Important news regarding the 2012 season at Mission Raceway Park for the WMRC

Now that is a valuable post. Thanks.

Better question: anyone got an idea on how to raise a half million dollars? People do this every day.

How about... anybody got an idea how to raise 10,000 dollars that would be seed money for an effort to figure out how to raise half a mill?

 

Very, very well said, Kelly.

 

Kelly hit the nail on the head.

Jay, to your point (reading between the lines) that the executive feels things are hopeless and that we just take what we can get, I'll take you back 7 years to when I started on the WMRC executive.

The executive at that time (and subsequent executives), saw a need to be able to improve the safety of Rivers Edge to be able to attract and retain racers. At my first meeting as treasurer, we discussed that if we tighten our belts we can get some airfence to make the track safer. Some members literally laughed in my face and told me it would never happen. 7 years later we have more than $100K worth or airfence and containers.

To the point of picking dates, the fact will always remain that the drag racers own the entire Mission raceway park. They will take their dates first. Anything they don't want goes to the sports car club to be rented out. They can rent it to whom ever they want, but through the hard work of executives going back 12 or so years (since we have been at Mission), we have had first dibs on dates.

What makes getting dates from the SCCBC difficult is that where the WMRC only has one sanctioning body (ourselves), the SCCBC has 3 or 4, meaning they need to coordinate their race dates with other series. It would be like the WMRC, EMRA, WMRRA and OMRRA all trying to get together to figure out a schedule that works, but have it incorporated over 10 or so tracks, its actually quite complex. This is why we get the dates so late.

It is quite conceivable, and given our historically strong relationship with the SCCBC that the snafu with changing dates was a human error made by someone new to the scheduling position.

In terms of dates on a go forward basis, as noted above, we are at the mercy of the BCCCA and the SCCBC because they get first crack at the dates. I think I speak for the executive in saying, we would never want to stand in front of a group and get their hopes up that next year will be super duper fantastic when it is effectively out of our control. It wouldn't be fair to the racers.

In terms of speaking to other parties, I know from first hand experience, the BCCCA wants nothing to do with any disputes over the road course.

In terms of getting better weekday rates, that is honestly not feasible. With Calgary closing down there is now even more demand for the racetrack. The cold reality is that there is a long line of people waiting to take our spot in line.

Hopefully that helps shed some light on the situation.

 

We have been working with the car club for dates since 2001. We did not invite them to this meeting because we thought there'd be a shit storm brewing. Besides, who wants to come to a meeting only to be yelled at? Again, like I stated in the meeting, we believe it was a clerical error that allowed us to get dates we never should have been offered. Now with that said, we suspect going forward, as others have also stated that weekends are going to be hard to come by.

The BCCCA (owners) take all the weekends they need. Then comes the SCCBC to take all other dates. Operative keyword here is *ALL*. They arrange their series with a whole lot of sanctioning bodies and other clubs. After that, the WMRC and WCSS get the first pick of what is left. Following us, everyone else gets their dates. I'm sure other organizations look at us as being in the enviable position.

Now lets' address what you've written:

I've asked about reduced rates for week days. I was told "the track rental is the track rental. Same rate at all times. Period.

Scheduling is done as stated above. No way around that.

The electric bike, night races could be a possibility, but would require a HUGE outlay of cash to trench, wire, and light it up. A single street light standard is about $1400 each. It would also create some additional hazards for our riders to hit. I'm not sure we want poles, and I'm unsure how to suspend lights without making hazards to the riders, or other cars, etc.

As far as separating the courses, well...there is only so much land there, with rivers and flood creeks on either side. I'm not even sure where to begin with the costs involved with that.

 

I didn't read Kelly's post before I posted mine. Great post Kelly!

 

new schedule out yet?

 

Thanks Kelly. Excellent and more detailed.

 

Taken from the facebook page

May 19/20 - Round 1 and 2, WCC
June 25 Round 3
August 20 Round 4

 

I promise if i win the LOTTO MAX...I'm building a track.

 

May I suggest you build it here

 

Work party next weekend?

 

That work would really well for me...right of the jet onto the track. That would be perfect.

Nice to come home from my trip and see the season still exists. Congratulations to everyone for arriving at this point. Let's continue to work with what we have and all re-double our efforts to make every event, including WCSS. Let's push the track experience to every street rider we come into contact with. Let be Jehovah's Witnesses about our home-town racing. Let's make the most diciplined financial choices in our personal and professional lives so that we can all spend a little extra on racing this year and the years to come. Heck, laying off the beer and coke with add years to our lives and help us shead a few pounds...free HP and better sex.

Good work everyone. The Kingston's will be out to every event, including set up and tear-down.

Cheers,

Tim 50 Capt Kingston

 

problem with that local is the noise issue. When we land on the north runway at yvr, ALL jets are required, unless a safety concern exists, to run our reverse thrust at idle so we don't piss off the rich living in the super masions on SW Marine Dr. They would never allow our crazy noise to exist there. Mission noise Natzis would look benevolent in comparison.:behead

 

Does anyone in the club know someone who works in Crown land acquisition/leasing? I seem to remember through my concussed haze we had one of the girls who worked in that department who rode/raced with us.

Even a contact in Collier's, might be some large industrial packet they can't lease, start thinking team.

 

I think we would be better off starting with an initiative to save some cash. A 20 year plan, really.

Perhaps levy a $20 track improvement fee that is protected from general revenue.

We should also have an annual new track fundraiser... carwash or something... proceeds to the same account.

 

I am somewhat familiar with what it takes to acquire Crown land and, honestly, I think you'd be wasting your time.

The biggest issue is that First Nations have to be comfortable with the proposal and that is very difficult to secure their concurrence these days unless there is some clear economic or other benefit to them.

On top of that, Crown land is sold at market rates; so, combined with the first issue, it's actually more work ($ and time) securing a parcel of Crown land than it is private land (which has no First Nations related encumberances).

Realistically, I do not see this happening in the lower mainland or Fraser Valley because of land cost and noise issues. A possible exception to this would be working something out with one of the local regional airports (this may save some of the hassle with noise since airports are noisy) but I do not see them being interested. In their view there is more money to be made in running the airport and, in particular, leasing their "extra" land for light industrial type uses. Plus, these uses would not attract extra public attention the way a race track proposal would (re: noise).

Notwithstanding my comments above about First Nations, I've always thought that the best idea would be to work something out with a First Nation and site it on their land somewhere. This conceivably could make the lower mainland or Fraser Valley more workable but I think you'd be better off someplace where it is warmer and drier than the lower mainland, like near Merritt or Cache Creek. Why I suggest this because, I believe, they are not subject to local government zoning, etc.. This then conceivably addresses issues related to noise, traffic, etc. that might otherwise cause a local government to reject a proposal on private land (or Crown land) that is within its jurisdiction. The down side is that if you were to finance part of the project cost it would be difficult or impossible to secure financing because it is on First Nations' land.

The reality is that until you (likely in conjunction with the SCCBC and other users who wish to become part of this project) figure out a way to secure the money to build it any of the above is just a dream.

If I do not win the lottery I'm hoping tt600 does so this thing can get built.

 

I've seen some allusions to the WMRC facebook page. Is there a link to that somewhere on the website? What's the name if I just search in facebook?

 

hey nick,hope you can make it out this year....It's westwood motorcycle race club