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VIR weather

Discussion in 'General' started by Joe barton, Mar 4, 2011.

  1. davis2480

    davis2480 Blake Davis's dad #122

    I will be at Summit and will enter at least 4 races. I was upset about sunday but i think everyone was. If that happens again would it help to offer a discount to the ones that did stick it out if they enter every race that they can just to fill the grid. I ride an sv and would run with the heavyweight if needed in the rain. Just a thought on how you may have been able to keep sunday going and not loose as much. Thank you for the sport.
     
  2. stickman

    stickman crash free since 5/6/07

    $5000 is not worth pissing off a lot of customers and putting a giant black mark on your reputation.

    Here is the real problem wera has now started, in the future people will think twice about making the trip for a weekend of racing if the weather is questionable. In the past, you could count on racing no matter the weather. This is a can of worms wera should have never opened...and over a measly $5000. Not smart, now even less people will show up when the forecast is bad, thus cancelling more events.
     
    Last edited: Mar 7, 2011
  3. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    The lady is Evelyne, she owns WERA.

    I can't so no way it'll never happen again ever. But I can say it has never happened before in the 38 years WERA has been running. Then again, for many many decades we were able to pay the bills at any track with 100 riders, that's up to 150+ at places like VIR. We are planning on trying a few different things to make sure this doesn't happen again.
     
  4. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    $5,000 can be the difference between existing in a month or shutting down. Not sure where people got this idea that we're making all this money putting on races but that flat out isn't true. WERA has never had cash reserves and it's even less now.

    If people don't show up then we'll shut our doors and move on. It's a pretty simple concept that holds true for any business. If the customers don't show, you don't open the doors.
     
  5. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator


    Email me. They meant anyone already entered in races but just email me and we'll work something out.
     
  6. Dave K

    Dave K DaveK über alles!

    I work for a medium sized company with about €35KK in sales. $5000 to my division is the difference between being here in April or not this year.
     
  7. YZROOSTINYA

    YZROOSTINYA Well-Known Member

    I thought it was a good decision.
    if you can't see that it was obviously a decision to stay in business then you have other issues. Yes it sucked. I spent 350 on gas spent 15 hours driving round trip to do one 6 lap practice session and on solo. I didn't register for the rain race cause I had to use the credit from last year.

    It was worth it to me.
     
  8. you're

    you're Banned

    maybe you already did this. but maybe it would help to explain how the $5000 was saved by not racing.

    i mean the people were all there, if you raced you wouldn't have to refund their entry fees, sounds like you already paid the corner workers. i think a lot of people assume if you would have gone ahead and raced, the entry fees that you then wouldn't have had to refund would have covered that $5000 discount.

    i'm sure the math makes sense for you to not run (still not saying i agree with it) but it would help to further explain how the $5000 was saved while having to refund the 50 people's entry fees. especially when they all put in gas money totalling 5-6 times the $5000 to get there to support your event. you basically punished the ones that actually came through for you.
     
  9. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    Less for personnel, medical, insurance, and some track rental.

    Yes, the riders who did show up came through for us. We absolutely do appreciate each and every one of them and will do our best to come up with something that will thank them for their support.

    The loss of income due to giving out credits will be spread out. The loss of the savings would have been in cash/check that day. I'm not positive but I think the fees we did collect wouldn't be as much as what we saved but we will run the numbers and dissect everything we did or could have done.

    It's sad that I think our real choices are going to have to be raise fees at the expensive tracks. We used to be able to pay the bills with 100 or so riders entering a couple of classes each at every track. It's gotten to where a lot of them are taking 150 or more and since they're not going to drop fees we don't have a lot of choice. Other options are nuke the solos and go to a practice day, dual sprint weekends like ccs does, nuke the solo payouts (that was 2800 or so for VIR just as an example), do a sliding scale on fees based on the track and so on... Not sure yet but something has to change, it is ridiculous that we're losing money even on events with a good turnout, that is what happened last year and put us in this position this year. Yeah facilities and power and pretty buildings and paved paddocks are nice, but they're not worth the money we're paying since all we really need is the track in good shape.
     
  10. regularguy

    regularguy Always Krispy

    VIR is gorgeous but with the fees they want then once a year for Cycle Jam might be the way to go. CMP I'm sure is more cost effective for an early round and a bit farther south. It's a bit of a haul for the mid atlantic guys i guess.
     
  11. eggfooyoung

    eggfooyoung You no eat more!

    I hate it for both sides. Good luck to all involved.
     
  12. 12

    12 Well-Known Member


    I'd vote for the dual sprint w/e or do like you did in the past - Saturday qualify races for grid position on Sunday. Maybe a more consistent revenue stream for both days?
     
  13. Silo Pete

    Silo Pete We have ignition.

    I think the racers looking for some kind of guarantee that their weekend will not be canceled (for any reason) need to get a grasp on logisitics and be a bit more sympathetic. Yes, we are paying customers. Yes, we spend money to get to the venue. But no the customer isn't right all the time. This is the first time as a WERA member that I have seen a weekend canceled due to weather and turnout. It sucks. And I wasn't there.

    I'm sure Sean and Ev will do well by everyone. And maybe there needs to be a rethink on the scheudule and fees, as Sean stated. I'm sure they are already thinking of changes to help in the long term.
     
  14. Dits

    Dits Will shit in your fort.

    Agreed. I'm not a mid Atlantic guy, but I get just as big of a kick racing at Tally, Jennings or Roebling as I do at Road A or VIR.

    If the overhead has gone up, the only thing that can be done is decrease it and-or increase revenue.
     
  15. Lawn Dart

    Lawn Dart Difficult. With a big D.

    Really?

    I think they've already gone well above and beyond just by explaining things thus far... Do you often go into businesses and tell the owner(s) to justify his/her business decisions by opening their books and showing you where their money went? Let it go. It sucks for everyone - I know they didn't take the decision lightly... It certainly wasn't a "winner" for them either... Lesser of two evils so that WERA could continue operations at future weekends. That's really all we needed to know.
     
  16. Suburbanrancher

    Suburbanrancher Chillzilla

    I like this for Saturdays; after travelling hundreds of miles to an event, I want to get some quality laps in. Solo's are great for this, but if they have to be done away with as a cost savings measure then at least replace them with something that offers decent seat and setup time, imo.
     
  17. tracaddict

    tracaddict Well-Known Member

    3 weeks earlier in march then normal probably spooked everyone concerned about weather. I think that should be looked at in future, that being said I realize a thousand different factors probably came into play and was the reason for an earlier opening round. If gas prices do reach $5/gal this summer the 10 hr drive I had is going to hurt even more in the future (especially if i have to gamble on enough other people showing up in order to race)

    This sure wasn't how I wanted my friend, a provisional novice to first experience wera.
     
  18. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    You and me both.
     
  19. LabRat

    LabRat Well-Known Member

    It might not have worked like completely like this, but from my knowledge of 'the system'. it is an option that some of it boils down to creative accounting.

    Lets say the track charges a day rate of $100/day corner worker & 1000/day staffed ambulance in the contract. The track then pays their staff hourly wages to be there. If the renter decides to cancel the event, they have prepaid the expense for the staffing at the day rate is in the contract, but they don't need them. The track now doesn't have the payroll expense, the track can pass a portion of the payroll savings back to the renter as a goodwill discount, the track still makes the same amount as they were expecting because their expenses were lower than expected, and the renter saves some cash.
     
  20. Rx3

    Rx3 1%

    On a complete sidenote, what was the deal with VIR charging $300(?) per ambulance ride? Can they do that? Is that in addition to what they normally charge for an ambulance ride to the hospital?


    The additional "vendor fees" VIR was charging don't sound like a good deal either.

    The way the track management seems to want to charge extra would make it hard for WERA to keep running there.
     

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