| |
|
|
From the Hare Scrambles Committee Chairman
Now that I've begun my seventh year as an FTR member I'm convinced even
more what a great organisation this is. Having come from a previous life
of street motorcycles and being a member of more than a dozen different
clubs, some with dubious character, I feel qualified to say this is the
best group of people I've had the pleasure of being associated with. I
hope to continue the relationship for a good long while and with that said
I'd like to address some things I feel would be good for FTR.
As the Enduro Series is concerned, it could only use more participation.
If you've never tried one you owe it to yourself to get involved in the
time honored, true test of man (or woman) and machine. This is where FTR
began and so it was with most other off-road clubs as well. It's not really
as hard to understand as you might think and a trial run will get the light
turned on quicker than all the manuals and articles you can read. Or are
you just scared?
The FTR MX Series is alive and well! There are some exiting new venues
opening up around the state and it looks like FTR will be a part of some
of them. With our great program and dedicated volunteers I predict continued
growth. Again, if you haven't tried MX your missing out!
This brings me to the Hare Scrambles Series. What else can I say except
WOW!! This series is an enormous success and just keeps on growing. In
fact, it's busting at the seams! With the certainty of continued growth
for the future, we need to be looking at ways to insure the level of quality
for events that we now enjoy. The number one thing you as a member can
do is to join a local club, get involved in the events they put on, and
reap the rewards! Even if you can only devote a small amount of time there
are always ways you can help, from making posters, designing flyers, and
even helping to line up vendors and the necessary support staff required.
There is a lot more to putting on an event than meets the eye and I see
many tired faces at the events that look like they could use some help.
The rewards are definately worth the effort. The good news is that I do
see new faces at each event helping out but we can always use more.
As good as this series is I do see things that make me beleive we can do
even better to plan ahead for the growth we will see. One of the areas
that concerns me is that the pyramid of ability levels doesn't appear to
be balanced. I would expect to see the C level classes larger than the
B level, and B larger than A. When we have B level turn-outs larger than
C that tells me something is fundamentaly wrong with the program. The problem
appears to be that the transition from Beginner to C isn't designed to
be a smooth one. We could and should fix that.
Another thing I see is that we have too darned many classes. We need to
consolodate to accomodate. We should take a hard look at continuing to
offer 4 Stroke classes. They were created in the age of dinosaurs when
4 Strokes were big, heavy, belching behemoths usually reserved for Longshoremen,
Ironworkers, and Power Lifters. They moved forward, let's move with them,
you're either on a 250 or an Open class bike. While I'm here, do we really
a new age defined class for every 5 years? Wouldn't +30 (Vet), +40(Senior),
+50(Master), and +60(G Master) be enough? Since this is the largest demographic
of riders I see no reason not to expect to be in a class with 40-60 riders
on the line, especially when you consider the numbers that attend our events.
Or are we just going to keep adding classes until everyone gets a trophy?
Which brings me to another thing i've seen. At each Hare Scrambles approxamately
$500 worth of trophys go unclaimed and are eventually discarded. That's
a shamefull waste and I could think of far better things we could be doing
with about $7000 a year. Let's consider keeping the count down to 1st,
2nd, and 3rd for all the Adult classes and just get generous with the kids.
If you're only here for a trophy we could start a 'Trophy Membership" for
$400 and at the end of the year we send you a nice year end trophy and
a jacket. You don't even have to come to any races!
The other two items I would like to address are somewhat related: course
impact and the ability of clubs to handle the weekend activities. The single
greatest thing we could do to help both of these areas would be to consider
eliminating the practice lap. However, I would be inclined to leave
it for the Mini's. It would take about 650 laps off of the course, open
up some time for the schedule and give the promoting clubs some quality
preparation time.
While I understand some of this might seem too radical for some, my sole
purpose is the continued long term health of our series. I see no reason
not to 'think outside the box'. With these thoughts in mind I would consider
making a proposal with the end result as follows. Take your own personal
situation out of the equation, it's not about you, and give this some thought.
I have.
Sat.
Sign-up 7Am-10Am (Sun. sign-up Noon-5PM)
8AM-9AM Mini's practice
9:30 AM Riders Meeting
10AM
Row 1 Mini 85 A
Row 2 Mini 85 B
Row 3 Mini 85 C
Row 4 Mini 65 A
Row 5 Mini 65 B (approx. 65 riders)
Noon
Row 1 Super Vintage A
Row 2 Jr. A
Row 3 Super Vintage B
Row 4 Jr. B
Row 5 Vintage
Row 6 Beg. (approx. 93 riders)
2PM
Row 1 C-250
Row 2 C-Open
Row 3 C-200
Row 4 +30C Vet
Row 5 +40C Senior
Row 6 +50C Master
Row 7 +60 G Master (approx. 125 riders)
4PM
Pee Wee C, B, A (approx. 50 riders)
Sun.
7Am-9AM Sign-up
9AM Riders meeting
9:30
Row 1 B-250
Row 2 B-Open
Row 3 B-200
Row 4 +30B Vet
Row 5 +40B Senior
Row 6 +50B Master
Row 7 Women B (approx. 148 riders)
11:30 AM
Row 1 AA
Row 2 A-250
Row 3 A Open
Row 4 A 200
Row 5 +30A Vet
Row 6 +40A Senior
Row 7 +50A Master
Row 8 Women A ( approx. 80 riders)
1:30PM
Row 1 Quad AA
Row 2 Quad A 0-400, A Open
Row 2 Quad B Open
Row 3 Quad B 0-400
Row 4 Quad +40 Senior
Row 5 Quad +50 Master
Row 6 Quad Women
Row 7 Quad +40 Women
Row 8 Quad Sportsman (approx. 120 riders)
Now before everyone gets all in a 'tizzy', the Quad classes could be moved to
the first event on Sat. and back everything else up 1 space. They really only
belong either first or last.
With these changes I see a few things that would most likely happen:
- The Beginner
classes will continue to be large but a good number will move on to C if it's
simple.
- The C displacement classes will grow and +30C Vet class would
be large, as would
be the +40C Senior class. I see no reason why they all shouldn't be. The
A and B classes will probably have the same results as with no change. B displacement
classes could shrink slightly as Beginner riders no longer skip the C
classes to avoid the 'Bomb run".
- The Quad classes will grow no matter what
happens.
- 6 classes would be eliminated.
As much as I would like to see a 2 race format on Sunday, I don't
think we can ever stuff all this into a time format that will work
without
eliminating
a good
deal more. Anyway, now that i've said a mouthfull I'll ask that you
give this some serious thought, again, I have.
Thank you.
Mike Preslar
Hare Scrambles Committee Chairman |
|
