marq
Expert
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2003
- Messages
- 477
- Reaction score
- 3
- Points
- 893
- Location
- Bridgman, MI
- Country
- USA
- Snowmobile
- 2006 Apex RTX
I want to preface my comments by saying that I realize the people who work at these events are usually volunteer people. They don't have to be there and for that I really am greatful.
However, I wanted to give my observations on the Wautoma Grass Drags that were held on September 16th. This isn't sour grapes on my part. Our Yamaha's won 6 out of 7 classes we were entered in, and took a 2nd in the class we did not win.
The race track is right next to a campground, which is great. If you want to book a campsite you certainly could do that. It also helps because you already have a mass of people that will stop by to see what's going on next door.
An announcement was made that a drivers meeting would be held in 10 minutes. About an hour later we actually had the drivers meeting. That's not entirely unusual, but if you make an announcement, try to stay close to that timeframe.
I did not see beer being sold in the pits, but I did see beer being consumed, by fans and racers, in the pits. Very bad call in my opinion.
Apparently there were a lot of vintage racers that showed up on Saturday. They ran nothing but vintage sleds for the first 4 hours of the day. It's nice to see an old Sno-Twister roar down the track, but it doesn't keep the fans interested. They should've mixed in some of the other classes and ran some other heats to mix things up a little. If you were running vintage sleds you hustled non-stop for the first 4 hours of the day, if you ran stock, improved, or mods you ran non-stop for the last 4 hours. Mixing things up keeps the crowds interested, keeps the sleds cooled down, and makes for a better day of racing. The first class our team was entered in was Stock 500, and we didn't race until 3:30pm.
The starting line held up pretty good, with the exeption of one lane. You were almost guaranteed to lose your heat if you drew lane 2. After the lane became almost unusable a decision was made to move the starting line up one sled length. This probably should've been done about an hour earlier. Because the racing moved at a slow pace for the first 4 hours (multiple pages for missing racers to get to the starting line) they showed no mercy with this bad lane near the end of the day, resulting in little or no time to cool down and sweep prior to racing. Keeping a constant pace and evaluating the conditions would solve this problem.
The races ended at almost 8pm. Fortunately there was portable lighting for the track, but there was no lighting inside the beer/food tent and the staff had to rely on flashlights. They decided to have the trophy presentation in the tent and it was hard to tell what was actually going on.
Most racers I talked to would have rather received money instead of trophies, but I guess each club has to make the choice individually. Maybe just trophies for 1st place, and pay out to 3rd place would be a good compromise?
I encourage anyone who organizes a race to visit other races. See what problems occur, talk to the drivers and teams. Ask for input and your race will run very smoothly.
However, I wanted to give my observations on the Wautoma Grass Drags that were held on September 16th. This isn't sour grapes on my part. Our Yamaha's won 6 out of 7 classes we were entered in, and took a 2nd in the class we did not win.
The race track is right next to a campground, which is great. If you want to book a campsite you certainly could do that. It also helps because you already have a mass of people that will stop by to see what's going on next door.
An announcement was made that a drivers meeting would be held in 10 minutes. About an hour later we actually had the drivers meeting. That's not entirely unusual, but if you make an announcement, try to stay close to that timeframe.
I did not see beer being sold in the pits, but I did see beer being consumed, by fans and racers, in the pits. Very bad call in my opinion.
Apparently there were a lot of vintage racers that showed up on Saturday. They ran nothing but vintage sleds for the first 4 hours of the day. It's nice to see an old Sno-Twister roar down the track, but it doesn't keep the fans interested. They should've mixed in some of the other classes and ran some other heats to mix things up a little. If you were running vintage sleds you hustled non-stop for the first 4 hours of the day, if you ran stock, improved, or mods you ran non-stop for the last 4 hours. Mixing things up keeps the crowds interested, keeps the sleds cooled down, and makes for a better day of racing. The first class our team was entered in was Stock 500, and we didn't race until 3:30pm.
The starting line held up pretty good, with the exeption of one lane. You were almost guaranteed to lose your heat if you drew lane 2. After the lane became almost unusable a decision was made to move the starting line up one sled length. This probably should've been done about an hour earlier. Because the racing moved at a slow pace for the first 4 hours (multiple pages for missing racers to get to the starting line) they showed no mercy with this bad lane near the end of the day, resulting in little or no time to cool down and sweep prior to racing. Keeping a constant pace and evaluating the conditions would solve this problem.
The races ended at almost 8pm. Fortunately there was portable lighting for the track, but there was no lighting inside the beer/food tent and the staff had to rely on flashlights. They decided to have the trophy presentation in the tent and it was hard to tell what was actually going on.
Most racers I talked to would have rather received money instead of trophies, but I guess each club has to make the choice individually. Maybe just trophies for 1st place, and pay out to 3rd place would be a good compromise?
I encourage anyone who organizes a race to visit other races. See what problems occur, talk to the drivers and teams. Ask for input and your race will run very smoothly.
