Race meeting complaints

[steve234]

I thought that as part of the riders briefing (rules), that it was made clear that if any rider didn't think the track was safe, then it was their responsibility to decide whether they would continue riding.  Their decision!  If this is the case, how can someone ride the whole day then make an official complaint to the state motorcycling governing body that the track was unsafe?

This is the case with our club and the motorcycling governing body has come at us with a bulldozer which may well threaten the clubs future.  Any thoughts?

cheers,
Steve

[GD66]

Plenty, but none that are very polite.
The complainant should have approached the clerk of course with his grievance, or packed it in and told the clerk why he did so. If he rode all day, he has no legitimate complaint, and no leg to stand on.
MA should have noted his complaint, and contacted the clerk and gone over it with him, analysing his track report, not come after the club. Sounds like the complainant has an agenda !
Poorly handled all round...

[VMX247]

here here Mr gd66, should of been a meeting during the day along with the Steward to resolve the problem....then again riders probably after a new set of shocks and wants to see how far he can go  ...whinger 
cheers A

[Slakewell]

The one that always works for me is simple.
Ask to see EVERYTHING in writing  then start writing letters back asking small details. Your track should have been approved by an MA steward . write again and ask for copy of that report.

Yeah it's a pain in the ass but it works. Get a few to help.

[evo550]

There's a few if, buts and maybe's attached to that.
The officials have a duty of care to the riders to ensure their safety (to the best of their ability)during the period of the permit.
Example. A new obsticle has been added to the track, but never tested under race conditions, as it turns out, it causes a whole heap of bad crashes in the first couple of races, it's quite obvious that the obsticle hasn't been formed right, a number of also approach the C of C and complain that it's dangerous. The club has a bobcat at it's disposal. The officials have a duty of care to either reshape the jump or divert the track around the jump.
As GD66 says if the rider did nothing during the course of the day, then complained after the event direct to the SCB, I'm surprised they even reacted to the complaint.
But if the rider complianed all day long to officials and they just told him to "suck it up princess, this is motocross", then there maybe some serious repocosions.
Did he/she complain to the scb that the track was dangerous and no one did anything about it, or, that they complained to the C of C all day and no one did anything about it?

[steve234]

It was a dirt track meet on which the track condition was as good as it gets.  The complainant also made a complaint about the c of c direct to the motorcycling authority.  I don't think the ma had discussed the issues with the c of c until now.

cheers for the heads up on requesting all the necessary documents slakewell.  The track had undergone many inprovements under the direction of the ma throughout the year to their approval.

A section of the track had witches hats marking the inside of the track.  I do recall someone requesting they be removed as they were considered dangerous by that person (as he would knock them over when he put his foot out).  Pretty sure the response from the c of c was "ïf you don't think it's safe don't ride" puting it back onto the dude.

I think the ma has handled this unprofessionally.  It will be interesting to see what unfolds.

[Nathan S]

Its often easy to mis-interpret questions from MA as being breathing down your neck, when they're just questions.

Play the game straight. If the club or one of the event's officials have done something wrong and nobody got hurt, then its unlikely that heads will roll. The most likely outcome is that you'll be told what to do differently next time, which is actually a positive thing for everyone.

Everyone seems to have an inbuilt reaction to lie in these sorts of situations. There was a cracker at my work a year or two back - a series of screw-ups meant that someone ended up in hospital. A ton of dumb, impossible to implement "procedures" had been ignored for the accident to occur, but the management types all lied their arses off and insisted that the accident had occured despite all of those dumb procedures being followed to the letter...
Now we've got even more dumb, impossible to implement procedures to ignore.

[VMX247]

. There was a cracker at my work a year or two back - a series of screw-ups meant that someone ended up in hospital. A ton of dumb, impossible to implement "procedures" had been ignored for the accident to occur, but the management types all lied their arses off and insisted that the accident had occured despite all of those dumb procedures being followed to the letter...
Now we've got even more dumb, impossible to implement procedures to ignore.

so one cracker can stuff the whole thing up for everybody 
cheers A

[Tex]

Did the complainant attend the riders' briefing? It's compulsory is it not?

Tex

[firko]

I agree with all of the above but I've seen tracks deteriorate during a meeting to the point that once simple jumps or sections become hazzards.

[mx250]

There was a cracker at my work a year or two back - a series of screw-ups meant that someone ended up in hospital. A ton of dumb, impossible to implement "procedures" had been ignored for the accident to occur, but the management types all lied their arses off and insisted that the accident had occured despite all of those dumb procedures being followed to the letter...
Now we've got even more dumb, impossible to implement procedures to ignore.

Good QA removes steps in the process - more steps more chance for stuff up.

Management puts more steps and 'checks and balances' into the process to 'fireproof their arse'.

Therefore management is the biggest impediment to quality. 

[evo550]

[
[/quote]

so one cracker can stuff the whole thing up for everybody 
cheers A
[/quote]
The squeaky wheel get all the oil 

[Nathan S]

I always work on the theory that the squeakiest wheel is:
a) Going to take the longest to fix; and
b) Most likely to be unrepairable.

So the squeakiest wheel gets fixed last.

[/thread diversion]

[Mike52]

I thought that as part of the riders briefing (rules), that it was made clear that if any rider didn't think the track was safe, then it was their responsibility to decide whether they would continue riding.  Their decision!  If this is the case, how can someone ride the whole day then make an official complaint to the state motorcycling governing body that the track was unsafe?
This is the case with our club and the motorcycling governing body has come at us with a bulldozer which may well threaten the clubs future.  Any thoughts?
cheers,
Steve

I take it that the above part about safety and personal responsibility was said at the riders briefing on the day.
If so then just get someone else who was at that riders briefing to do a stat dec saying that he heard it said and tell every one with a problem to piss off.

[TM BILL]

I always work on the theory that the squeakiest wheel is:
a) Going to take the longest to fix; and
b) Most likely to be unrepairable.

So the squeakiest wheel gets fixed last.

[/thread diversion]

I once had a whinging apprentice , bastard was always whining about somthing  I pulled him up about it and he said his father told him the sqeaky wheel gets attended to first  I pointed out that due to the modern disposable society that i had a policy that sqeaky wheels get thrown out 

He settled down after that