I think it's awesome that we can run Grattan both ways. Always adds a good dynamic. Speaking on Nelson, great news about the repave. Nice to see folks making improvements over there. I guess they moved some trees/tires which is awesome. Looking at this aerial picture though, the tire wall outside of the kink on the back straight still looks really close. It seems like they have the room to move them back farther. Maybe cut a few of the trees down in that corner? I hit that tire wall in '08. I remember thinking, "Damn, these are way closer than I thought!!!" You're clipping through there at what...160mph on a modern bike?
At the Lean Track Day I did this past August I was low 150s on my Triumph. Ricky Ohare was there with a R1 and he was walking away from me rapidly. So really really fkn fast now.. and equally fun.
It looks like they removed the corner workers station in 13 from that photo? I never understood why that station was placed there. Plenty of people ran off the track in that area and I can't believe that no one ever hit it.
Not without a huge cash sponsor so we can offer a purse that's enough to offset some of the huge expense for everyone. I think 50k should do it.
Might as well be Yamaha, providing a fleet of R3's - cause I ain't seein' many people volunteering their bikes for a 24-hour beat down. lol.
I would have an SV out there. I have done 2 of the 24 hours. I have forgotten the pain by now, so I'd do another.
I think an ULW 24 hr would be a blast. The smaller bikes would result in a significant decrease in expense. No changing tires every stop and not sucking down 8-9 gallons of fuel per hr. No significant difference in speed on the track like back in the day when you had high hp bikes sucking the paint off of ex 500s down the straight. And for the people on pit board duty, they could take a nap in between laps
I agree, I think limiting it to lightweight twins and smaller makes sense. Everybody knows that a clapped out SV can be bought and considered disposable for a 24 hr. Plus the savings in tire costs and fuel would be significant.
Mongo, How many teams would need to pre-enter for a 24 hr, to consider looking for a sponsor and making it viable?
I think you need a sponsor to come forward to allow teams to consider if it is worthwhile to pre-enter. A race with ULW and Light weight would make an interesting mix of bikes.
In the "walk before your run" philosophy, you probably should promote a 6 or an 8 hour race that goes from day to night, to see how many teams you can attract that will go through the effort to get a light setup together before anyone is thinking about a 24 hour.
That's one way of looking at it. The other way is that a 24hr is an EVENT in and of itself. The 24 hr of Nelson Ledges has a place in history and a revival could make it an even bigger event that a sponsor might be willing to support if they knew that 40 teams were already committed.