when I was racing with AHRMA quite regularly, we out pulled the Daytona 200 one year.  I know in like 1996 or 1997, we out pulled the AMA Superbike race the next weekend at Mid-Ohio...Oh, then the AMA got involved and spectating dropped...anyway...

Promote yourself.

Who you trying to get people to see...you?  Or the "organization"?  Promoting yourself will help the organization and you.  

If you were a Packer's fan, you'd want to go see Favre play...not Craig Nall.

[CCS]

Adam - It was a $30,000 INCREASE from last year, so the 700-800 additional entries at $30 more each will raise on an additional $21,000-$24,000 if we are lucky. We are also expecting this increase will do just what Jim said, make riders run 2-3 classes instead of 5-6 and bring the total entry number down. We are hoping to hold onto 700-800 additional entries. (Post entry is traditionally only 75-100 entries total, so those fees are negligible.)

This will be my last post on this, I cannot control the insurance, our only other option was cancel the event and that would not have done anybody any good.

[Super Dave]

Thanks, Kevin.


Yup, renting the track yourself will certainly give one a different perspective.


And for more of my personal thoughts...

Lawyers and lawsuits are not the only reasons for insurance rates getting hi-jacked. That is a scapegoat answer. The new insurance scams are put on by the insurance companies, in many cases; they may lose big time in a natural disaster, terrorism, or on Wall Street.

Natural disaster hits, and the people that rebuild still have to have liability insurance, pay people, buy tools, supplies, etc.  Those things have items in them that are directly affected by lawyers and law suits.  

If there weren't all the law suits, prices wouldn't have to increase so much for doing things.  Easy one here is this thread.

A natural disaster is easy...

But an old lady puttin' (hot) coffee in her lap...hey, you get burned...not a cash award for being an idiot.  It costs someplace.  

It think my parents put it to me the best:  "Where do you think money comes from?  Trees?"

[motobenco]

SD, thanks for the history lesson, we seem to be revisiting the past a lot on this board.  As for the promotion side of things, I'm open to suggestions. Since the end of last season I have been working with sponsors in order to help support the sport overall. I personally make it a point to not only inform friends and family about upcoming races but any other motorcyclist that I may run into on the street. Yes I do ride a street bike and participate in a lot of the Sunday rides, bike nights and runs to the Broken Oar. I also make sure to a least have some printed materials with me, schedule, stickers or even a pen to write the CCS web site down.

As for the Daytona crowd, it's still Bike Week and that involves all aspects of motorcycles. I will bring the street bikes down again and enjoy the rest of the activities that compose Bike Week. As for the promotion, besides the sign in front of the Speedway there is nothing to even acknowledge that a motorcycle race is kicking off the start of the week.  I would gladly post flyers, posters or any other materials that would be available to me prior to the race weekend. I will also have some of my own brochures made up to distribute during that period.  If anyone is game and would be willing to help out I'm all for a Pit Bike Run down to main street before we start racing.

Ok I just checked the Daytona Chamber of Commerce web site and we are listed there. As for the Speedway site, nothing just the Supercross and 200.

BTW, Who's a Packer fan on this board...?

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

But an old lady puttin' (hot) coffee in her lap...hey, you get burned...not a cash award for being an idiot.  

Add in those two morons who are suing McD's for making them fat. ::)

A burgler who sued a homeowner after the home owners dog bit him?

Stupid cities who are trying to sue firearm manufacturures trying to blame them for teh firearm violence (why stop there, lets blame GM, Ford, DC, Honda, Toyota, Porsche, etc for drink driving deaths).

How about the father that tried to sue a dealership after his 17 yr old kid died on it 2 weeks after he bought it for his son's birthday. Never mind it was his FIRST BIKE and it was either a R1 or CBR929, dont remember which.


I dont know about teh rest of you, but I'm just sick of these dumbass lawsuits from people who wont take responsibility for themselves. >:(

[banzaib132]

CCS's excess medical insurance policy renews every February 1st. We were notified that the Daytona insurance was going up $30,000 per event, on February 1st. WE recalled the Daytona Mailer from the printer to change the information, and then had it re-printed and sent it out on Saturday.

We notified you as soon as we knew, and have offered to give full refunds to those who wish to withdraw. (No Admin fee, no questions.) We have not charged anyone the new fees yet according to my reports from finance.

I do not like it any more than you do, but even the $30 per additional entry only comes close to the increase, it doesn't completely cover it.

I have no control over how many riders use our EXCESS medical coverage, but the former policy at Daytona was $0 deductible so every scrape and cut seen by a doctor outside the speedway affected the loss ratio.

Hey Kevin, could we dump the damn place? I would drive right by there (daytona) if there were a race the same weekend at VIR or RA or savannah....or get the point? I not trying to be mean, Just honest.
Bob Shy

[eh427]

I still say it is worth it. It's Daytona. It's bike week. It's racing in the middle of winter when it is freezing up here in the northeast. What more could you ask for. Noone ever said racing was cheap.

[Super Dave]

Ok, this is a touchy topic, Daytona, so I'll tell a story about what's happening in AHRMA.

First, there are some goofy rule issues.  

Second...

Race tracks.  Recognize that AHRMA got a good start as a side show at AMA National Superbike events.  Eventually, it got big enough on it's own to have it's own events.

One of the cool attractions of AHRMA was having cool tracks on it's schedule.  

Racing at the "cool" AMA Superbike tracks can be a way of attracting new riders, or to keep riders, into the organization's base.

I, personally, would just assume that we drive right be Road America.  Some people think it's the best thing slnce sliced bread.

However, one must recognize, in AMA Superbike racing, that the Daytona 200 is singlely one of the most recognized events in it's history.  What is this, the 64th running of the Daytona 200?  Isn't the Daytona 500 in it's like 47th running?

The France family, owners of Daytona and NASCAR, were instrumental in helping CCS come into being.  Basically, the CCS season, more or less, uses Daytona to bookmark the season.  It has so since 1984 or what ever year it was that Roger formed it all.

Hey, if anyone asks you, "Where do you race?"  What do you say?  


Second Creek Raceway?


Blackhawk?



Hallett?



You say Daytona to someone's mom, and they will still recognize the name.  Laguna may be cool, but it's not as well recognized as Daytona.