Some more ideas on growing the Nationals

[CHOPPA]

some great ideas from Andy, as we do have to cut costs if we want more racing with us in the nationals,
Yes 2 weekends down south is enough, sidecars do it to get more to travel & im sure more N.I solos would go if it was over 2 weekends, what about a midweek 1 day meet between the 2 rounds ??
Standard classes run within the superbikes & 600s is a great way to encourage more entries but have to be standard ROB
What about getting rid of friday practise, less time of work, less track hire, less whare on gear & maybe the clubman type riders may turn up knowing they are not already a few seconds behind the friday testers.
Aussie dont do fridays anymore & moto GP are going that way next season.
Car meetings are hard to get involved in, but is great exposure for our sport,
thats my bit for now, Chris Lawrance

Great ideas!

[speedracerjimmy]

getting rid of friday testing would be a good idea.you would save a big chunk of cash by doing that.
I wouldnt want to see our nationals drop to 4 rounds tho i just think that is too short a championship.
besides if you dropped the fridays the saving would almost pay for the 5th round anyway!

[Robert Taylor]

getting rid of friday testing would be a good idea.you would save a big chunk of cash by doing that.
I wouldnt want to see our nationals drop to 4 rounds tho i just think that is too short a championship.
besides if you dropped the fridays the saving would almost pay for the 5th round anyway!

I totally disagree James. We dont actually do enough testing in this country and dropping Fridays makes an assumption that most racers are turning up with bikes well sorted for the individual circuit.

[cowpoos]

getting rid of friday testing would be a good idea.you would save a big chunk of cash by doing that.
I wouldnt want to see our nationals drop to 4 rounds tho i just think that is too short a championship.
besides if you dropped the fridays the saving would almost pay for the 5th round anyway!

well teretonga is a bloody long way to go!! we have the streets!!! you be at wanga's this year?

[Robert Taylor]

Can't be done for many sound technical reasons not the less of which is one corner on one racetrack somewhere down south.

Besides theres Nick Cole to think about too bless his soul.

And at the other end of the scale very light riders such as Sam Love.

[Robert Taylor]

Theres a tyre compound to suit every situation, it may not have the same grip so ride accordingly, if the rule is the same for everyone then its not a problem

Incorrect, if you had a very rigid and very hard compound tyre for Turn 1 at Teretonga it would have poor grip elsewhere to the point of being dangerous. You can get away with it with Dunlops quite often because of the firm carcass construction, but not so with Pirellis. And that frankly is a band aid solution, rather than a proper enginerring solution. In this case a more firmly calibrated valving stack allied with firmer springing, but not excessively firmer springing.
Unless I am mistaken road racing is also about engineering and to allow spring changes only ( when in many cases valving is a better solution ) is one step too far.

[JayRacer37]

getting rid of friday testing would be a good idea.you would save a big chunk of cash by doing that.
I wouldnt want to see our nationals drop to 4 rounds tho i just think that is too short a championship.
besides if you dropped the fridays the saving would almost pay for the 5th round anyway!

In the long run though you would end up spending much more money doing trips away to tracks so you could compensate for only 3 sessions before you raced at the track. It would be much more important to have a good base setup. Plus, if you don't want to do a Friday test you don't have to. They arn't part of the meeting even if they are run by the clubs.

[k14]

some great ideas from Andy, as we do have to cut costs if we want more racing with us in the nationals,
Yes 2 weekends down south is enough, sidecars do it to get more to travel & im sure more N.I solos would go if it was over 2 weekends, what about a midweek 1 day meet between the 2 rounds ??
Standard classes run within the superbikes & 600s is a great way to encourage more entries but have to be standard ROB
What about getting rid of friday practise, less time of work, less track hire, less whare on gear & maybe the clubman type riders may turn up knowing they are not already a few seconds behind the friday testers.
Aussie dont do fridays anymore & moto GP are going that way next season.
Car meetings are hard to get involved in, but is great exposure for our sport,
thats my bit for now, Chris Lawrance

I think the Friday idea is a good one. It is an added expense that is not absolutely necessary. As someone else said MotoGP is going away from that and so is the auzzie scene. Definately could be something that could be changed. Maybe have a friday for the first and third round of the season (or only at the NZTT and NZGP rounds). The saving in time off work would be the biggest advantage imo.

[Kickaha]

If you're going to cancel the Friday practice (which some people don't do anyway) then there needs to be a ban on all practice for the preceeding week or the teams with the money will just arrive even earlier and hire the track anyway

[Tony.OK]

So how does someone learn a track if they're doing the Nats for the 1st time if the Fri is banned?
Surely if they are only a test day then they're optional, I'm sure some that have plenty of track knowledge may be ok, but do you want someone out there for qualifying thats never seen the track before?
People travelling between islands are normally down there for the whole 3 weeks aren't they? 3 extra days on track wouldn't add too much to the overall cost in reality.

[Toot Toot]

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contrary to peoples belief its not overly hard to get TV coverage.. .

Question for you Mr Eddy.
I see that TV3's sports news is "Brought to you by LG.. Life's Good". Why not, as part of the deal with LG/TV3 could they not request some coverage of results etc of each round of the bikes since they sponsor some of you. I am surprised I didnt see anything at all on TV3 of the LG Superbike Race at Taupo, won by an LG rider on the LG Sports news????????

[suzuki mama]

Hey Stroud, Eddy here.. some great ideas there. im all for better organised meetings with publicity.. i think ultimately Mnz should be responsible for the majority of it.. if they dont want to step up then we simply( and i have said this before get a commitee together) and set up another sanctioning body and organise our own events.

contrary to peoples belief its not overly hard to get TV coverage.. the simple reason why there has been absimal tv/media coverage thus far comes from the top...MNZ...There should be someone now working on putting next years season together/media/print/etc again.. not to hard in my books,, but it is a full time position for someone with some "know how" and contacts in the relevant sectors.

My next post will probably get me banned from any more racing ... will put up a link soon..

Having been in the land of Oz for a few days, have seen at first hand what some clubs do themselves to utilise any avenue of media and publicity available to them

I agree wholeheartedly that MNZ should be doing more ,but for Road Racing they would only pay for 2 press releases for each round of Nationals one post and one pre, shows how little value current office puts on link between media coverage and sponsers,

[CHOPPA]

Question for you Mr Eddy.
I see that TV3's sports news is "Brought to you by LG.. Life's Good". Why not, as part of the deal with LG/TV3 could they not request some coverage of results etc of each round of the bikes since they sponsor some of you. I am surprised I didnt see anything at all on TV3 of the LG Superbike Race at Taupo, won by an LG rider on the LG Sports news????????

Its coming

[Mishy]

If you're going to cancel the Friday practice (which some people don't do anyway) then there needs to be a ban on all practice for the preceeding week or the teams with the money will just arrive even earlier and hire the track anyway

And there lies the problem, as far as I can see. Those who can afford to will find a way to test, and give themselves an advantage.
To me, banning Friday testing is simply a waste of time - it could well put the average "privateer" rider at an even bigger disadvantage, which would be exactly the opposite to whet any ban would be trying to achieve.
It costa a lot more to make a trip to Timaru from Auckland simply to test than it does to tag a Friday on at the beginning.

[AndrewStroud]

Re No Friday practice; A good point to consider though for riders who aim to make a future out of roadracing, getting lots of track time is a good place to start. I kind of agree with Jay, it is optional and if it wasn't available then we'd probably need to make a special trip some other time to get everything dialed in.
Speaking of practice. I'd be in favour of combining more classes together so everyone gets more time on the track. Especially as everyone doesn't turns up Friday I don't see a problem combining Superbikes with 600's, giving the option of being able to go out in 6 season's in the day rather than 3. It's common around the world to see 40 bikes on a track at the same time. It's not that scary - can even be fun if you ask me. -( not that the total combined 600's & S/B's even reach 40) If the FIM see it safe to run 600's & Superbikes together with full grids in the World Endurance races then, it should be ok for our practices.
Also if this could work for Saturday's practice then riders who miss Friday could still get a good amount of track time on Saturday. This would provide 4 practice seasons before qualifying. Qualifying could still be separate so you get some clear laps in.
( At Puke practice days we all go out together - a sesson for bikes and a sesson for cars!) If other classes did the same whenever practical, (e.g. F3 & 125's) then there could be enough track time on Saturday to not feel too disadvantaged by missing Friday.
If people want to save a nights accommodation and a day off work then not having a prize giving on Sunday night could often achieve that. It's a good social event but maybe sometimes it would be better to have it on the Saturday night of the following meeting when everyone is there anyway. Or else squeeze it in during the day like they do everywhere else in the world where I've raced. - You'd want a good one at the end of the season though aye.
Re number of Championship rounds, I still agree that at least 5 rounds is good though I wouldn't be surprised if more would compete if there were 3 rounds in the North Island and two in the South.