Being a relatively new member I would like to share my experience with the club and thoughts moving forward. My motorcycle days date back to the 70's when 2-strokes ruled and the first super bikes appeared on the scene. Great days but happy to have survived them having more hp than brains at the time. I got interested in racing through West Coast Super Bike School after taking their advanced rider and road racer training. The "racing bug" was pretty infectious when you have Troy Burstyk and Adam Robarts as instructors who were also club members. It was a no brainer to join the club after having a first class experience with them and meeting other enthusiasts at their courses. I didn't realize how little I knew about riding a motorcycle properly at speed until taking their courses and racing. Arriving at the track (Mission) was very exciting and a bit nerve wracking going road racing for the first time. I was fortunate to pit close to Anthony Basic, Spero Benias, Bez Cajee and Ken LaLonde who were super friendly and helpful regarding all my newbie questions. They certainly made me feel very welcome and helped build my confidence with tips on riding and bike setup. I have since met many other club/executive members, track officials, volunteers and track vendors who have always been very professional, offered their support and comradery. I know there are also many motorcycle shops supporting racers but I have to say the Honda Centre and Burnaby Kawasaki have been very good to me. I have been a bit of a pain at club meeting asking lots of questions about why the club seems to have so many unhappy members and issues when my experience has been very positive. From what I can gather the club is a shadow of it's former glory days when there were lots of sponsorship, track/race days and full grids. This is probably due to many factors such as track day allotment, the economy, competition and demographics. Even with these difficulties there has been a core group of club members and volunteers who have persevered to keep the club viable. I'm very grateful for your efforts thank you. I have heard various comments about Scott and Tony and who would make the best club president. I view anyone who is willing to take on this thankless job and be on the executive deserves our full support because they are all doing their best to keep the club going so we can enjoy our racing. Being a very small club we cannot afford to be divided because that will only end badly. We have full 250 grids now thanks to Scott and he has brought some great people from PCMRC to race and volunteer. Many of our club members seem to be going to PCMRC to get more track time and I will be one of them next season. It makes sense to me that PCMRC would be a good source of riders looking to move up to bigger bikes but not sure if the case. I don't know Tony so very interested to learn more about him and his vision for the club at the AGM. The fact that Scott and Tony are both running for president along with many others for various executive positions speaks volumes about their passion for our club. Regardless of who wins I hope they are all able to work together in some capacity because we need all the good people we can get to keep the club viable and attract more membership. Good luck to all members running for positions on the executive and thanks for helping to make the WMRC a great race club.
