Is it Slaters Bike park?? at Mercer?

[Reckless]

On the way to Kimi's there is a big sign on State highway one entering Mercer.
I think it said Slaters Bike park but I was knackered on the way back and didn't take a second look and jot down the details.

Anyone got the gen on this facility. when its open. How much per bike. Whats are the track or tracks like MX or cross country?? How far down that road is it?

[dammad1]

Haven't heard off it, has anyone been to thundercross lately? maybe it has new owners?

[arj127]

Slater MX park, it's just before you enter Huntly if you are travelling South, right next to the Stock car track.
Its full on mx. Meetings are 1st Sunday of the month from memory.
This is a pretty gnarly track, with some awesome bermed corners, drop offs and a kids track to boot. It is run by the Huntly mx club.
The track in Mercer is run by the Puke club. This is a very cool track but you will need full fitness.

[scott411]

you are right,
Slater Park is run by the Huntly MOtorcycle Club, clubdays are 1st sunday of the month, need a mnz licence, or by a day licence, not open other days,

it is a very cool track, a couple of big jumps and a awesoem section where you jump up and down a hill with awesome berms,


Mercer is open for practice 1st saturday of the month, (this saturday)
race days 3rd sunday, same deal, need a licence or day licence, run by the pukekohe mcc, and it get very rough, it is a great track to ride though,

[dammad1]

Hey Scott did you hear what happened with the sale of Thunderx?

[scott411]

got passed in, still be open this year as far as i know

[Reckless]

Hey thanks guys Shit I musta been at Huntly not Mercer DUH!!!
I'll do a google and see if they have a web site.
Might be a go to turn up for one of their practice days (not this Sat though) and take a ride on the track.

Goods news about Thunder X as well! I've got two cards with free rides. Hopefully the stock and weather will have sorted all the tracks back to original.

[cheese]

Yeah I quite liked thunder park. I'll have another go out there. I'll wait till its a bit dryer though!

[Reckless]

Slater MX park, it's just before you enter Huntly if you are travelling South, right next to the Stock car track.
Its full on mx. Meetings are 1st Sunday of the month from memory.
This is a pretty gnarly track, with some awesome bermed corners, drop offs and a kids track to boot. It is run by the Huntly mx club.
The track in Mercer is run by the Puke club. This is a very cool track but you will need full fitness.

So let me get this right. From the above there is The Slater track in Huntly (Huntly MX club)and another in Mercer (Puke MX club). As long as you don't mean Harrisville track what/where is this other one in Mercer?

[scott411]

thier is no other one in mercer,

Thier is

Slater PArk in huntly (the sign you saw was in huntly not mercer)
Run by the Huntly Motorcycle CLub

Mercer Sand Track (no sign, but can be scene form motorway, right next door to the servicer centre)
Run By the Pukekohe MCC

Mr Motorcycles Raceway Harrisville
Run by the Pukekohe MCC

[Reckless]

Thanks Scott for imparting your abundent knowledge.

Are you the Scott from Mr motorcyles by any chance

[scott411]

yes Scott from Mr Motorcycles, also Scott the president of the Pukekohe MCC,

[Reckless]

Ok your a busy man then.

I'll take up only a fraction more of your time if you could answer me another question seeing as how you would most definatly know.

I'm thinking about starting my 13 year old racing at club events. I am told by John at Ardmore that joining that club does not enable us to get our minz licences.

I was going to go down to the Harrisville track and join but after going once to see the Auckland champs (I think) the height and speed of the riders combined with a simple spill that turned into quite nasty accident after several riders piled into the fallen guy as he was over a blind jump with no flag marshell has put me off taking my young fella down there. It would never happen in the Karting world where I come from.

I'm in Howick please tell me what is the closest club to us to join so we can get our licences?

[scott411]

Harrisville is safer than ardmore in my opinion, and i will argue this with anyone, bring on the facts if you want to start it,

the crash you saw was a freak, a shower of rain casued that crash and the 4 riders invloved all lost it on the upface of the ramp, which was slick for a days use, we use a warning light system even for practice days, (even in america they do not run flag marchalls on practice days) their is a flashing light and siren on the upface to that jump, that is why the race was not restarted, the track was like an ice rink due to fine weather all day, then a heavy shower of rain,
i was cheaf steward that day, i was first down to help the riders, and i pulled the red flag, it was the scarest looking accident i have scene in 20 years of watching motocross, i have put that scenro in my head, and i could not stop it from happening again in those circumstances with out stopping the race when it started raining, which jsut does not happen in MX, it was ther 2nd lapo of that race, and the riders where that close,

we run a junior novice for 1st time riders, (admore runs juniors all in) this is away from the faster kids, and a great place to start,

yes harrisvilel has some big jumps, but they are also bulit well to be safe (no sharp landings, mostly table tops and step ups, no doubles, we also run all our clubdays at mercer during the winter, mercer has no jumps, but is very rough,

the other clubs in the area that run MX, are Rodney, based mostly around Kaukapakapa, and Hunlty,

i beleive we run the highest standards of saftey around, we have lead the way in saftey of prectice days in NZ with flag marshalls and warning lights,

[Reckless]

No scott I don't have any facts to bring on.
My words a simple account from a father concerned about his boys and what I am enabling him to get into. If you say it was a freak accident thats good enough for me.
Its just that coming from Karting which does have very high speed and close racing but not the broken legs, arms and collar bones etc that MX has from time to time. It also would be much more difficult for MX to have the same type of flag control as karting as the tracks are vastly different. It is a concern for me personally that I'm exposing my kids to more risk by changing sports. But that is part of MX and if I don't like it I shouldn't go!!
I must of just had the bad luck to turn up to view my very first competition event and see that prang. No more need be said on public forum and I except what you say about your track safety.

[GR81]

if you want a safe sport, dont do MX... try table tennis or something ;) haha

[Reckless]

I said that already, quite clearly in my previous post!

[arj127]

i can vouch for what Scott says. Puke mx club is pretty big on safety. I can not remember a club day where there would be no flag marshalls. We wern't allowed to compete if the appropriate amount of flag marshalls were not on the track.
Like Gr81 says mx is a sport whereby you can expect some injuries. But compared to Ardmore, the Puke club only has riders of the same level on the track at the same time. Ardmore can have a lot of different level riders on the track at once which can be quite scary for the beginner (no disrespect to Ardmore).
In reality its about how your young fella goes about his ride, wether he uses his head and only tackles one jump at a time and masters each jump before moving on to another. Puke track is a national level track, but can be riden by a novice who has a level head

[telliman]

sounds to me like the wmcc or rmc would be a good place to start, a racing enviroment without the jumps,do plenty of practice days at harrisville before chucking him into a club day. theres more chance of him hurting himself on his own accord than there is of an older faster rider taking him out! get him out there i say,my sons 4yrs old and just got him his first bike(quad),cant wait to be hitting tables-tops together! roost the little punk,

[Reckless]

yes arj. I believe what Scott has said and trust his wisdom. I'm not questioning their club or anything to do with how they run a meeting. Which is why I deliberatly didn't go into detail. I was just stating as a newbie to MX it put me off a bit. Coming from quite an extensive background in another motorsport.

And I except what you say about Ardmore. I took my young fella on his KX85 small wheel, out there yesterday as he had a day off school. He got roosted quite badly (totally unintentionaly of coarse) by all the passing riders. When its harrowed and dry those loose hard clods of dirt really hurt. Put him off going back next week. We put an extra poly fliece sweat shirt back on under his mx shirt and roost vest as well. I've told him to hold his line and not to swerve out the way of a roost incase there is another rider passing. Wouldn't do to have some kid radically changing his line all the time when your blasting past on a 450. He's learnt to hold his line from karting anyway.
Not so bad for me though. I do enjoy going out there on my own and not having my kids to worry about. I can leave at 1pm and get a fair bit of riding in, when the tracks still in good nick, before all the school kids/teenagers and their dads turn up after 3-30. It just means I have to draw peoples plans all night to make up the time.
Concerning his riding. He's is fairly sensible. He can clear the table top at Kimis and clear a few of the other jumps so he's learning. I'll just have to keep going to Woodhill, Trailblazer and Thunder etc till he's fast enough to mix it a bit better on an all out race track. Although its the jumps he likes best.
Thanks for your assurance about Harrisville we'd really like to try it.
Does the short practice time on a Sat 1-3pm impact much on the amount of riding you can get in. I do about 2 hours riding on the engine timer in a 3 hour or so session at Ardmore.

[Reckless]

sounds to me like the wmcc or rmc would be a good place to start, a racing enviroment without the jumps,do plenty of practice days at harrisville before chucking him into a club day. theres more chance of him hurting himself on his own accord than there is of an older faster rider taking him out! get him out there i say,my sons 4yrs old and just got him his first bike(quad),cant wait to be hitting tables-tops together! roost the little punk,

Ye very good idea Telliman. Is rmc more clay/Farm land and Wmcc more sand?? or am I getting the wrong impression from all the family rides at Woodhill that wmcc run.
I don't think Rodney has its own track like Harrisvile/Puke has does it??
And does Waitamata have one??

I personally have been enjoying the tracks. So many questions! but I suppose all the newbies have them. Thanks for all your input guys!!

[telliman]

sounds like you need a ride at harrisville,mini track for junior, and step ups for you. ardmores all good but dosnt compare to this joint.even though its only 3x 20min scessions its worth every one

[arj127]

the two hours or so on Saturday at Harrisville is enough, because unlike a race day you can ride for as long as you want. You generally will leave more tired than you would on a race day.
I don't think RMCC has a track like PMCC's, but they have quite a few farm tracks etc that they use (ditto for WMCC).

[Reckless]

Thanks you two guys!
Only thing left is get off my arse and get out there!
I'll still do Wednesdays at Ardmore its good for fitness and its 10mins from home and only 15 bucks. And the main reason! I've got the missus used to the idea I need a few hours off work each Wednesday. Don't want to let that go!!!

Probably join one first then I can get my Minz licence. I suppose we have to have one of these b4 we can race? Rodneys only 40-00 bucks thats very reasonable. Puke is $60-00 but the way they discount there practice fees for members I suppose you guys are members at all the clubs you frequent.

Thanks again

[B0000M]

just to back scott, as an independant source,

ive ridden the puke / harrisville track years ago in north island champ events, and ill vouch for its safety, some tracks just dont feel safe, this one does.