DSC Trackday Reports
 

Hope you're all having a good time at the DSC Trackday today without me! :(

I've been ill in bed for the last few days with a nasty cold/flu and my balance has been off when I do get up and out of bed, so not ideal conditions for trying to do a trackday.

I look forward to all your reports and lots of pictures.

Dry for most of the morning, then rain , wet after lunch for first sessions, then dried out, then heavens opened up at around 4pm ish, but really enjoyed it, great day:D

Even managed to swop Pauls forks to try another pair and get them set up for this coming weekends DD races :)



Chris:burn:

I felt sorry for 007 who told us that you were supposed to be bringing his food for the day Ant, but was not going to make it due to illness, you owe him me thinks.

Nice to see some DSC members there and i personaly had a great day,

Any Pics ?:o

Not my understanding of the situation as James asked me to add a couple of extra burgers for him on the barbie for sunday night, rather than supply food for the day?! Hope he got sorted though?

Excellent day. Weather up and down but great people and small groups on track. :D
Happy days.

We took James under our wing and had quite an interesting evening at the local curry house and then to a very quirky local pub. The Bateman's beer was delicious although the pub was mildy reminiscent of the "Slaughtered Lamb" out of American Werewolf.

Anyway, good to meet you James and as we left before you got back from your last session, I hope you had a good day and a safe ride back.

The day was a good one and really enjoyed it. Only down side for me was the complete knob who tried to "stuff it under me" at the hairpin (japanese track day only bike sporting a team name) and nearly took my front end out - I'll say no more but it does underscore the importance of getting the membership to come along and keep the day as a Ducati only day as owners seem to take a little more care.

Well done to the organisers and to everyone who made it a great day.

Sounds like a mixed but good day.

How many members made it? The TD attendance was always a good way of gauging the health of the clib

Not sure how many members were there, i have not missed a DSC trackday since 2005, but as usual its dates that play a big part, with DD there this coming weekend many are booked into friday testing so the cost of an extra track day and the fact they would have to take an extra day off work in the same week would have prohibited quiet a few from coming, there was a good turn out of ducatis there though and despite the weather there were very few fallers, a few nice dry sessions a couple of damp to drying and a couple of realy wet ones meant i got the chance to practice for whatever the weather throws at us come race day :)

Actually, the only thing it gauges is how many members want to do a trackday at that track on that day!

The Club itself is very healthy and has shown positive growth month-on-month for the last year at least; Martin will be able to give you the exact figures.

We received 281 DOC membership kits, but this was based on a membership list at the end of April and we have added new members since then in May, June and already in July, as well as keeping renewals.

The question is then, how do we improve the number of people prepared to book early enough onto a Ducati only track day so as to keep it Ducati only?

Shows there must be a changing focus of the member base then, as it was always the big thing (or certainly seemed to be for the first few years of my membership which started 05 I think)

Be interesting to know where the growth is coming from, and what makes peolpe part with their cash. And the more known the more it can be exploited to keep growing. I'm not suggesting btw it shared on the board; it may be someone has found a facebook nugget and wouldn't want to give it away :lol:

Thanks indeed, I really enjoyed the day and the company. Excellent curry and beers, albeit a rather 'interesting' evening..........

It would be great to see a recognised DSC presence, marqee, JHP fettling tent etc........great day though.

Best regards,

James

Thanks indeed Bionicle, and thank you also for the track tips, really appreciate your feedback.

Got home safely, although late and very very wet! Van or trailer next time....

Best regards,

James

If I knew that, I would have a different job!

But I get your point. We've pushed the trackday through the website, Twitter, Facebook, Pronto and dealers. Club MSV also promoted the event through their channels. I don't know what else we can do!

Last year was a saturday but the uptake still wasn't good. We were limited on the days we could have this year and the one we chose was the only one which made sense given all the factors we had to consider.

Maybe we need to change the venue? Ducati UK have sold out their trackday at Donington which demands a £20 premium (at £169) over a generic trackday there (£149 Full GP Circuit, 105dB on 28th Aug, 3 groups).

We have a large membership base and should easily be able to fill a trackday, so I'd be interested to know why people didn't attend, and then maybe we can address that.

Hence I ask if it can be identified where the growth has come from. May be the trackday brigade have passed on to racing or happy to jump in with the DUK or combination of both.

I didnt go for three reasons; racing this week altho I consided changing my test day to do the trackday instead if my mates were; my mates weren't see excuse 1; we like to do 2 days as a group especially so far away so the 10 or so mainly DSC members I go with can have a good couple of nights and days

Back on thread...have seen a couple of bits elsewhere and looks like a mixed but good day

We don't have anything on the form to indicate where/how the member found out about the DSC, and we can't do it with the online PayPal payments either.

However, we can determine the difference between online payments (which are usually a sign of either finding or using the website) and mailed payments (of which quite a lot of members don't use the website).

We have done a lot more recently to attend events where we can recruit more members; the Excel show in Feb, promoting through Facebook and Twitter, attending DUK events such as Silverstone, and recently the VMCC 1000 bikes festival. None of these have cost us money but time is given up by those who attend to man the stands and chat to people.

Would we consider paying money for advertising? I would say no but it's not my decision alone. We have to be very careful that we are operating on a very tight budget right now to keep the members supplied with "value add" items, so diverting money from this has to have a good return with memberships and I don't think advertising alone will do it.

As discussed with the MT, the recent World Presidents Meeting that I attended was very helpful in determining our place in the market, justifying why we exist as a club and also whether or not we provide good value to our members. You will read all about it in the next Pronto, but suffice to say that we have a long-term action plan which will be supported by Ducati at the Factory and will be of major benefit to all members of the Club, and this will definitely help drive membership in the future.

...and also to swerve this thread back on topic, I think we will be having a vote on the next trackday; not only if there will be one but also on the location and also the preferred day of the week and month of the year!

Thinking back to when I first joined the club..... many of the (then) stalwarts of the club went on to racing, and some then on to other things. Others have drifted away for a variety of reasons.

Looking at the market place - there are fewer trackday companies now - does this mean the boom in trackdays has passed? Less people do trackdays on road bikes, the dedicated ones moving up to proper track bikes - more often Japanese for cost?

Finally - as Antony mentioned - location. I know many people on here think Cadwell is all things to all men, and it is a low-cost venue... but it's a pig to get to and lacks facilities - plus everyone has been there multiple times... Time for a change? Somewhere more central with better facilities for the average club road-rider who wants to ride his pride and joy to the circuit on the day and not get soaked in a typical English summer....

Or I could be missing it completely...

You took tips from Paul :eek:

Craig

Actualy no i was not giving tips to James it was Chris who was doing that James just got our names mixed up i think !! although i did point out to James that there was food to be had in the club house so that was a good tip :)

Thank indeed, you're right it was Chris.P giving the tips!

Best regards,

James

Just to show that there were periods of happy track dryness.......

Nice

The only problem with 'central' Martin is-central to who/where?? Those in London/far South East will say Brands is central-whereas others will say Oulton Park is central. In the days when I ran the trackday I have organised events at both those venues-and had to cancel then due to lack of support-mainly because members felt they should be able to decide to attend at the very last moment according to the weather-and the club couldn't take the risk. Silverstone is pretty central, as is Donington-and both are hugely expensive. We have run at Rockingham a couple of times which is also central and easy to access-but lots of members didn't like it-no idea why as I think it's a good little circuit-which brings us back to Cadwell...............

John

Glad to see you guys had fun (wish I was there).

I didn't go this year for two reasons:
1) I had work commitments that were not possible to change with the client,
2) if I could have changed them, I would have dropped a couple of days work, which makes it a very expensive track day for me (self employed).

Personally I think Cadwell is a cracking track. I would like to do somewhere different such as Donington, but the above shows it wouldn't have changed my ability to attend, regardless of where it was.

Even though I didn't go, a big hats off to those that put the time and effort in to get these things organised.

Cheers,
John.

I hear you John and I'm not knocking anyone - central means central to the UK and reasonably well served by the motorway network - to me that means probably Donington or Oulton Park. Sure they may be more expensive, but people who ride Ducati's aren't generally paupers - just need to persuade people to part with their cash early enough to make the event viable.

The two circuits mentioned as "central" are also the most costly to use unfortunately.
Oulton is available for track days for only a limited number of days during the track day season as it is mainly used for racing and no Sunday usage or evening use is allowed. For a summer week day there expect to pay about £14,000 + vat so it is not cheap by any means.

Donington as everyone knows has noise issues however if you want a loud day there which i think is 105 like at say Cadwell & Snetterton etc it will cost £18,000 + vat as far as i know.

For my 2p worth Snetterton even thoe out in the east is a great track with great facilities, so it is a great track all year round, also Norfolk also as some great weather "out of season" . Cadwell park is a superb track however best in the spring and summer months on a bike due to the lack of garages etc, but to ride it is one of the best.

I agree the "central" suggestion but also recognise people come from far and wide. Snetterton could be interesting but i guess those from the West and far North might find it a long journey.

Wherever we go can we make sure the noise limits are either non existent or do not exclude Panigales ;)

Thanks

I took my Panigale to Snetterton and it tested at 108db.

The only thing that stopped my riding all day was the monsoon in the afternoon.

Up till then I did every session.