How do all,
Strange but pretty exciting query this one. My friend has a disused quarry and surrounding land that has been used for MotoX racing for a number of years. It's a pretty well established and popular venue for it.
She's talking now about bringing bike races there - the trouble is, she's no idea where to start and so came to me. I'm no expert, but have some basic suggestions; one of which is to come on here.
I've told her to look at some of the World Cup videos and stuff from Dalby for inspiration into what makes an interesting track (they can build and have the equipment to do so), but what else does she need to know?
Any help much appreciated, especially from our BBB, HtN and Brownbacks friends....
🙂
Insurance.
For that, you'll need to join one of the Governing bodies, or, pay a fortune to take it out personally.
We used to regularly set up cyclo-cross races. Took 6 or so of us around 2-3 hours to set the course. We knew beforehand where the route was going.
At least 5 people needed on the day, preferably 10.
2 signing on, 2 doing the starting, 1 doing lap times/recording places, 3 to 5 others marshalling.
You wouldnt believe the pettiness of some riders. We had a league fo 5 races, no payout on the night, overall league winner to get £50 down to £10 for 5th.
As you could imagine, working out the final results on the night was manic. The person coming 5th overall was marked as 6th, so didnt get anything. Once the results were on the website, he started complaining, as we had marked him one place wrong on the final race, and this had caused him to loose his overall 5th place. He demanded his £10, even ringing up threatening to report us to the BCF!
I sent him £10 of my own money to shut him up, and after that, we stopped doing it, as it was too much hassle for the 5 or so regulars who did the organising.
So, yes, it is a nice thought running your own races, but it is not easy, and you do need a lot of help to make it run smoothly.
Alan.
Yes. Lots of help ! Start small. If you are on private land you are already way ahead in terms of reducing hassle.
What format are you thinking ? I am guessing not DH. A motoX course might work for dual slalom or 4X.
First of all is the course long enough? MX courses tend to be quite short and compact.
Might be a good idea to offer the venue up to existing race organisers as they should always be on the lookout for new locations .
which area is this place in as our Landrover club is always hunting for new places to hold events
It's near ashover - butts quarry (.co.uk)
S****. He said butts. S****.
Send a mail to british cycling. They'll help with organising and everything, they run a midweek series in Manchester if you want to go along and get a feel for what's involved - although if your mate runs MX events they'll know about the organising side of things and if it;s a commercial venture I'd expect they'd already have insurance and so on
It's near ashover - butts quarry (.co.uk)
Stupid phone. Cheers all for your help so far