Today I had a thought while having my lunch...

[Tonio600]

I was chating with a friend, an ex motorbike racer, and we were talking about the motorcycle race clubs when I emitted the opinion that I was not quite sure NE was fair with us, re. what we pay and what we get. And my friend to reply to me: "they're all the same...". We didn't really go further in the discussion but then I guess NE is a business and so some people are living thanks to it.

Then 1 hour later :lol: I just wondered why us (the DSC) couldn't run the DD series on our own? I'm sure there must be plenty of reasons why it doesn't work like that but honestly I can't find them myself. So any explaination by the people who know will be welcome.

At the beginning I thought "Yeah but renting a track must be bl00dy expensive to run a single series, even if we've got 2 classes". But then I realised we already book some tracks a few (3, 4?) times a year to run the DSC track days, so why can't we run a trackday and our races in the same time? I don't think the 30mn (maybe 1 hour with the crashes and cleaning) the racers are out on track would change anything to the way the day is organised...

So basically I wonder why we neeed NE or any other club when we are a club, already running trackdays and owning a series which I'm sure would attract more people if cheaper.

Any thoughts guys? If things keep going that way (more money for less track time) either I get a better job, either I'll do trackdays next season :lol:

[ChrisBushell]

Tonio

This question was asked at the MT meeting on Saturday and the reasons are far to complex to go into here fully.

Whilst you are right that the DSC has hired tracks for trackdays for a number of years now, it is as I reported at the AGM a very expensive undertaking. Also you should remember that we hire the tracks during the week, which whilst it is cheaper than the weekends also means that everyone, not just the racers, have to take a day off work. With trackdays we need minimal trackside staff, this is not true if we are racing.

The long and the short of it is that we have little chance of making it even breakeven from a cost/income point of view. I for one would not be willing to take say 8 days holiday off work to allow you guys to race and I haven't even touched on the liability and organisers race licence, etc issues.

[ali]

:lol:

If we can just get 10 marshalls, 3 scrutineers, a starter, a grid monkey, 4 admin staff, £25k in cash, insurance and another 150 racers we'll be fine!

Definitely not taking the **** Tonio, and I think that very long-term it's a great idea, but there's an awful lot involved and you need a lot of people that are even more generous with their time than the current DSC helpers. That's tough to sort out.

Sounds like a good lunch though!

Ali

[skidlids]

Track hire at weekends is far more exspensive than hiring them during the week for Trackdays, more marshalls are required for race days along with medical cover, time keepers, ACU scrutineers, etc, somebody to process entries (which with the way some DDers do it would make it very last minute).
Race clubs basically have to put bids in for tracks at the begining of the season, the organisation envolved is quite extensive

[Tonio600]

well, now I know :D

Thanks for your answers guys, I knew there was a lot of things I was no thinking about :lol:

[Jools]

:lol:

Sounds like a good lunch though!

Ali

Well, you know how long the French take for lunch...surely you could've had it all worked out by that time ;)

[Iconic944ss]

Yeah...but just think of the publicity

A DSC Trackday PLUS a DesmoDue round thrown in at the same time !!!

Maybe a 60 mins mini-endurance race over the TD lunch hour.

Ok - apologies already - highly unfeasible - but very, very cool.

Frank