WERA Race School...helpful info

Last weekend I went through the WERA race licensing at Summit Point, ahead of time there was a little frustration due to the difficulty in finding info so here is what I learned and things that might help others who are wondering about the school and licensing procedure.

Before I write anything I want to thank Tom and Vince who taught the class, Tom made sure to keep things light and throw a little humor in to keep the sometimes dry material interesting and Vince had a lot of good inputs on safety things and a few particulars for Summit...Thanks guys!

Before you go:

1. There is no need to sign up for the class ahead of the date you want to go, you just need to show up.

2. Be sure to have your bike tech inspection ready, although we did not actually tech it, because you will be riding on the track and the class instructor will give your bike a look over to make sure it is safe.

Saturday at the track:

1. Get to the track early, 6:30 latest, so you have time to get you bike ready and any other setup you need to do before 7am registration opens.

2. At 7am go to the registration area and fill out the WERA Master Entry form (here) and WERA membership form (here) then find the first available person to process your paperwork and take your money **we were told by the instructor to skip the line and go straight to the first open person who can process your paperwork**

3. Get you gear on and bike ready and go to the classroom, you do not need to go through tech, park bike near the building where the class is being held because you will be going straight from class to track with very little time between.

4. Class starts at 8am and you will need to bring the pink copy of your Master Entry form to show that you paid and that all your information has been given in case of emergency, you will then be given a class book and orange Provisional shirt to be worn over leathers.

5. Class started with a brief explanation of what the day would consist of and some safety things then it was right out to the track for a couple track familiarization laps, then back to the class room. After returning to the classroom we went over some of the WERA book on Start Procedures, Flags, Drafting, Form and being SMOOTH, CONSISTENT and SAFE. Then the second riding session consisted of follow the leader again, we had two instructors and therefore two groups, and after a bit around the track the instructor would wave one or two riders ahead of him to watch their form and things then one or two more till the instructor was at the back of the pack, speed was a bit below race pace. The final class session wrapped up the rest of the book and then we hit the track one last time. The last track session was open riding to practice some of the things learned in class and get familiarized further with the track. The most important part of the riding sessions is DON'T WRECK! that is an automatic class failure and you will have to go back another weekend, although you do not have to pay again from what we were told.

6. After the third riding session the class is over and you can return to your pit area, this was approx 15-20mins before the riders meeting which is mandatory for all racers, including the school. The riders meeting discusses any races that have been canceled, combined or other things that are need to know to make sure you don't miss your races.

7. In the back of the WERA class booklet there is a written test consisting of flags and some T/F questions, you complete the test and return it to the instructor who will grade it and then give you your certificate of completion.

8. The final thing for your Saturday is a mock race. The last race of the day is for the school and consists of only the riders from your class. You go through the full race start procedures just like a normal race and complete a 4 lap race.

You are now ready to start racing with WERA, and can enter races the following day.

***This is all from what I experienced, if you have any questions I will try to help out and maybe others can, i just wanted to try and help get some more info out to new comers that I would have found helpful ahead of time, that said the guys/girls at WERA did respond to all emails from my friends and I so feel free to ask them if you have specific questions and want official answers

-Andrew

 

No worries, you got lots to do already, and I bored out of my mind at work

 

Thanks nevenelestate! Extremely helpful information. I'll be doing the race school at Barber next month and knowing what to expect is always a good thing when doing something for the first time. Clears up the, what about this? what about that?

 

Is a blood type and/or current tetanus required to race?

 

Also, when/how do you go about renting a transponder?

 

you better have a blood type I put <10yrs for tetnus, that's how often you are supposed to get them, I think if its more they would just want to know so they can let ambulance know if the question would arise

you will get a transponder at registration, they are free for provisional novice

 

Thanks again. Asking for blood type just seemed silly to me. I've been a Med. Tech. for nearly 20 years and a physician or blood bank tech. would never in a million years issue nor transfuse type specific blood based on what a 'patient' wrote on a piece of paper.

 

Reader's Digest version!

 

You and all of your fellow students did a great job this past weekend.Now you move to the head of the class for writing something that I should have written years ago.
It was Lance's(sorry not Vince)first weekend helping with the riders school and I thought he did a great job.
for any of you riders looking for imfo on doing a school sometime this year there you have it.Almost everything you need to know to show up and be a racer.

 

Crap, I was way off...maybe Mongo can hook that up with an Edit in the OP

Thanks again for making the day an enjoyable first experience with WERA, I wish I could have stayed for Sunday races

 

Totaly missed this. I read the rule book several times and spent a lot of time on the forums. Dont recall this little tidbit anywhere.

Might want to make this info a little easyer to find.

Maybe a sticky in the new rider forum

 

I honestly believe that a detailed and updated policies/procedures/exactly what to expect sticky for the brand new racer would bring a few racers into WERA that are on the fence.

It is intimidating enough to get someone to come to a track day for the first time much less enter a race.

It would possibly quell some of the.. what about this? what about that? .. that all new racers have running through their mind.

I'm sure some racers would see this as hand holding and may have the attitude of if you really want to race or go to the track than you will, but I don't think it would take a whole lot of effort and with the current state of road racing in general it certainly wouldn't hurt.

Just my $.02

 

Great writeup! :up: Heading to Grattan this this weekend for my first weekend and school. Great info to have ahead of time.

 

My thoughts on the New Rider School program, also from the perspective of a new rider.

If you are thinking about attending the New Rider School with WERA, the first thing you need to know is that there is no reason to get all nutted up about what to expect. The Forums are full of good and bad advice, my addition to is simple, "don't worry about it, the organization seems to exist soley to make your first days as comfortable as possible."

Some things were a little different than the original poster's experience at Summit Point. That's because I took my school at Barber this past weekend. Each school is going to be slightly different in the details, because the tracks have different challenges.

We were able to register on Friday night for the Saturday school, which made things easy. I've been playing with cars and karts on tracks since the mid-90's, but I'd be lying if I told you the anticipation wasn't mixed with anxiousness, just like I felt before my first performance driving school at Watkins Glen.

Bring a bike that is ready to pass tech. If you have a bike shop that races nearby (I'm fortunate to have two nearby) either take it to them to do the prep for you, or take it to them to check your work and finish the job for you. Either way, it's money well spent. The forms and such on the WERA site that have specifications for tech are a good guideline, if you do everything on those lists, you'll have exceeded the actual requirements of tech, but also have a pretty safe bike.

We did go through the standard tech lines with our bikes, but if anyone had forgotten, or didn't know, WERA was willing to do the tech while we were in the classroom.

We didn't need to leave our bikes at the classroom, but could if we wanted to. We did have time to get them from our pits.

I found the most important part of the classroom sessions to be the Flagging descriptions and the very clear instructions on what to do when the fast guys are lapping us. With a lot of other track experience, I realize how important those two topics are, and if they weren't covered, I would have had some problems on the track.

Flagging. Bikes are not cars, and are not karts. The same flags are used, but a few of them mean very different things. My first instint when seeing a Black flag is to finish the lap and pit in, not, get off the surface ASAP. Just as important, because we saw a few of them, the Red flag means stop ASAP to car people, which is not what it means for bikes. The reasoning for the bike flags being different makes perfect sense, but without the school, I'd have been confused, and wrong.

Every organization has "getting passed" rules that make sense for them, I wish they all were the same as WERA's. Basically, as a new, and likely slow, rider, I have enough to think about without worrying about getting in the way of the leaders. While I understand it would be nice if I were to magically get out of the way, once it started raining, again (on Sunday in the lightweight race), I was really just thinking about surviving at that point. Being able to just do the best I could through the tunnel turn and one after (15 and 16?) while being swarmed on the inside and outside by the lead group was actually pretty cool. Nobody seemed to have any problem getting around me and I was able respect them even more, realizing that while I was simply trying not to fall down, they were racing.

So, for the person who is thinking about giving it a go, just pull the trigger and do it. The organization is there to provide support and instruction, but more than anything else, the experience gained on the track on a race weekend eclipses anything you'll figure out at the trackdays prior to attending a race weekend. Now that I have a much better idea of what I don't know, I'm looking forward to trackdays to work on them, but if you want to race, don't get yourself mired in the trackday experience too long before taking that next step. Yes, it's scary, it's intimidating, you're not ready, but once you've made it through that first weekend you'll realize it wasn't scary or intimidating. True, you're probably not ready to to run in the top 3, but if that's you're test for being ready, you'll never get around to trying it out.

Thanks All of the WERA officials, even Sean, thank you instructor whose name I cannot recall, thank you Corner Workers for keeping me safe, and thank you to all of my friends, and new friends I made during the event.

And for the record, Barber Motorsports Park is the nicest facility I have ever had the pleasure of visiting, and I've watched the sun rise over a whole lot of racetracks in this country.

 

totally agree! great write up! RTFRB seems to be the standard answer, which is fine, but sometimes a guy may not understand what exactly something may mean or not mean. getting clarification appears to be more difficult then it should, atleast IMO. Definately going to be looking into this some more.