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

The whole problem I see with days that start to stretch into the week is not the racers. Hell, it's us who are the addicts on the track. We'll do what it takes to get our track fix. Something that you all need to consider is that it take much more than racers to make a race day. Not only are you asking for yourselves to make a financial committment to the track, but you are now asking all the volunteer support staff to also take unpaid time off work and give that time to us freely. They do so on weekends when there is little financial hardship undertaken, but we struggle to get people out on Mondays, let alone Tuesdays.

Staff members that are needed to run a race day:
Radio Control
Cornerworkers (minimum of 6)
Pre-grid
Scoring (minimum 2)
Announcing
Gridding
Cornerworker coordinator
Gate
Security
Ambulance
Referee
Race Director
Starter
Grid Helpers (minimum 2)
tech (minimum 2)
registration (minimum 4)

Shall I go on? I'm going to disclose all these details to everyone on Wednesday, so our full membership has a good idea of what it takes to make this season a go.

 

I understand what you are saying and I agree with you that it will be a Herculean effort to make a mid week race season work. Sadly it may just be better to pull the pin on 2012 locally and see what we can do about getting those of us who still want to race set up elsewhere.

(1) Will there be info at the meeting about getting us set up with WMRRA or at least the best point of contact with them ?

(2) For those of us who have already paid our 2012 race license fee how will it get reimbursed ? Same form that we paid (ie credit back on our Visa) or another way ?

 

Hey lance, I think your WMRC competition license will still be valid for the year with wmrra, emra and even omrra, so there is still value in it. Hopefully we can sweet talk the wmrra guys into waiving their membership fee, but even that is only 30 dollars if we end up going that way.

 

Hey Andrew,

I have been reading the thread about the WMRC problems on the WMRRA site and for the most part it seems they want us to come down and a few guys have even suggested they extend discounted rounds to us like OMRRA does for non members. I am pretty sure something can be done there.

That being said, if there is no season at Mission I would prefer to have the $200 back in my pocket then decide what I am going to do with WMRRA or if I am just going to do track days this year.

If the WMRC is short on funds because of this mess the exec can outline it to us at the meeting or in an email and ask for every racer to donate funds (ie $50) or hold a fundraiser or something. Keeping the money from those who have already signed up would be unfair because some would pay $200 and a bunch of others wouldn't pay at all.

 

Is there going to be someone with a receipt book at the Wednesday meeting? I'd like to buy a non-racer membership.

 

Hi - some of you might know me from the BCSB forums. I just registered here today because of this informative, yet discouraging thread.

I'm signed up for the WCSS Road Racer Training for the Track course in April, and it sounds like Troy and Gio are working on making adjustments to accommodate this recent debacle.

I was planning on participating in Novice (and possibly F-Classic) this season, and am still hoping things can be salvaged. FWIW, I'd also be willing to volunteer in whatever capacity I can be used, time permitting.

I'll try to make it out Wednesday night --- good luck to the execs sorting things out! And to the racers, trying to come to grips with the situation.

Regards,

Dan

 

That really sucks. I hope things out regarding the dates.

I was hoping to race this year but $$$ is a factor, and no can do.

You can still count me in to be there to cornerwork and volunteer.

 

If it has not been explicitly said, I think Dean's point is that we can all drop our coin and show up on a weekday date, and then likely sit there and not race because of a lack of volunteers.

I vote write it off ;(

I urge the executive to talk to the people at Ridge and get some dates if possible. I am sure they have done so.

I offer... 1 empty sea can to transport bikes to the Ridge for a WMRC race weekend. I am sure I can volunteer to haul the stuff down on a truck as long as I am not paid to do so... would have to confirm this with customs.

I can load and haul one additional loaded sea container with club gear.

I have no idea how feasible running a club event at a US track is, but I love the idea of somehow getting it done.

Hope to see you all Wednesday.

 

Come race with us!

 

You won't see me at PR, fo sure. Ridge, yeah...

 

Whats wrong with PR?

 

Yep, Jay understands what I was trying to get across. We are not only going to ask all the racers for a committment to funds and showing up, but we are going to ask most of you to bring a friend/co-worker/spouse/sibling/child/underling/troll/etc to also work corners or other jobs.

Then we are going to ask you to BEG and generally kiss butt all those officials (scoring, gridding, referee, race director, etc that MUST be filled before we race. They have to take those days off too. BTW: Most of them do not get paid any more than a lunch for showing up. Some incur costs to come over from the Island, etc.

Again, on Wednesday, I'lm going to lay all this out to you, so that you all can make an informed decision. If it was easy, the exec would have made it already.

 

Unsafe, IMHO. More so than wally world (Mission) due to speed. If I am going to leave town, I am not going to do it to head to another dangerous track... I will drive to one of the safe ones...

Course, WTF do I know... never ridden the damn thing...

--never will.

 

I used to think PR was unsafe.. until I crashed at the ManxGP last year. Rode the Ridge not long ago with 2-Fast. Pretty cool, cant wait for that.

 

Pretty sure you are not seriously comparing safety levels of TT racing with closed circuit racing... right?

But then, I don't know you...

 

It would be great to tell Mission to get stuffed and take our money elsewhere. Not sure how practical that is just now. Other issue is that the US tracks are probably already booked for the year.

 

There is no doubt that we are in tough this year. There are plenty of great points made on this thread. I think that a compromise somewhere in the middle is the best solution. To run a bunch of races during the week would be a tough pill for many to swallow, racers and volunteers alike. Sure, you will have Spero the night worker and the highly addicted and not seeking welfare Kingstons make it out but many will not. And yes, there may be a bunch of people at the meeting saying they will make all the races but as has been pointed out already, talk is cheap in January, in fact it is free.
The club has survived many years of no racing and having meetings in my living room in the past, so I am sure that we will also survive with a somewhat shorter series, but a series and championship none the less. There is already the May weekend, make one day a practice and one day a race. The August holiday Monday is also booked, add 2 more weekday races and you have a 4 race series, which is 4 races more than what we had for quite a few years. For most of us, getting 2 stand alone weekdays off in the year is a doable thing. Try getting 4 or 5 weekdays though and the commitment rises a great deal and I am afraid many will pull the ripcord on the race season (no pun intended). This way we can keep sponsors and others involved, while minimizing the fallout of racers faced with a schedule that is too demanding.
For those of you that want to put more on your plate there is plenty of racing (on weekends) elsewhere to fill the void.
Just to clarify on the subject of WCSS taking Mondays, that was done after consulting with others to find out what was going to work best for the WMRC. We are certainly open to doing whatever it takes for the WMRC though.

 

PR used to be unsafe but they have done alot over the years to make it more so, even PIR had some unsafe area's that got addressed.

 

Thanks for the input Troy. I'm sure we can work something out.