Grand Bend/ SOAR Fridays
- Thread starter kneedragger88
- Start date
I remember booking a couple of days at Mosport last year well ahead of time, it rained on Friday and I only got about 2 full sessions if that, booked ahead of time for GTAM at TMP and it rained most of the day, booking in advance sucks, you never know what the weather is going to be so the 10 days for non Soar riders to me doesn't sound so bad.
I liked showing up on a Friday and just go pay and ride, this year seems like we have to commit 10 days ahead, everyone loses a little everyone gains a little, its all good.
People shouldn't get mad, today is 19 degrees and the ****ing snow finally melted.... like ice cube said "Today was a good day"
I liked showing up on a Friday and just go pay and ride, this year seems like we have to commit 10 days ahead, everyone loses a little everyone gains a little, its all good.
People shouldn't get mad, today is 19 degrees and the ****ing snow finally melted.... like ice cube said "Today was a good day"
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What some people don't realize is ken lost a lot of money starting soar, every decision he makes is in the riders best interest not his own, if he made the decision to change trackdays, it's because it needed to be done.
Everyone should say thanks for keeping the sport alive and well.
Everyone should say thanks for keeping the sport alive and well.
So does that mean riders who normally ride Green aren't welcome?
Sorry if it came off as throwing daggers, that certainly wasn't my intention. I think we're all just talking out loud here. Change is scary.
You can ride but wont be geen group rules. Bikes will be passing you.
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Cool, thanks Ken. Would faster red riders be able to step up to the racer group? I had a lot of fun mixing it up with Curtis last year 
There wont be a "racer" group. Red is red racer or not.
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Just a thought here,,, And people this is life. After 34 years or more in this crazy sport the only thing constant is change.
So maybe,,, work with Ken and lets get one day filled. Then if we have enough over flow or turn aways we look at adding Thursday next year.
The fact is SOAR needs your support to move forward to getting Thursday's back.
Maybe we work for next year to get RACER 5 back with the green group. I don't know what the answer is but the reality is GB must make money
SOAR must make money and as much as it pains to here it,, none of these groups are subsidized by the goverment to offset the loss's.
It will work if everybody just takes a breath and tries to be an assest and not a liability. We are way too small of group to beat each other up.
Life will return to normal if we all work to help. There are lots of options but it means working together over the bumps.
So maybe,,, work with Ken and lets get one day filled. Then if we have enough over flow or turn aways we look at adding Thursday next year.
The fact is SOAR needs your support to move forward to getting Thursday's back.
Maybe we work for next year to get RACER 5 back with the green group. I don't know what the answer is but the reality is GB must make money
SOAR must make money and as much as it pains to here it,, none of these groups are subsidized by the goverment to offset the loss's.
It will work if everybody just takes a breath and tries to be an assest and not a liability. We are way too small of group to beat each other up.
Life will return to normal if we all work to help. There are lots of options but it means working together over the bumps.
Here's what I see,,, MANY track days regardless of who's it is,,, people show up,,have a coffee or two,,, then work on the bike [things they should have done at home]
then by the session before lunch or after lunch they hit the track.
The reason Thursday's are nice is becasue they was never any congestion problems. Meaning when the track was full it was not busy.
So for any track day provider they need to max out. So if they run 3 groups and the track can manage 35 riders they need 105 entries. [or what ever the number is]
They base their cost on that number. Well if only 40 people show up the math is pretty simple. Great for the customer but not worth it for the provider.
So here's the scoop,, the pattern I first spoke of will still happen. So get to the track and be ready for the first session. How many times do you see an open session, or two groups to 11am? Be ready and get out there. You will do more laps in the morning and the afternoon is a bonus. The morning will be less congested too.
You just have to be prepared when you get there. It will take more attention from yourself but the rewards will be better.
then by the session before lunch or after lunch they hit the track.
The reason Thursday's are nice is becasue they was never any congestion problems. Meaning when the track was full it was not busy.
So for any track day provider they need to max out. So if they run 3 groups and the track can manage 35 riders they need 105 entries. [or what ever the number is]
They base their cost on that number. Well if only 40 people show up the math is pretty simple. Great for the customer but not worth it for the provider.
So here's the scoop,, the pattern I first spoke of will still happen. So get to the track and be ready for the first session. How many times do you see an open session, or two groups to 11am? Be ready and get out there. You will do more laps in the morning and the afternoon is a bonus. The morning will be less congested too.
You just have to be prepared when you get there. It will take more attention from yourself but the rewards will be better.
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N3WMAN
Well-known member
Watched a guy tear a bike down to the heads and put it back together at DOCC last year. By the time he got it running(after lunch), it started raining and they cancelled the rest of the day.
I must be some kind of weirdo because I am usually ready to go on track before tech even opens, and it is frustrating like hell when the start is supposed to be 9:00 and the riders meeting doesn't even happen until 9:30, or the EMS guys don't show up on time. I am talking TMP here not SOAR.
I can't remember ever missing the first morning session at a track day, unless I chose to sit it out because track conditions were sketchy. I come to ride, not wrench.
I can't remember ever missing the first morning session at a track day, unless I chose to sit it out because track conditions were sketchy. I come to ride, not wrench.
I hear ya. I always want to get tech done by 8:00 so I can get the warmers on and be ready for session 1, but usually tech isn't ready when I am. haha...
I think dave is one of the only guys that beats me to the track every time 
. Same here, for all of the effort, driving, gas, money, equipment, etc, I like to make it worth the while. You spend the rest of your life doing things you don't really want to do to support the things you do want to, so make it count. Last year a number of us went TMP about the tardiness of operations and things did get a bit better. Not what it should be yet, but a step in the right direction anyways.
. Same here, for all of the effort, driving, gas, money, equipment, etc, I like to make it worth the while. You spend the rest of your life doing things you don't really want to do to support the things you do want to, so make it count. Last year a number of us went TMP about the tardiness of operations and things did get a bit better. Not what it should be yet, but a step in the right direction anyways.While nobody knows the future we need to look at operations based on the past. Our Thursdays without Racer5 were at around 20 and the same for Ken on Fridays (maybe 25) and as mentioned in an earlier post that doesn't necessarily mean we will be 40-45 this year just doing Friday as some of those were double entires so I expect there will be room. Even 30-35 in a single day is better financially than 2 days at 20-25/day.
there was a negative mention about having to reserve 10 days but there is also the ability to cancel 3 days out and get a credit for a future day. For those who are weather adverse or just out to have fun.( Any date we have to cancel will be fully refundable)
This is the new setup we have come up, let's see how it goes, if it requires changes/adjustments we will make them.
there was a negative mention about having to reserve 10 days but there is also the ability to cancel 3 days out and get a credit for a future day. For those who are weather adverse or just out to have fun.( Any date we have to cancel will be fully refundable)
This is the new setup we have come up, let's see how it goes, if it requires changes/adjustments we will make them.
Just having a conversation about it. Unfortunately I can't book holidays 10 days out. I'd love to book the days off just in case, but I don't get a lot of holidays and have to make them count.
It IS great that there are still track days. Sorry if that didn't come across in any of my posts. I just think there are a lot of kinks to be worked out here. Unfortunately I've been in the position a few times where racers (or higher level riders) registered late and took a spot in a lower class only to not follow the rules of that class with NO repercussions. It only spooked me a few times when I was still new. Now it doesn't but it's not exactly the safest for those newer riders. Just a thought.
Another thought.....you might not want to get your panties wadded so much when customers want to talk about the changes initiated by you. You can't make everyone happy and no one expects you to, but sometimes you might actually want to listen to what people have to say....you never know when a good idea might come out of it.
I agree - I had that happen at a GWB day at TMP. Bunch of faster guys in green, so they just changed the rules at the riders' meeting. The passing rule in novice was "pass safely". WTF?
I'm actually okay with any set of on-track rules any organization wants to adopt, but I prefer them to be consistent form one event to another and *especially*, once the rules are established I expect them to actually be enforced. I'm not above tattling on ********* riders who don't play by the rules. I feel like the rules are a kind of contract between the provider and the riders.
On the other hand, I don't like the language of "listen to your customers" in this discussion. It just doesn't fit. No when gets rich running motorcycle track days in Ontario, whether they are on a Thursday or not, and to make it happen they take on a lot of financial risk. My impression is that all of the various providers do it primarily for a love of the sport, and I feel like we should be grateful to them and support them in any way that we can. I am not a customer, I am fellow enthusiast contributing my measly $125 or whatever, letting someone else do all the hard work so I can go play on the track. It's a bloody good deal.
Yeah, not really sure why non-racers are upset about not being able to book a race practice day (not a track day) until 10 days before.
License holders (the people who help pay the bills) will clearly get first dibs on something like that.
