When I buy WERA... Or, my thoughts on how to get the grids full again...

Russel's "eliminating classes" thread motivated me to post this...

We can't sit around and wait for the economy to come back. WERA is competing, and frankly, not winning, against other race orgs, track day clubs, and now track day clubs that race. If WERA wants to be around in the next five years, we'll need to find a way to better compete with all the above. So then....

IMHO...

Step 1) Directly align/partner ourselves with a track day club. Preferably the biggest one out there. Then, every race weekend should have a Friday track day. If the track has multiple tracks, IE Summit and VIR, the track day club should also be their as well, running on one of the second tracks. Racers working with track day guys is a great promotional tool. Having the track day guys in amongst the racers in the pits, talking with them, getting advice and suggestions, is in my opinion, the best kind of advertising you can get. Free, low pressure, and hands on. Racing is intimidating. So getting the track day guys out to see what we do could alleviate a lot of that fear, and help them take that next step.

Step 2) Get long term contracts with the track owners. And instead of a flat rate, negotiate a percentage, vs a fixed amount. This will motivate the tracks to advertise for our events. Win/Win. More people see us, and we get more money.

Step 3) Racers/riders want more laps! So Saturday and Sunday's programs should have the exact same races. All weekends should be double headers, essentially. Then, come up with a pricing strategy that allows the racer cost to remain roughly the same as it would to do a solo on Sat, and 3 or 4 races on Sun. For instance, if you sign up for 3 races on Saturday, you can do the same events on Sunday for 20 bucks each. So now I'm doing 6 races in a weekend, for the same cost as doing 3 races and a solo. You've essentially "doubled" the amount of laps a racer gets, for the same amount of money out of his pocket. This will allow WERA to compete a lot better with the track day clubs, on a lap per dollar ratio. This will also help vendors (tires) sell more product. It will get people out racing that can only do one day, or can only do a frid/sat. And help those who run for championships separate themselves from those who only hit a few weekends a year.

Step 4) Drop some classes. This sucks, but I believe for WERA to grow, it needs to create a class structure that doesn't exclude bikes, while catering to the bikes that put money in WERA's pockets. My schedule would be...

A Superstock - 1 races per day, current rules
A Superbike - 2 race per day, current rules
C Superstock - 1 races per day, current rules
C Superbike - 2 race per day, current rules
D Superstock - 1 races per day, but include parallel twins up to 850, 4v twins up to 750, 2v air cooled up to 900, 4 valve desmo excluded
D Superbike - 2 race per day
E Superstock - 1 Races per day
E Superbike - 2 race per day

Superstock races would be longer then SB races.

Step 5)Registration and tech on Friday nights. Roving tech guys, traveling through the pits on Friday nights and Saturday morning to speed things up. Give the registration people the ability to check you in, and take our money via smart phones. Start the whole morning program an hour earlier, so we can get more practice. Again, the goal is to get more laps per dollar, by getting the racers on track as soon as possible. We need to put ourselves above the competition in this respect.

That's twelve races a day total. 600s, 1000's, and SV650's, the most popular bikes at the track, now get 6 "native" races a weekend, for roughly the same cost to the racer, with what I imagine to be little extra cost to WERA. I'd add two or more extra laps to the superstock classes though, to offset their being only 1. Of course SS can bump up to SB.

My reason for there being 2 superbike races vs 2 ss is because, let's be honest here... By WERA's definition, there are far more "superbikes" out there then SS. From double bubbles, to aftermarket slippers, airbox mods, cams, master cylinders... Not to mention virtually every bike built to that other clubs "ss" rules is a superbike by our definition. And if you haven't been to a track day lately... A large portion of the track day guys bikes are superbike bike by our definition too. So let's make it easy on those guys to come race with us.

The only bikes missing out are the "cheater" bikes. GSXR750's, 848's and 675 triumphs. The 675 and 848's can run with, in the C classes. Maybe allow the GSXR 750 to run in C superbike, under SS rules with slicks. Or just let it run in the A class and not worry about it. Oh, and any cheap bastard running an old bike that hasn't been in production for the past 5 years, can spend some money on their bike to make it competitive, and come run in superbike. Any and ALL odd ball bikes would be performance indexed. Bring your bike out, and we'll find a class for you.

A place for the "true" race bikes is the only thing that would need some work. I'd love to keep F1/F2, and just run F2 with D SS, and F1 with A SS. That would give them 2 races per day, 4 for a weekend, and it would keep the D & A class bikes out of the F1/F2 points wise, giving a bit more incentive for people to build and run bikes specifically for those classes.

I would also look to build some sort of single bike spec class, all bikes are 100% unmolested except for bodywork, tires, and safety wire. Or maybe just piggy back off the AMA a bit, and create an XR class.

If that doesn't fill the grids, and get people coming back to WERA, nothing will.

Flame away!

 

Exactly what bikes are excluded from the current class structure?

I find your proposed class structure to be much less inclusive. Most of the traditional D bikes would be bagged as uncompetitve, clubman as well. Where's the two-smokers gonna ride? How about big twins? Wanna put them with the literbikes or with the 600s? Not really a good fit in either imho.


Why the insistence every off season on fixing something that isn't really broken?

My daily racer is a Ducati 750 Supersport. Tell me how to make it competitive with an SV650 superbike? I'm all ears.

 

I only have one race then since I run 750 SBK since I added a R6 master cuz my bike doesn't stop (not an advantage....it just stops now). Would rather see the B classes in your idea just for the fact that there were a few more out there this year, plus add the 848's in that one too. Just me being self serving...continue on

 

I think he believes it IS broken, which I might agree with to an extent but there are other factors. Its like motocross and the ridiculous 400 classes, show up to the track at 7am, practice at 9am, race at 2pm, go home, which is a big reason offroad is taking off so much. Show up at 9am, race 2hr at 10am, home drinking a beer by 4pm and got 2HR of track time.

At the other racing Ohio org they just run 1K/600 SB, double header on sundays...with other classes, and TD practice on Saturdays. Get lots of track time and "larger" grids because everyone is grouped together.

I don't know how to fix anything but complex computer networks and my motorcycles so take it for what it worth

Edit: Sometimes I can't fix those either

 

I'm sorry, but I'd have to agree...

WERA's been around since fred flintstone was racing...i think the current structure works good. Changing class structures isn't going to change a sucky economy.

 

So where do I get to race my 1203cc, air cooled, pushroded, tractor motor, belt driven V-twin?

 

I missed this initially. Which bike put more money into WERA's pocket in 2011? Yours or mine?

http://maps.wera.com/racers/racerprofile.asp?x=1098&rid=1590513082536


http://maps.wera.com/racers/racerprofile.asp?x=1098&rid=1180424




Nothing personal, it's just that I've heard these arguments before. I'm not buying them.

 

I will have to admit that I like your Step 5. As a Vintage guy I always show up on Friday night and have wondered why something like this couldn't be implemented.

 

First off, relax a bit. I'm prone to sarcasm.

Second of all, things aren't fine the way they are. We are dying a slow death, and CCS and the track day clubs are the ones doing the stabbing.

The current D and Clubman classes are dead. Dying. Caput. They don't pay the bills. The fast guys in those classes would do well in my "D" class. And most of those bikes could probably be run in vintage. So take one for the team, and let it go. I love you guys, and would love for there to be 50 Ducati 750's out there, and 50 FZR400's, and 50 Honda Hawks all packing a clubman grid. But there's not. So something must be sacrificed, for the good of the whole.

The big V twins... Again, have you looked at the heavy weight twins grids? What is there, two guys spending a shit ton of money on Ducks, and two guys on 675's? But I'm a V Twin guy at heart, and I would love to have a class for big twins, that had 25 Ducks, KTM's, and Buells in it. So instead of F1, let's have a big twin only class. A true Supertwins class would rock. But I also would rather see full grids and WERA make money. And since Ducati, KTM, and Buell have all targeted their machines against A class machinery, I'm not going to lose to much sleep over this.

 

The root of the majority of failure in business is errant assumptions.

You assume that Friday track days will succeed. Why should track day riders take a Friday off work when there are hundreds of weekend dates available? Where is the motivation for them to attend a weekday event versus a Sat or Sun one?

You assume combining racers and track day riders is desirable. IME, the hardest groups to control are the racer/recreational mixed groups. A majority of track day riders have no desire to race, hence their attendance of track days versus race meets. When the two mix levels of aggression it can get sketchy, not always but sometimes. It can be done and it can indeed be done well but it requires more work and attention to details on the part of the managing org.

You assume tracks want long term contracts. Track owners and rental contracts vary greatly. Most tracks have an aversion to long-term contracts. The best way to get "in" and stay "in" is to book plenty of dates, pay promptly or even ahead of time, don't cancel dates if at all possible and be the client who they love. Tracks rent dates so why as a track owner/manager would I want to increase my workload and decrease my potential revenue with a co-promotion deal?

 

Understood.....I don't know what is best that is for sure, by larger I meant seems larger even though its really not because you are not racing the 10 bikes in front of you, and my business sense is probably bottom 10% of the beebs, but my post count increased by 2 with this thread

Maybe we should all just endurance race. Lots of track time there haha!

 

Be nice now.

I have a lot of money invested in my FZR400's!

 

I totaly understand what you are saying Sean. I'm one of those people that wakes at the crack of dawn on Saturday's and notice that most of the WERA support staff is just getting there. I realize that most don't have the luxury of arriving at the track the night before (nor do they really have any reason too).

 

? Were you at Daytona last month? Ahrma, who in the past had trouble fitting their schedule into two days because they were so busy combined with CCS who puts their Daytona schedule into three days. Both orgs ran a full schedule in three days. No damn way that could have happened 10 years ago. Isn't everyone hurting right now?