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Originally Posted by Trumpet My understanding of the situation about wets is, this not just a proposal to do it for the sake of doing it, but more an to do with the consideration of who we are able to go racing with next year.
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Correct
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Originally Posted by Trumpet If the situation were ideal we would have DD grids big enough to always have our own races, however if we cannot guarantee full grids (or nearly full) race organisers will in turn be reluctant to guarantee our own grids.
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DD is now in a very weak negotiating position due to its small grid size
In 2015 we averaged less than 20 entries per race, with the average starters at 18 per race and the average number of finishers was 16.
Entries per meeting (excluding Guest riders)were
Brands = 23, Cadwell = 22, Pembrey = 16, Snetterton = 25
That was running with Hottrax, afterwards with EMRA, NGRRC and Derby Phoenix we had
Mallory = 20, Anglesey = 20, Cadwell = 19 and Pembrey = 15
So at times barely half a grid and at no time anywhere near a full grid, as such it is hard to justify our own separate grid
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Originally Posted by Trumpet This being the case we may end up having to race with other series (e.g 400's etc) and then it would just be unsafe to be out in a wet race with some on wets and some on basically road tyres.
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All clubs need to maximise their income from each grid, when each slot is worth around £225 having 10 empty places means they are loosing out to the tune of £2250, this is why the likes of Hottrax and New Era no longer exist where as Thundersport GB and Bemsee who will run several classes per grid are surviving
All the clubs we ran with in the second half of the 2015 season are happy to have us back
EMRA plan to run 6 one day meetings in 2016 all at Mallory and all on Sunday's
Derby Phoenix are planning 3 meetings but so far have 2 Cadwell dates
NGRRC are planning 8 meetings with no circuits visited more than once and if we have sufficient numbers we can have our own grids at 5 of the meetings but at Thruxton, Castle Combe and Donington we don't have sufficient numbers to warrant a separate grid as they can all accommodate over 40 bikes per grid and are popular meetings at costly venues so we would need to share a grid with either 400s as Mark says or with Open 500s or maybe even Mini Twins and as all these classes are allowed to use Wets it would be unsafe if we did not also allow them should the track be wet.
We have run for 11 seasons without wets and in that time I have missed 3 meetings, Anglesey first time DD went there, Assen first time DD went there and Donington when New Era decided to change the format. in that time I haven't had an issue with our lack of wets and have never sat out a race because of the conditions, yet in that same time I have watched the numbers in DD drop at one time we had separate grids for Class A and Class B with around 30 per grid and now we average a third of that.
So without adopting wets I can't see DD surviving