Supersport 300 World Championship

Or the guys that are runnin 5-15th at club races and all the sudden they do one round and they turn "pro" all while they could be working on their skills instead of spending a weekend running several club races compared to the price of one pro race....

 

Ok someone has to be the asshole and it wil just be me as usual.

There are kids who race who have no business being on a pro grid just as there are adults who have no business.

Yes there are fast kids who do have a "shot".

Mongo is referring to the masses that would have spent their money better by having fun and learning instead of daddy wanting to tell everyone his kid races "pro"

Well he fails to mention they spent $2500 a weekend so his pro kid could get lapped when in reality he could have spent $500 on a WERA, ccs, or whatever weekend and not got his feelings hurt but the daddy wouldn't be able to tell his buddies that his kid is "pro"

There. Words of wisdom from an asshole.

 

your numbers are wrong

i got 32 race laps plus QP & practice at Miller with MotoAmerica for $325. the same number of race laps would have cost me $690 with WERA and thatd include far fewer practice laps. The tire bill for MA was 3 1/2 sets. the tire bill for WERA would be 2 1/2 sets. so the extra set of tires offsets the entry price. travel, food, lodging, etc are the same for both events. so each weekend has a comparable cost.

 

and i also believe you get a better rate on tires at the pro events as well. i don't think it is tremendously lower, but still lower.

 

ya tires at MA events used to be $50 cheaper per set than club races. now its $20 or $30 cheaper, i cant rem which.

 

you can't knock racers for participating, if the rules allow them to do so.

 

well go ahead, it won't change anything unless the rules change.. some people have money to burn and most of those in that paddock do.

and most of the guys we are talking about are doing it for fun.

 

That's the thing, the costs are fairly close nowadays - and it's a deeper-pocket sport now anyway. I'll be the first one to knock guys trying to go pro when they're not ready, but a class aimed at kids that gets a big grid? It's hard to knock parents or kids for doing that. Watching those kids all railing around together, it looks like a blast.

 

Depending on where you are in the country, it's fairly easy to find large, competitive club grids if you're racing a 600.

If you're a fast kid on a little bike, not so much. The KTM Cup changed that.

 

it seems like the only time more than a few lightweights show up for WERA West are the early rounds before MA starts. AFM has a good grid size but i have no idea if it changed once the MA class showed up.

are u seeing larger 300 CLUB grids elsewhere in the country?

 

"Little bike" as in "not a mini". The KTM being a little bike. A mini being a mini.

 

The travel / food / lodging could be significantly more expensive if you are going 1/2 way across the country for the MA race, but are only doing club races in your region. Particularly if you are trying to keep a young racer in school as much as possible by flying him / her to and from the MA races that are held during the school year and are a good ways away. Obviously that wouldn't apply to riders running just the rounds close to their home and maybe one farther race in the summer.

 

We would only spend an estimated 1/3 of what it has cost us to run a full MA season if we were not western US based. Have considered moving back east to reduce costs. We would just for the kid.
On the other hand the winter season out here allows us to get a ton of seat time. Last year we did not due to hand surgery.. those boys together at Colin Edwards boot camp are rough!
There is talk I have heard about splitting the series east/west to help in 2017. I know of 4 good racer kids who did not get to race the season last year because of logistical challenges and the costs. It would be good for KTM/MA to assist in transport in some way.

 

I guess maybe we also have some terminology discrepancies. Round these parts, a LW (lightweight) bike is an SV650 (or an air-cooled Duc 1000, if you're a filty cheeeta). The Ultralight class would be the class that encompasses the 300s. And, yes, grids are healthy on the East Coast to the rounds I attend, which is every round on the CCS ATL, MIDATL and most of the SE rounds.