With respect to the 5th session, this was to safely accommodate a larger class size for the race school. As we had to also incur additional costs for the extra students, there was no financial benefit to the club. The decision to increase the number of students was based on their interest in racing on Sunday.
Thanks for clarifying that Pam, but I don't see how the club didn't benefit from getting more race school students and race entries. My feedback was just feedback to help improve the club and wasn't intended to cause a huge discussion and make people defensive.
Jacalyn, WCSS had a really bad run with the weather. A track day on the calendar usually meant rain and a huge loss for them. The club aggressively went after the track day and school business with all available resources and seems to be benefiting from that now. Global warming also seems to be helping weather wise but that may not last. If there were enough committed racers with the training and confidence to race in the rain it would be better to have more race rounds. Most street riders are watching the weather and are no shows if it rains.
I don't think anyone is being defensive, but I do believe there is some frustration regarding unfounded comments like " the club probably made $5000 because of the additional session". We had 3 extra students and one instructor. Adding them meant splitting the school into two sessions instead of one, otherwise we would have had too many people on the track. It would be helpful to keep the speculation to a minimum.
That's why I said probably because I'm not privy to the facts which you are enlightening me on. I believe it was a bad call accommodating 3 additional students at the cost of upsetting many track day riders that may not come back. Just my opinion and it's done now so it is what it is.
I completely disagree. Our first priority as a club is to build our base of racers. Turning away students is not the answer.
How is that being done? No one was turned away, even those who hedged their bets and showed up late on Saturday got in. The club cannot turn away folks interested in racing, plain and simple. It's not about collecting more money from a race school attendant, it's about keeping the racing alive at Mission.
I personally felt like there was too little track time, and was surprised to get more positive feedback than negative when I contacted participants. Many admitted to pulling off the track before the session ended because they would get tired. The general feeling I got was most had a good experience, go figure. But then again I am happy to turn laps all day (20 lap mains anyone?) Side note, I missed having Steve and Matthew out on Sunday. I hope the trackday schedule is not what kept them away, if so that really is too bad. This weekend should be a better experience for everyone!
You said earlier that there were very few repeat customers, so which statement is true? My $.02 FWIW Do the math. How many sessions do you wish to offer. How long should they be. How many riders can be accommodated in each group. Sell that many spaces and no more, if you have more students you sell fewer track day spots. Sold out? Tough luck, register earlier next time, this is supposed to be a race club not a track time provider. Create value for the product you're selling without compromising being a racing club. Customers will always complain, members not as much. Stop creating customers.
The track day had nothing to do with not racing on Sunday. We were only going to do track and hybrid days this season. Hybrid has been cancelled because there's enough open novice racers to run the class - a huge improvement over last season. So change of plans and back to racing which is much more fun!
I agree and believe Brett is on it. What I said was "I checked the track day statistics last season and found there weren’t many repeat riders". I'm going to rephrase that and say "not as many repeat riders as expected". There's a core group of repeat track day riders, some have become racers and others can't afford to race but intend to in the future. They might be "customers" but they were there when we needed them. Track days are great exposure for the club and allows us to interact with our target market. Many are looking at us as the next step moving on from Pitt Meadow's track days or a safer and less costly option to excessive speed on public highways.
GREAT! Gold Cup 250 production Lightweight Supersport Lightweight Twins F118 5 races per day for you 250 guys this weekend!
I am one of the 'non repeat' track day customers from 2015, but my failure to return is more bike related. Having one bike (Tiger 800 XC) that is not really suited to the track, I wanted to check it out on the track - and I had a blast in both fast street and slow street at the end of the day as I was getting a little tired. As I have moved away from sports bikes, I see myself doing fewer and fewer track days... and many of my friends have moved away from sports bikes to bigger enduros/adventure bikes. My non-return was not due to any dissatisfaction with the track day at all - more of an experiment to see how my bike would do at Mission. I am sure there are many others like me, who are not deterred by price or the track day experience, but more by the lack of a 'track suitable' bike. I have encouraged others to come out and do a track day on their 'off road' bikes, but with little success so far, despite my very, very positive experience at Mission