Why did Penrith turn away from pre-75?
one worded answer....apathy. They are still an essentially pre '75 club but don't bother too much any more.
We can't simply disregard all of the punters with post-74 bikes,
No argument from me. I don't know where I made this a pre '75 v the rest argument. This has little to do with pre '75 so don't throw the old phurphy that I'm only referring to pre '75 into the discussion. I'd be the worlds greatest optimist to think that pre '75 can come back to the pre HEAVEN entry levels. That bird has flown. The point I'm making and continue to make is that the combined current class system (Pre '75, Evo and pre '85) is not operating at anywhere near an acceptable entry level. That's where my bucket analogy comes to life...Adding new divisions (water) to the holy bucket (VMX) doesn't fix the hole (unacceptably low entry levels).
Bet it has SFA to do with Evo (and later) bikes....
You're correct Nathan the downturn in entry levels has less to do with Evo and later bikes than the she'll be right attitude by clubs towards promotion, public awareness and recruitment. The clubs, especially Penrith have chugged along happy in their lot and just going through the motions. That's not anyones fault in particular, it's just another example of the lack of entrepreneurial spirit amongst the vintage population. As long as the punters show up on race day, she'll be right. Not much thought goes into getting
more, new punters to turn up or, probably more importantly trying to get those racers who've left the fold to come back. In my day, if a racer hadn't turned up for a race meeting or two, I called him up to see how he was going and to see if there was a problem causing him to not turn up. Has anyone ever gone to the trouble of attempting to get lost racers back in recent times? Have HEAVEN put on bike displays complete with flyer distribution at modern meetings and in shopping malls as we did during my time at the helm of Penrith? Does HEAVEN have a press liason officer who compiles results, a small article and a couple of photos to distribute to Torque, AMCN and the suburban local rags? Does the club submit personality pieces to the local press promoting local riders who've done well or to promote a particular event? If the answer to any of the above questions is "er, well no", well not enough is being done to promote the sport.
Firko with the greatest respect mate you need to get out to a club day soon. The lack of numbers in the earlier divisions is what we are suffering from. Not as you say "finding it hard to fill many classes in the Evo and pre 85 divisions".
Shaun...The entries at todays club motocross meetings are around half of what we were getting during the boom years with just pre '75 and earlier to worry about. There were enough entries to present three, sometimes four distinct age groups with full grids in nearly all of those age group capacity classes. At some meetings the over 30/250 division would have two separate grids! I'll end up repeating this mantra in my sleep but the current vintage scene with it's luxury of being able to present classes for everyone from pre '65 to pre 85 can't even fill one age group grid in most of the Evo and Pre 85 classes (notwithstanding the problems inherent with the pre '78 divisions as well), introducing pre 90 and now the call for pre 95 is not the right thing to do. Fix the bucket first. When a vintage club day can boast of filling full grids in
all of the major classes, then and only then should we be looking at pre 90.
I understand the passion for those bikes...believe it or not I honestly believe that the 80s were the greatest in our sports history, both for the amazing horsepower wars in the 500 class, the suspension revolution and for the great riders that emerged during that decade. However, the health of our sport is to me more important than continuing to add new classes to satisfy the notion that because a bike is 20 or 25 years old, it therefore deserves a class of its own. If things were going well...you betcha, bring on pre 90. But while pre 85 is still finding its way and Evo is struggling to fill grids in some capacities...introducing pre 90 will only exasperate the problem. Introducing pre 95 would be rash stupidity.
