Give us your input!

[priddydc]

When does the 2010 schedule come out? Thanks

[rob51g]

There has been several good ideas. As far as the Friday night races that Pat suggested, Not sure about that as many riders can't get off work or kids from school. Your current system of Saturday night-Sunday afternoon seems to me a better plan for the riders that come from a distance. As for the fans, I know in Arenacross, the Friday night crowds were never good,so not sure which works best for them,unless you are at 2 different, then Friday night crowds might be stronger.
You guys have some tough choices ahead of you. Just know there are several of us that are here to support you and help anyway we can.

Rob

[xl350]

Rob, The Friday night Sat, night suggestion is for the people so far away that they have to take either Fri or Monday off for driving time. 10 hours of driving after 5 or 6pm Sun. won't get you to work on Mon. I know you could be at work but you won't be worth much to the boss. 10 hours to get to races means you leave home Fri morning. It doesn't make a difference to me as I work my own ours. Randy, would it be possible, from these suggestions, to set up a few examples of what you think would work and let your members vote on them? Pat Orman.

[rck]

Pat,
We could take a vote, but what it boils down to is we are still at the mercy of the track owners and promoters, what works best for them. What I wanted to know is what the racers wanted, then we can give that information to the track owners to help them, and us, decide what works best for everyone.
Thank you all for your ideas, whether we use them or not, we want to know what you think, so lets hear more.
As for a schedule, no dates yet but probably three weekends at Jeeps, the others are usually slow coming in. We will keep you posted.
Randy

[xl350]

Randy, Is that job kinda like trying to juggle cats? Best of luck. Pat. ps. trackprep

[tsmiley98]

Now that all of the big bike pro's are done throwing in their 2 cents, lets keep this ball rolling.

Can we get a propossed schedule? That would help a TON since I have a hecktic schedule this year ramping up for deployment. I am sure others would be able to throw in input on what dates will be better for them as well.

Propose the dates and everyone can give an idea of what will work best for them. The dates that work best for majority will give the best turnouts.

[rob51g]

Did I miss some posts??? I don't remember reading posts from big bike or pro riders. As for the schedule.... refer to Randy's post where it said there isn't 1 yet.

[teamkurtz]

Here is the problem, Randy is asking for helpful input in order to make it a better season. This topic has been viewed over a 1000 times and only had input from 12 of us. Bottom line little bike, big bike, racer, fan or parent, give them your input. There has been some good ideas generated but some of you are holding out. Speak now in order to make it a better race season.

[verticaltwin]

This may help with rider count... and I may have already mentioned it. Just my 2 cents...

I've had a few people ask me about racing flattrack around the area, mostly off the flattrack.com forum via private messages and such. Just got a request on the Great Plains section of the flattrack.com forum a couple days ago under my post on the Jeeps races scheduled for 2010. Usually there are questions about what classes we have, what are the rules, etc... When I point them to this website its hard for them to find basic info like rules and classes.

Is it possible to add categories or "message boards" to the forum? Along with Race chatter, Announcements, and the rest? Think of it from a total newcomers standpoint... Where would you find info on our forum site?

I think that if we had a few more "message boards" it would be easier to navigate. It might be good to have a board entitled "2010 Schedule/Results", another one for "Class Structure and Rules". These boards could be for the administrators only, if that would be more appropriate. This might eliminate the need for some existing boards that don't get used much. I really want to help promote our series and get some more riders involved in the area and I think it would help to revamp the site a little.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this stuff?? You Nebraskans and Iowans thawed out yet??

Kyle#44x

[cracing]

Following in Kyle's footsteps....just an example with no credible information

Who?
Great Plains Flat Track Series

What?
Flat Track Races
TT Scramble

When?
Practice @ Noon
Races @ 1:00

Where?
Favorite Track
3 Miles west of Plainville on Main Street
Turn south down lane.


Why?
$$ for the Pro's in these classes........
Trophies for the amateurs in these classes......

What Happened?
Here are the results of each class

[teamkurtz]

Hopefully not stepping on any toes or speaking out of turn. I have a college girl that works for me that designs web sites. Randy is going to get in touch with her this weekend to see what she can do. In the mean time I have given her some of the popular flat track links to give her some ideas. May or may not work out but Randy and crew are trying some new ideas.

Mike

[cyclerider57]

The number one thing for rider count is promotion. I get asked all the time, "Why didn't you race last weekend" (for other series'). My number one response is... "where was the race?" The same goes for when I ask others about this series.

Promotion needs to start with jumping off other series and indoors during the winter is the best time to start. If there is a race going on anywhere within your desired region then there needs to be material about the race/ series that you are having. Instead of focusing on getting the same riders or pulling in the riders that are reluctant to come... focus needs to be put into general inventory collecting and increasing the number of people that know about it. The pure number of people that know of this series is limited and when the normal riders don't show up... count drops drastically.

The second thing that feeds directly into this is working with other promoters. Race overlap needs to be minimized at all costs... even if this means eliminating a race all together. For example, if a national is going on and you have a race scheduled for that weekend, don't expect the pros to be concerned with missing a local race. The same goes for all other series. You can't pull riders from other race tracks. Instead, focus on giving them something to do when they can't race at home.

Regards.
-#92 Jordan Lindfors

On a side note: Watching the reaction of the "Medics" at clay center during the ATV incident, when the rider was awake on his knees then passed out face first into the dirt, drastically reduced my desire to participate with this series. I know I can't put that on this organization, and I am extremely fond of and have relationships with a majority of the people involved, but I had to bring that up. That really put a damper on my trust of the people next to the big box on wheels with flashing lights. I think this needs to be addressed, even if it is discussing basic protocol with the different medics at the track. They represent the race series when they are entrusted with the duty of safety.

So I don't end on a note like that, I will say that in the past it hasn't been that way. For example, when I was involved in the Stockton ATV crash I swear they were on the track ready to help before I hit the ground at Randy's feet.

[tsmiley98]

Apr 10, 2010 20:46:42 GMT -5 cyclerider57 said:

On a side note: Watching the reaction of the "Medics" at clay center during the ATV incident, when the rider was awake on his knees then passed out face first into the dirt, drastically reduced my desire to participate with this series. I know I can't put that on this organization, and I am extremely fond of and have relationships with a majority of the people involved, but I had to bring that up. That really put a damper on my trust of the people next to the big box on wheels with flashing lights. I think this needs to be addressed, even if it is discussing basic protocol with the different medics at the track. They represent the race series when they are entrusted with the duty of safety.

So I don't end on a note like that, I will say that in the past it hasn't been that way. For example, when I was involved in the Stockton ATV crash I swear they were on the track ready to help before I hit the ground at Randy's feet.

You seem to be confused, I can't understand why someone in their right mind would not want to compete in a series, or lose faith in all EMT's due to the reactions of a particular group of EMT's.

That's like saying, well ATV's shouldn't race because at "insert track name here" this one guy wrecked, and wasted time and resources. So it can be expected that every time we have ATV's race someone will cause a major inconvenience.

I could fully understand someone saying, "hey I don't think I am going to race at Clay Center again because of what happened"

Without being too much of an @$$, my point is organizations that need competitors usually try to have the best help available so they can protect their source of lively hood. While I fully understand boycotting a single race/area due to incompetent paramedics, it would make more sense to deliver a solution to the problem.

Such as, having a standard procedure for reacting to accidents on the track. Along with having a formal meeting/discussion with the persons doing these duties to make them aware of what you need them to do. If people do not know what is expected of them they usually do what they know or are used to.

Same principal as the riders meetings. We have riders show who are unfamiliar with what is expected of them. Why should anyone expect something different from local paramedics? Your examples illustrate this perfectly. The paramedics at Clay Center did not react the same as the ones did at Stockton.

I am sure the GPFTS Crew will look in to ensuring the people there understand what is expected of them. I also hope that they can just sit back and enjoy watching the races all season long without ever having to get out of their seats.

Hope to see you out mixing things up at Jeeps in a couple weeks.

[dirttracker]

I can't speak for pro riders, but on the trophy side I've always felt that there were way too many classes..Instead of the bike being the determining factor how about using age,,Keep the kids classes as they are,then just have a over/under 50 modern and vintage,,in one season it would be clear what configuration is the most competative at the various tracks,,but you would still have the freedom to run what you want,,the trophy class is just for fun anyway..In the long run this would make it easier to be competative,,and easier to get into the sport...In the nftra days I introduced a few friends to this sport,,and what class they would run in and all the membership costs to try something they may not want to do again were the major obsticles..This is something that can be tried at the first race,,start by adding a 50+ vintage class run what you brung and see what the response is......

[cyclerider57]

Apr 10, 2010 23:53:16 GMT -5 tsmiley98 said:

Apr 10, 2010 20:46:42 GMT -5 cyclerider57 said:

On a side note: Watching the reaction of the "Medics" at clay center during the ATV incident, when the rider was awake on his knees then passed out face first into the dirt, drastically reduced my desire to participate with this series. I know I can't put that on this organization, and I am extremely fond of and have relationships with a majority of the people involved, but I had to bring that up. That really put a damper on my trust of the people next to the big box on wheels with flashing lights. I think this needs to be addressed, even if it is discussing basic protocol with the different medics at the track. They represent the race series when they are entrusted with the duty of safety.

So I don't end on a note like that, I will say that in the past it hasn't been that way. For example, when I was involved in the Stockton ATV crash I swear they were on the track ready to help before I hit the ground at Randy's feet.

You seem to be confused, I can't understand why someone in their right mind would not want to compete in a series, or lose faith in all EMT's due to the reactions of a particular group of EMT's.

That's like saying, well ATV's shouldn't race because at "insert track name here" this one guy wrecked, and wasted time and resources. So it can be expected that every time we have ATV's race someone will cause a major inconvenience.

I could fully understand someone saying, "hey I don't think I am going to race at Clay Center again because of what happened"

Without being too much of an @$$, my point is organizations that need competitors usually try to have the best help available so they can protect their source of lively hood. While I fully understand boycotting a single race/area due to incompetent paramedics, it would make more sense to deliver a solution to the problem.

Such as, having a standard procedure for reacting to accidents on the track. Along with having a formal meeting/discussion with the persons doing these duties to make them aware of what you need them to do. If people do not know what is expected of them they usually do what they know or are used to.

Same principal as the riders meetings. We have riders show who are unfamiliar with what is expected of them. Why should anyone expect something different from local paramedics? Your examples illustrate this perfectly. The paramedics at Clay Center did not react the same as the ones did at Stockton.

I am sure the GPFTS Crew will look in to ensuring the people there understand what is expected of them. I also hope that they can just sit back and enjoy watching the races all season long without ever having to get out of their seats.

Hope to see you out mixing things up at Jeeps in a couple weeks.

Those are completely different circumstances and to be frank... you did a poor job of not sounding like an ass. I was suggesting solutions and using my desire to compete as a motivator.

I don't know if you know this but professional organizations such as AMA Supercross have a specific group of paramedics that go to each race and are trained in motorcycle related injuries. I'm not saying we can or have the means to do this but using it as a better example than your ATV one.

My reason for bringing this up is that an EMT should not be on the side of the race track. We need paramedics in such a high risk environment. If you don't know the difference between the two... it's about 3 years and another 18 months of training. The terms are not interchangeable.

People say I'm crazy for doing some of the things I do and I've even been told I do things asking for death. In the same breath people ask me why I have $600 helmets (there is a difference between a Suomy and a Walmart brand and honestly if they made $2000 helmets I'd have one of them because my head is worth it). People don't understand that I really do analyze the risk in situations I put myself in.

Maybe you are comfortable having an 18 year old with 4 months of training taking care of you when you are wondering if you just broke your neck but as a professional racer that puts it on the line of serious injury consistently, and therefore more likely to be in that situation, I would prefer someone with a little more experience.

I'm saying we need to take steps to ensure that the medics at the track understand what they are in for. When you watch someone die at the racetrack your attitude toward safety will change and all it takes is one set of EMT's to eliminate trust of a sanctioning body that tolerated that behavior.

People have to much of a reactive behavior pattern when it comes to safety. They would rather wait for something to happen, incompetent EMT in motorcycle related injury leading to serious issue, then find a way fix the issue. As a safety role for a major manufacturing organization I learned there is a huge push toward preventing the issue before it comes up. IE: Having competent paramedics at the track to start with.

Regards.
-Jordan Lindfors