Endurance 2024. Open discussion..

"you may put tire warmers on the bike plugged into a portable generator on the same side of pit lane as the bike"

If it takes 2 people to carry a generator over the wall.... Is it really portable....

 

2023 Endurance collected entry fees & class purse payout
HW entry fees - $15K, purse payout $28.5K
MW entry fees - $36K, purse payout $30K
LW entry fees - $45K, purse payout $30K
ULW entry fees - $63K, purse payout $18.6K

I understand WERA is not responsible for the purse payout, but I'm hoping those that are might be reading this thread and might consider throwing a few more crumbs to the ULW class.

If Dunlop supplied all the purse money then I greatly appreciate the help and hope that support continues. Seems like MW, LW & ULW took a hair cut on purse payout the last couple years while increasing grid size while HW stayed the same with less entries.

If the entry fee is primarily used to pay for track rental then let's maybe give more track time to the group that brought in 40% of the entry fees to cover the track rental. Maybe 2.5 hrs if we can't get 3 hrs

All joking aside I was a bit surprised when I ran the numbers for 2023.

AOD, it's really tough to hear anything because of your generator. Let us know what inverter you bought and we'll find you the cheat to bypass the safety restrictions before next year.

 

Running joke every year about this time is when the schedule will be posted for the next year. Speaking for myself, the early release this year helped me be able to race all the rounds. Hopefully the 2024 schedule will come along soon.

 

I calculated using the fees listed by WERA and the number of teams finishing with points by round by class. 149 ULW entries/teams finished with points in 2023, 68 LW teams, 54 MW teams and only 23 HW teams. Because some teams including mine ran the entire season they are counted 6 times as there were 6 entry fees paid. 149 ULW entries @ $425 per entry = $63K and so on.
I calculated using post entry fee by race & class: ULW fee (2 hr) of $425 post vs LW/MW/HW (4 hr) - $625 post and Pitt (6 hr) - $795 post. Yes, there's a misprint on the WERA fee page for the 6 hr. Also, I know that some teams including mine pre-entered and paid the slightly lower pre-entry fee, but without knowing who I calculated all at the post entry fee rate.

 

But what about the Relay* teams?





*an abomination

 

Relay Who? No one seems to care about the Relay teams, so I excluded them on purpose so not to draw any further hatred towards them?

 

Yeah... but they paid entries and got zero purse money. Its the best thing about them!

I don't have visibility into the back end of the whole thing but my impression was that N2 sponsored the series to get it up and running so the purses, such as they were, were pretty modest in 2017/2018. Then Dunlop stepped up to make the purses be what they are now.

It seemed to me that Dunlop brought that money to the series because of the HWSB class as they had more active involvement with the HWSB class than just purses.


Just for historical perspective, in the 90s there was no LW class. LWSB was introduced in 2001. I don't think there ever was a LWSS class.

Back then most of the purses were contingency money paid by tire companies, bike manufacturers or the bike.

The purses from WERA were pretty slim, the big money was from Suzuki et al.

The ULW race was invented with the N2 sponsored era.

 

woof.......

 

There was a Relay Class Purse for 2023

1st – $750
2nd – $500
3rd – $250

N2/WERA National Endurance Series Announces 2023 Purse - Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News

 

Didn't all the class winners receive a Yamaha 2200 inverter genny as a championship bonus in 2022??

 

A question for @Emerson and @aod99, with a 24L fuel limit on a liter bike, would that reduce your stints to 45-55 minutes?

 

I find it funny how the relay class was excluded from the "overall" win...despite winning at least one of the overalls, if I remember correctly.

If there's 4 different classes racing in the 4 hour, seems a little weird to exclude one? Kinda defeats the "overall" definition, but what do I know. Especially since it's the "cheapest" class to participate in.

 

Not weird... they have unfair advantage and should not be considered in overall.

 

Considering they don't have to refuel or change tires under green flag conditions, you can't expect them to be included in the overall. If they were included in the overall, then put together a relay team with oversize tanks on all the team bikes and walk away with the overall..
the rulebook:
j)Road Race Relay Teams will not be eligible for an overall win or any additional purse, bonuses, or contingency available to traditional endurance teams beyond purse, bonuses and contingency specified for the class.
k)These rules may be added to or changed at any time as we get a feel for what works best for the riders and the series.
35. The purpose of these rules is to run an orderly, competitive and fair National Endurance Series emphasizing safety of all involved. The rules are not intended to allow one racer or Team to defeat another with the Rulebook rather than on the race track.

 

It's an unfair advantage for HWT teams over LWT teams for the "overall" win since their lap times (assuming same rider capability) will be faster.

 

Stop and think about what you are saying…. It makes no sense.
Let’s let a class compete for an endurance overall championship that can change tires and fuel a bike in 0 seconds. I don’t think so.

 

They get even more special treatment than that!

Endurance scoring requires a team lose all their laps if they switch frames. Relay* bikes switch frames all the time!

Have a problem with one bike? Just switch and repair it at your leisure!

Bend a rear set crashing on oil? You don't have to repair that under a green flag, just switch bikes until that you've got it fixed!

Endurance teams can't refuel or change tires under a red flag. Relay* teams are allowed to because they can switch bikes under the red.

Relay* teams don't do green flag pit stops for fuel and rubber, Endurance teams have to.

Relay* bikes are set up for a single rider, not compromised between riders.

The only reason they show up on the live scoring as being in the top thirty is because of a limitation on the scoring system. The live scoring is not accurate because the Relay* bikes are not actually entered in the overall endurance race because they have so many concessions on rules to make things easier for them.

I kinda wish they would get stripped entirely out of the overall points scoring but I get that might be a PITA to do.

Don't get me started on performance indexing in Next Generation Supersport**.





*the abomination
**also an abomination