Cancelled track day

@Boman Forklift I wasn't including racing cuz this is a trackday thread. I rarely race with AFM.

The first time I ever rode on track in the rain was a trackday at Chuck. It dumped for 10min in the middle of the day, making the track full wet. I was the only person that stayed out and had fun. The track was fully dry within an hour.

We have so much sun that you can just wait til the following weekend for good weather. That's far easier for the trackday crowd and the tire suppliers than preparing for rain.

 

My Parts Unlimited sales buddy from NorCal told me people won't MX in the rain/mud because it takes to long to clean the mud off the bike, and I couldn't believe it. And funny once we started stocking rains in CA they starting selling. And I agree with Rob and I remember quite a few rain road races from gulp, the late 90s.

 

Ridden in the rain at Thunderhill...


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We had a great season opener at Grattan on the 17th and 18th...it is snowing now on the 20th...lol.

I don't ever recall STT cancelling. I've seen both extremes of attendance...a literal handful of people per group...and extremely packed...rain, shine, or snow...ridden in all conditions with STT.

Regards,
Chad

 

yep, I absolutely meant that no trackday ever has ever ridden in the rain in CA

oh, I forgot about a 3rd cancelled trackday - 40mph gusts picking up the air fence + light rain at Fontana. We turned 0 laps and were given a full credit.

 

I attended a weekend at Thunderhill east side, a couple years ago, where it was misting just enough to keep the track wet... and it was 45 degrees. At the riders meeting the tire vendor
kept saying "you dont need rains... you'll just wear them out". I went out first session on DOTs just to see how it felt and there were bikes all over the infield/outfield like a yard sale. I was kind of giggling
about the vendors reco's that day... Worst part... they left the bikes there til midday.

 

The track surface is shit.
You can't even ride it until the morning dew burns off.
As for runoff it might be questionable however AMA ran there. MA wanted to. But again. The track surface is shit and that's the first thing to fix.

 

A trackday org in the midwest is adding a 4th group....Nov, IM 1, IM 2, Advanced.....35 riders per group. So that extra group looks like this: 35 riders x $400 for the wknd =$14,000 in extra cash flow.

That completely turns me off to them....A crash here, red flag there in the lower classes, and i could see me getting about 30 mins of seat time in a day. No thanks. Back to racing i guess.

 

2 things have changed since the AMA ran there. The bikes and tires have improved a lot. And remember if you fix the track then runoff becomes even more of a concern due faster laps and the higher speeds

 

We're actually dropping 5 riders from the total each day. In the past, at NCM, we ran 40 Novice, 40 Int, and 45 Advanced. Now we're running 25 x Novice, 30 x INT-1, 30 x INT-2, and 35 x ADV.

125/weekend at $395 = $49375
120/weekend at $395 = $47400


As for cancelling events, we can't. I mean we "can" but, we'd still be on the hook for the track rental. The track would minus off the safety crew, insurance, overnight security, etc. But, there's really no cancelling. Track run events are obviously different. No rent involved.

 

4 groups with fewer riders in each is less traffic, fewer crashes because riders are not as tired running 15 minute sessions.

Frequently the next group loses time because there is a crash near the end of the previous session when riders are fatigued.

4 groups is not all bad.

 

Private track days for me,less knuckleheads.

 

Most crashes are singles. IMO, adding an entirely new group only raises the chances of crashes.

If there is an incident on track, it will pretty much end your session. At least with a 20 min session, you had a chance of going back out.

I know several of my friends have the same sentiment as I do. FWIW, which ain't much.

Thanks for clarifying though.

 

The lost track time due to crashes should come out of that particular groups next session, not the group(s) following.

 

Mid Ohio has dubious grip on the dry. In the wet, the surface has been sketchy for quite some time. It's a shame, because the track has so much potential. Unfortunately, NJMP is approaching Mid O status and I don't think there's a track in this country with a higher population within a 100 mile radius.

I can remember being in Ohio for a pro round a long time ago and a big business type fella who was friends with the team owner I was working for couldn't wrap his head around the idea that there was a large crowd of spectators (that's how long ago this was) and millions of dollars of equipment, crews and racers gathered in a place exclusively because of a "ribbon of asphalt" and that ribbon of asphalt was a piece of shit. Dude had no idea about racing and had never even been to a race track before, but he definitely wasn't wrong. If the only product you're selling isn't good, there's only so long you can sell it, even to your most loyal customers.

 

Which tire vendor was saying that?

Sounds ridiculous to me, I’m sure they just had no inventory of rains and figured the riders safety was less important versus them continuing to sell DOTs, with crappy wet weather performance, to uneducated customers.

 

The vendor who showed up with out rain tires ...

 

So if a trackday gets cancelled, one could say that one lost a trackday. So the people who lost the trackday would be trackday losers. That sounds like a great name for a trackday club.

 

In what way if the number of total riders at the day is kept about the same? With fewer riders on track at a time, the groups having a smaller skill spread, and less fatigue I would think that would reduce the chance of crashes, not increase it.

Some orgs run that way, and some orgs run on the clock. When you don't run on the clock, you can have riders missing sessions, going out or attempting to go out with the wrong group, rushing out last minute because they missed the 1st and 2nd calls. None of that is good. Admittedly, when you run on the clock, it can penalize the "wrong" group but even then you are typically not penalizing the one(s) that crashed because they usually are not back out the next session anyway after time spent repairing and going back through tech.

 

cant remember but the other thing was they would not accept carry ins. You had to roll your bike in to one of their baxleys like a tire shop and let them do all the work...lol.
I wouldnt blame the tire vendor as they cant compel anyone to do anything or ride but the reco struck me as odd...
Also first group out was novices.. experts went out at 40 mins past the hour.