N2 split from WERA?

they cost a crap load more. they removed a lot of classes. they turned it more into a track day. refused to provide championship trophies for 2022, no refunds/credits for crashes or mechanical failures. 5 mid-season rule changes regarding fee structure. light change for race starts....what's not to love

gave me enough reason to switch to WERA

 

AFAIK WERA has always run their own practice days before sprint weekends. Can't imagine why they'd start letting N2 do it now.

 

I got credits for my crashes and mechanical failures. Got credits for my races after the lightning storm weekend led NJMP to cancel the day.

And complaining about using the light system for race starts? The fuck? Of all the things that would influence what org I'd race with, how they start the race isn't in the top 100 of that... lol

You do have me wondering what org costs more for the same track. I'm willing to bet WERA and ASRA are very, very close.

 

CCS was using the old Westhold transponders. You could use one per weekend or buy one for each bike. They SUCKED, and the system was messed up fairly regularly. You could have a brand new one and it would quit the next weekend. Then they upgraded to the G2 from Westhold, which was miles better, but then the NEW ASRA took over and started using mylaps.

The problem is the way they wrote their software, the transponder is linked to the bike, so if you want to race 2 bikes you need 2 transponders. Some people don't recognize this and switch transponders between bikes, messing up the qualifying times. So if you run a LW race and a MW race, the system takes your MW time and uses it for the LW grid.

I had at least 5 westhold transponders which are now worthless, and I paid over $100 for each of them. I have one Mylaps that I use for everything else, (including subscription).

Perhaps it's silly, but it's annoying and I draw the line there. If that's the rule they want to go with, I'm only bringing one bike and they will miss out on 3-4 entries from me that weekend. Since they dumped all of their Florida racing, it's moot. We only have Daytona now and I'm not buying another transponder to use one weekend a year.

Overall they are doing much better with streamlining of systems, etc. and I'll continue to race with them as long as they come to FL.

 

WERA, MA, and every other race org I know uses the AMB transponders.

You stated they are doing a much better job of streamlining the systems, but complain about having useless Westhold transponders. So which is it? Because you're saying you're annoyed that you're happy with the streamlining of systems

 

I'm saying they are doing a great job improving the customer experience, but they need to fix the glitch about one transponder per bike. The transponder should be with the rider, like every other org.

Westhold was the old CCS and those are worthless. They were shite anyway so good riddance. You're the one who brought up selling transponders, so it shouldn't be considered a real expense. I was just pointing out that it is.

I reserve the right to be annoyed about little things. That is what the BBS is about.

I'll buy a second bike for one class, but equipping that bike with a second transponder just to race one race a year with CCS is where I draw the line. Yes, it's petty and indefensible- have you met many racers?

 

And he asked us what was better about CCS before lol.

 

Props for admitting it's at least petty. I remember years ago when Thermosman told me racers were the dumbest group of people he's ever known. And the more I'm in the paddock, the more I see he's right

Seems like the LWT/MW qualifying thing is an easy fix if vocalized enough and not something I'd categorize as a real complaint. The varying and changing fees is something I'd consider to be warranted, though. That was dumb when they tried it, and they walked back on that real fast.

New ASRA registration and tech just blows CCS out of the water. Anyone that can try to defend the reasoning for 14 foot tall numbers and tech inspection that cared little about mechanical tech and everything about number/background size are just loyalists to the old crew of CCS, and must have loved to need someone to follow them with a cart to bring their leathers, gloves, and belly pan to tech.

 

i was a CCS racer 2011-2022, doing 4-5 regions. Kevin was good about credits for crashes and mechanical issues. I remember that lightning issue when the PA system got taken out and they were driving around annoucning calls.

my issues are with the new owners. a saw a lot of veteran racers quitting because they dont want to do business with them. Mark straight up told me "i'm not paying you to fix your motorcycle" regarding a mechanical or if i were taken out in lap 1 on saturday practice and unable to compete in the 6+ races i would have been entered in. after that, i asked what is he doing for customer retention when there are several other businesses nearby doing the same thing as they are. his response "absolutely nothing". at that point i told him that we wont come to an agreement and i ended the call. other than going to Daytona, i havent given them business since.

 

this i agree on completely. faster and smoother process. i find it dumb that they were asking everyone to come do photoshoots with their gear on, as if it's going to be televised for the fans
the cart thing was annoying as i'm always solo and have to juggle all of it myself. checking all our gear was beneficial as sometimes they catch something you werent aware of like your boot soles wearing out, or a spot on your suit having a busted seam.

 

You are right about all of that- I hear people bitch about cost of tires, when I started racing 25 years ago a set of Dunlops was $289 and entries were $50 per race. Imagine if we applied REAL inflation to those numbers? The cost of racing is being held artificially low and someone is always left holding the bag, usually the promoter/racing org.

I have brought it up with ASRA about the transponder issue- but I guess they haven't had enough complaints to consider changing. They did write all of their own software and it works pretty good- you roll through tech and your transponder hits, your name and all of the classes you entered comes up on the screen. So they know right there if there's a problem and they push you off to the help desk so other people can get through tech. Point being, when you write your own software it may not be as easy a fix as everyone assumes.

Y0u haven't quite shamed me into buying another transponder yet, but props to you for getting me close.

 

The only thing better about the "good old days" was that there was a ton of entries. I don't think that has anything to do with the current management, more a sign of the times and racing in general. You can afford to credit some entries when you have 1,000 entries for the weekend. When you're renting Homestead and 30 people show up, something has to give.

The problem with the "good old days" is that no matter how long I've been around, I always seem to have missed them by a few years. It's the same crap with flying!

 

it takes one to know one

 

They just made a lot of changes to the classes without even a yr to transition. Grids are a joke. Daytona was a ghost town for ROC.

 

So did you or did you not get refunds from a mechanical or crash? Or was this just a hypothetical conversation?

 

Each org has their spots where grids are good and bad. You wanna talk about WERA and grid sizes...lol. There's routinely been WERA races where there's been like 4 different classes racing at the same time and there's only 6 bikes on the grid. Ultimately the pie is too small to keep slicing up.

Economy only really supports the NESBA style of running things. One org. Multiple regions. WERA crew inherits the SE, ASRA takes the North. Mid-West...do people even care about those racers? lol.

Membership tiers, like track day clubs offer. Buy a yearly $500 membership that offers last minute cancelations and signups with no late fee.

Ditching the Westhold transponders was a great move. If nothing else, the problems they caused were prohibitive to running the day from the managerial standpoint. If renting or buying an AMB transponder is your breaking point, your ass should stay home anyways.

MA acknowledges the series and re-introduces the renamed Triple Crown, where racers in this org that have earned enough points can do a one-off round to race in the class, both to hopefully feed into MA, if nothing else, give some of the fast guys some camera time.

An org that's actually a no shit feeder program into MA.

But no, nobody wants to play with one another.

 

TL;DR

 

ASRA live streamed a lot of the rounds on YouTube with audio and commentary as well. ASRA doesn't gain anything with the cheesy photos, you're spot on about that. But it's a cool thing for racers to share/post about on social media. Your grandma doesn't know it's not televised

Sure, it's not on the level of MA, but they're making an effort.

 

CCS good.
CCS bad.
ASRA good.
ASRA bad.
WERA good.
WERA bad.
CRA (both of ‘em) nonexistent

And of course, NESBA still sucks.