Well another weekend of riding over. Over the last few weeks we have been riding at different tracks in Illinois. Well let’s start with our first outing of the year. We drove for 4 hours down to ParadiseMx park in DuQuoin, Illinois for the Loretta Lynn’s qualifier. The track personnel were outstanding, pleasant, knowledgeable and willing to listen to any concerns the riders had. Friday’s practice was well organized, classes were divided by skill level. Track personnel watched for A riders going out with C riders. Beginners even being able to ride down one level. Every rider we spoke with was very comfortable riding the track. The flaggers were on the ball and made sure all riders were safe. Saturday for the race it rained and rained all morning. The track was totaled. Even A riders were singling the jumps. I was very impressed that with the bad weather (you knew you were in for a long day with long lap times) the track promoters did not combine classes of different skill level and have large numbers of riders per Moto. There were bikes down everywhere in every class. We went threw clutches on two bikes in two moto’s. The flaggers were excellent in assisting and making sure no rider was in danger when down. Sunday was a little better, track personnel dragged the mud off as good as possible and racing went on without a hitch. Again track personnel were well organized and pleasant. In my race, in which I raced the over 40 class they combined us with the 30a,b class. After speaking with track personnel they divided the classes and gave us our own races. The whole weekend was great other than the fact I was going to have to put clutches in two bikes and a days cleaning. It is sad this track only runs a few races and might be closing.

 

This last week was totally different. I had the worst weekend I have ever had. We went to Byron Mx in Byron Illinois. We were going to ride the weekend in prep for the Loretta’s Qualifier the following weekend. We (my two daughters) decided to camp out. So we pulled in on saturday afternoon gates were open with no track personnel anywhere. We found the owner and he pointed a place to park. Nothing marked as to what tracks were which or where to park. Needless to say, I moved 3 times before it was to their approval. After a chilly night we were up and I had the bikes ready before sign up. Before I go any further I work very hard like every other parent to enjoy my few days off. At sign up this is when everything started to go south. At sign up the track personnel was very unpleasant and down right rude. They insisted first that I had to purchase AMA district cards or I would not be able to race. I told them I had a AMA card and that I was not interested in district points . They still made me purchase them, This is the part of the AMA that is clearly a way for district officials to pad their pockets. If you running for district points of course there should be a fee for bookkeeping and awards, but riders should not be forced to purchase if not running for points and awards. I started to get frustrated because by this time I felt like I was buying a timeshare. What happened next was the most idiotic attitude I have ever encountered. This was on April 6th, my birthday is on the 8th. They refused at first to let me race in the over 40 class, The class that I have rode all year. I even told them they could disqualify me and that I was not running for points and I just wanted to ride with my age and skill, They finally after 30 min. agreed. After sign up it came to the riders meeting and race order. The promoter must have been out of his mind, he actually combined 40+,50+ and Women. Are you kidding me? my 13 yr old daughter is going to race in the same race as me. Well needless to say she was scared stiff and withdrew from that class. Then came the final action that sent me over the edge, we get to the staging area and start to line up when they called out the following classes ( I thought I was hearing things) 40+,50+ women and 250A. I said your kidding right? Your going to combine these classes? It was clear this was 40+ and 50+ which I am sorry means A,B,C,D,E,F and G to combine with no less 250a is just plain and simple crazy. The promoter asked if there was a problem I objected of course. Then that is when he started to belittle me to the other riders on the line and embarrass me to my fellow rider and make fun of me and said he would give me back my $28.00. Needless to say thats when the gloves came off and I lost my temper. With all the money and time invested getting there he was going to give me my money back. Its promoters like this that ruin this sport and then wonder why we are abusive. Duh ? My daughters had one race and then we were out of there. Thats when I had enough. The flaggers were not trained and had no idea what to do when a rider goes down. Low and behold after all I went through here its going to happen to my daughter right. She falls on a uphill double, with the bike on her so she cant move the flagger just sits there while my other daughter rides into her. Thank god a dad was there and ran on the track and pulled the bike off her. I wrote about this because this is a serious issue concerning tracks. Their insurance is on the rise because of the tracks that are run as a business and dont focus on the underlying fact that we dont care what time we finish and leave the track but that we do it safely. We will be visiting Joliet MX and Mt. Carroll for our next review .