2013 Australian Post Classic MX Titles

[John Orchard]

Hmmm I'm a little disapointed with some peoples attitude here, none of the riders that are thinking about entering want to make it difficult for the club, there are many with good reasons for not entering early, or not entering at all, I think we can all be a little more understanding and give the benefit of the doubt.

Personally I don't care how long the races are, just as long as you can fit them all in on a weekend.  If they are 45 min plus 1 lap, that's cool, my last lap will be a bloody slow one lol.

I also don't care if there are ring-in gun riders, I've had a life of running mid-field and I'm still here  ;-)

I think racing in this country is changing (and in the world for that matter), everyone has so much going on in their life and our sport is made up of enthusiasts that either have family commitments or really don't want to see their 500 hour rebuild trashed on a muddy track.

No one should be pointing any fingers, not at the club and not at the riders, let's just try and learn and make changes accordingly.

Even when I was racing the Australian Roadracing Championships, I hated having to be at an interstate track for Friday practise & qualifying but I was young and wanted to be world champion so I did it, just as all the other young riders did.  Us older guys do not need 3 days, this is our interest, not our deperate desire to be world champion.  I am helping run the Broadford round of the Australian Motocross Champioships this year, it is ONE DAY (May 19), if they can run a round of the Aus Champs in one day surely we can run ours in two?!!

Some of us are finacially secure and some are not, motorsport in this country is not large enough to only cater for the financially strong, part of keeping costs down is keeping the racing to one or two days, also camping, while my Missus wouldn't like us to camp I guess there are many others that may feel the need?

Let us all try and put our heads together to make VMX racing work in this country, it is obvious from the lack of entries for this event that something needs to be done, we adapt or racing is no-more.

[Simo63]

Hi what you are missing is the SUB REGS were posted in FEBRUARY it is now APRIL and 3 weeks from the event we also have to organise holidays, track maintenance guys who have their own businesses and have to schedule their work around this event. We are not talking about 1 day off work we are talking about a week of holidays so you can all have a bitch at what we are doing for you.
I will stop there before I let fly with the rest of it !!!!!!!

Been watching this thread for a while and wondering what has gone wrong here.

I'm not riding this event simply because I don't ride in these classes nor do I have bikes for these classes but I have to comment that in a couple of your posts you seem really really angry with the members of this forum  Maybe I'm wrong but with comments above like "you can all have a bitch" it's hard to see where.  

All of us want this event, your event, to be a roaring success for the good of the VMX sport, that is without doubt but one thing I have noticed when attending local vmx race meetings here is that a surprising amount of people are not members of this forum, or if they are, they don't use it much.  Sure there are some of us that use it daily but many people in the VMX scene don't.

What I am getting at is that I hope you have been using other mediums to contact the rest of the VMX community and convey your thoughts because if you are relying on this forum alone, as good as it is, you won't be reaching everyone you won't be reaching everyone you need to reach.

Don't wish to be an avenue for you to "vent" and don't wish to be "shot" giving you this information.  I wish you all the best of luck with your event.

[whitey 43]

Well I dont know fellas....I wish I could commit to the meeting, but there are a couple of things that may or may not have already been mentioned...
The economy....Have a look around Gentlemen. Things are pretty tough at the moment! I work in the Debt Recovery Business & the amount of people trying to pay debts off & survive (just in my little niche of the industry) is frightening! Spending money on hobbies is not a priority for most people at the moment.
Fuel...How much do you think it would cost to tow 3 bikes, gear & associated needs from Brisbane to the venue in a V6 Commodore?
Time off work...I would assume around 50% of us VMX Nuts would be employed by someone & whilst I cant speak for all, sometimes annual leave is not an option, especially if holidays have already been used.
Personal...I know that a holiday with the family holds more priority than using 2-3 days of annual leave on a sport that most of the family arent interested in. I love this sport 110%, but family will always be top proirity.
I know the diehards will always manage to make it, others will double up & split the costs, but most average VMXers are happy to do their club days, & do "the big ones" when they are close to home. Its not a personal boycott, just the reality of the current economy.
In my humble opinion...

[John Orchard]

There seems a lot of caring riders here, and a good point is that many vmx riders do not frequent this site.

In an effort to make this event work, I suggest the following ...

* Accept entries up to 1 week before.

* Re-schedule the programme into 2 days, presentation's can be done at night or Monday (You can post my trophy to me  ;-) )

* Let's all re-post the entry-form onto as many websites as possible to make the event aware to more riders.

If we all work together rather than complaining we might just pull this off?

[whitey 43]

Good answers, John.

If the entry date is moved, there would be a few more people who may be able to make it, im sure.

Like you, I dont care how many laps it is & the remaining "plastic" that I have is sitting in  milk crates under the house. I dont think I would trouble the lap scorers too much.

I would love to line up against Belly, Army (both) or Burt. At least ive done it once...

Its my hope that the promoting club runs an awesome meeting without loosing money & everyone has a great time.

[Lakes MBC]

We too can run a round of the Australian MX Titles in 1 day as there is only 3 classes to run and not 28 and all these entries are all taken in advance not on the day. The Junior Aussie MX Titles we hosted in 2010 the entries were closed 3 weeks in advance and that event attracted over 750 competitors for 7 days.

[JohnnyO]

We too can run a round of the Australian MX Titles in 1 day as there is only 3 classes to run and not 28 and all these entries are all taken in advance not on the day. The Junior Aussie MX Titles we hosted in 2010 the entries were closed 3 weeks in advance and that event attracted over 750 competitors for 7 days.

You can't compare eager young juniors with with parents who are willing to spend their last dime on little Johnny cos they think he's the next Chad Reed to a bunch of old guys well past their use by date who ride for fun and work/funds permitting.
Times are tough.. I've been out of work for 6 weeks but i sold one of my bikes to give me enough money to allow me to enter.
Anyway i understand your situation and it's very dissapointing at the lack of entries..

[Nathan S]

We too can run a round of the Australian MX Titles in 1 day as there is only 3 classes to run and not 28 and all these entries are all taken in advance not on the day. The Junior Aussie MX Titles we hosted in 2010 the entries were closed 3 weeks in advance and that event attracted over 750 competitors for 7 days.

OK, where to start?

1. There was virtually no chance that all classes were going to get up. Right from the start, Pre-90 125 and Evo 125, were virtually assured of being combined with another class. There are two regularly raced pre-90 125s in NSW...

2. The VMX titles are a world apart from the (modern) Nationals or the Junior Nats. The VMX Nats are more like a big club day - there will be no shiny transporters, paid riders, or dozens of wide-eyed hopefuls.
Sure, the top VMX guys are fast and are having a red hot go - but the vast majority of us are there just to be involved and enjoy the sport we love.
If you had any thoughts that it was going to be like a round of the modern Nationals, I can see why you're feeling let down - but is that the fault of the riders?

3. The age races should be for all eras of bikes, not just Evo. By restricting them to Evo, you've cut the potential age-race fields right down.

[John Orchard]

Sounds like combining classes and double gate-drops are needed.

[JohnnyO]

Sounds like combining classes and double gate-drops are needed.

That's what they did last year in QLD..

[Montynut]

Did you guys miss something There is no need to combine classes or double gate drops.

The grid is 40 at Lakes and there are 41 entries total.

We just have one race for solos and one for the few sidecars In the overall scheme of things the sidecar guys have put the solos to shame.

The Lakes club right from the very start knew they would most likely lose money on the Post Classic Nationals if very lucky they would break even. This is a club that could have ran a practice day on 5 May and had 300 riders turn out without a problem with minimal prep on Saturday afternoon and all home with their families at 5pm Sunday. I was so pleased and impressed when the Lakes guys were so keen to get involved. Now I just feel for them.

Everyone is now trying to 'solve' the problem for them when all it really needs / needed was for riders to enter in a timely manner using the Supp regs that have been out for months. I can not see how anyone can fault the Lakes club.

email an entry NOW that is all that is needed then turn up have a great weekend of racing and then sit back ofter the event and have some current stories to tell everyone at CD10

[Montynut]

Nathan so you are comfortable drawing comparisions between VMX and Rally driving but anyone mentioning other MX meetings are completely off target

Are you sure you are not in the Prime Ministers media gang

[Lakes MBC]

Nathan please check earlier posts age racing cannot be combined with Evo outrights
As for other age racing please submit your rule changes to MA not us we were only following MA's classes for Championships
We are not finger pointing, just posting the facts, NO RIDERS = NO CLASSES = NO MEETING
I can't put it any simpler. If it is too full on for everyone why run the National Event in the first place
As for comparing it with modern meetings we knew it would not be anywhere near those numbers but the same thing applies entries will close at some stage well before the gates drop
If the meeting falls over I think you all need to look at why this happened  NO RIDERS = NO CLASSES = NO MEETING
Fitzy

[Nathan S]

Nathan so you are comfortable drawing comparisions between VMX and Rally driving but anyone mentioning other MX meetings are completely off target

Not what I said.
The point was that an MX meeting is scheduled on the assumption that every class will run - apart from the financial risk, there's no logistical reason why you couldn't accept entries on the day.
A rally, on the other hand, has a much greater need to know who's entered in advance.

If the rally world can cope with entries closing a week before, I don't understand why an MX needs to close entries a full three weeks before.
Happy to be informed.

In this case, the assumption that all classes would run was clearly very optimistic. Perhaps the programme could have been fitted into just two days with a more pragmatic approach to the classes that were likely to be amalgamated - in turn, perhaps attracting more riders?

I too feel for the Lakes club, and I genuinely appreciate that they've put their hands up to run the event.
However, as a rider who has entered according to the Supp Regs, it's a bit hard to take being told that the it's all my fault that the event is lacking in entries...
When some of that blame comes from someone representing the club, it's particularly difficult to swallow.

I'm sure I'm not the only one to feel this way.

[firko]

However, as a rider who has entered according to the Supp Regs, it's a bit hard to take being told that the it's all my fault that the event is lacking in entries...

It's not riders like you that have entered the event Nathan, it those who can but haven't. I was starting to think that the downturn in the economy was having a bigger influence in why the entries are so low than I'd thought but when I hear that there were two classic road race meetings last weekend that achieved very good entries and that the June 16 meeting at Nepean has a full complement of entries already, the problem has to be more deeply rooted.