Fort Worth Motorcycle Riders

Hi All,

I am not sure if yall aware or who is aware who is not...
I feel like i was sleeping and i have woken up and questions came.
I have a couple of coworkers in the state of Virgina and we started talking about track days there and such.
I looked at one of the track days and i found so MANY organisations doing track days there for cheap and expensive...
This is the track website:
http://virnow.com/track/getting-on-track/
And...there is one org...from Fort Worth....
http://www.ccsracing.us/contact.html
It seems to be a racing org...on their racing schedule they dont even have any Texas track mentioned...why is that???I wonder...
Is it because here people dont ride tracks?or not interested in bikes? why?
And how come that Texas is the second biggest state in the USA and we only have one organisation called Ridesmart who is doing events here...Lone Star is closing down...and there is Euro something i forgot and thats all?!
I am pretty disappointed, altough I havent been riding much this year...but if there would be more choices I would i guess?!

Well part of the problem is you're comparing a professional race course to hobby courses. Big tracks draw big schools, California Superbike school and CLASS motorcycle school are both schools based in CA, and are not cheap. The Conerspeed speed school appears to be VIRs school and only does events at that track.

If you compare events at VIR to events at COTA you would see a closer relation, although COTA is still pretty young and still growing. There are several events at COTA that are not RS and I imagine the number of schools that do events there will continue to grow. Would not surprise me to see California Superbike School there at some point in the future.

I don't think it is just Texas. Colorado has only a couple of orgs and they are not frequent and they are expensive. Perhaps ironically, MN which has a fairly short riding season, has them a lot, generally you can find something nearly every weekend at either DCTC, a technical college of all things, or Brainerd.

I've done VIR in a car on several occasions. It's a decent track where NASCAR runs on occasion. It's an old track so I'm sure the owners have it paid off. COTA is expensive per day...they quote $50,000 per day to rent so they probably limits some of the smaller orgs and that's probably so they can get it paid off. I'm sure VIR is much cheaper per day than COTA. Personally Ridesmart is no where near the same caliber as a California Superbike School. Ridesmart is nice for people on a budget since they basically have a shoestring budget. I'm not sure why Lonestar is closing, but I've never done a track day with them. A lot of they guys I know have never done a track day with them. Could be lack of interest, owner is tired of it, or it could be that with TWS closing they are losing half of the tracks they ran on this year. They only did 7 track days this year to boot and all of them were Cresson and TWS. May not be profitable anymore for them. Only speculating at this point...

DarcShadow wrote:Well part of the problem is you're comparing a professional race course to hobby courses. Big tracks draw big schools, California Superbike school and CLASS motorcycle school are both schools based in CA, and are not cheap. The Conerspeed speed school appears to be VIRs school and only does events at that track.

If you compare events at VIR to events at COTA you would see a closer relation, although COTA is still pretty young and still growing. There are several events at COTA that are not RS and I imagine the number of schools that do events there will continue to grow. Would not surprise me to see California Superbike School there at some point in the future.

Well...I just picked one track happened to be a professional one haha...
Just generally was trying to see why is happening this way...RS has the monopol situation in this State:)

No, they are just the most well known and affordable. BMW & Ducati both run track events, ECR has regular motorcycle events, EuroSport does occasional track days. Others are out there, they're just not as well promoted.

Interesting. I guess I'm in the same boat as Valentina. I knew about RS and LS. I knew that Eurosport did a few, but they are pretty rare, I think only a couple per year. Other than member days and a few open days, I haven't see much at ECR. I saw the web site for Fast Line. It may be that they don't show past events on their calendar but it is empty for this year.

Sunday at Cresson I was parked next to a couple that had drove in from Arizona and they said they really liked the way Ridesmart was geared toward safety and that the few track days they had done back in AZ were more of a free for all without ability grouping. I wouldn't mind paying more if that would get smaller groups. All of the 3 track days I have attended (level 1) were sold out and Sunday they did a 1, 1.5, and level 2 seemed to work ok. I would be willing to dive to a neighboring state for a good track day, but MSRC sure is convenient.

DarcShadow wrote:No, they are just the most well known and affordable. BMW & Ducati both run track events, ECR has regular motorcycle events, EuroSport does occasional track days. Others are out there, they're just not as well promoted.

I dont even know about BMW and Ducati...when where are they doing their events?

JeffStrom wrote:Interesting. I guess I'm in the same boat as Valentina. I knew about RS and LS. I knew that Eurosport did a few, but they are pretty rare, I think only a couple per year. Other than member days and a few open days, I haven't see much at ECR. I saw the web site for Fast Line. It may be that they don't show past events on their calendar but it is empty for this year.

Fast line usually did their track days in Houston area...now not anymore, apparently they ran out of money.
It is just weird...Texas is so BIG and evrything is bigger here...well not many organisations though...maybe it will change.
I like that it is cheaper to go to a track...but i wish it wouldnt be so crowded and there would be more events...

Tooner wrote:Sunday at Cresson I was parked next to a couple that had drove in from Arizona and they said they really liked the way Ridesmart was geared toward safety and that the few track days they had done back in AZ were more of a free for all without ability grouping. I wouldn't mind paying more if that would get smaller groups. All of the 3 track days I have attended (level 1) were sold out and Sunday they did a 1, 1.5, and level 2 seemed to work ok. I would be willing to dive to a neighboring state for a good track day, but MSRC sure is convenient.

I have mixed feelings...it is good that they are safety consious but sometimes it is too much...i think...
Their track days get sooo crowded so it is not fun anymore to be on the track...i think need to have a balance...if there would be more orgs then people would spread out between them...

nitzer wrote:I've done VIR in a car on several occasions. It's a decent track where NASCAR runs on occasion. It's an old track so I'm sure the owners have it paid off. COTA is expensive per day...they quote $50,000 per day to rent so they probably limits some of the smaller orgs and that's probably so they can get it paid off. I'm sure VIR is much cheaper per day than COTA. Personally Ridesmart is no where near the same caliber as a California Superbike School. Ridesmart is nice for people on a budget since they basically have a shoestring budget. I'm not sure why Lonestar is closing, but I've never done a track day with them. A lot of they guys I know have never done a track day with them. Could be lack of interest, owner is tired of it, or it could be that with TWS closing they are losing half of the tracks they ran on this year. They only did 7 track days this year to boot and all of them were Cresson and TWS. May not be profitable anymore for them. Only speculating at this point...

WOW lucky you...:)do you have videos of being on the VIR track?
Yes COTA is expensive...but that is a GP track kinda make sense...
I rode with Lonestar a couple of times, i liked them, but they were doing many times Friday or other weekday when i was working so i couldnt attend.
TWS...huh never closes...they keep telling us for the past 3 years and next year there are already posted events on their website...haha

Valentina wrote:

DarcShadow wrote:No, they are just the most well known and affordable. BMW & Ducati both run track events, ECR has regular motorcycle events, EuroSport does occasional track days. Others are out there, they're just not as well promoted.

I dont even know about BMW and Ducati...when where are they doing their events?

Don't really know. Seems like I always hear about them after the fact.

Valentina wrote:

JeffStrom wrote:Interesting. I guess I'm in the same boat as Valentina. I knew about RS and LS. I knew that Eurosport did a few, but they are pretty rare, I think only a couple per year. Other than member days and a few open days, I haven't see much at ECR. I saw the web site for Fast Line. It may be that they don't show past events on their calendar but it is empty for this year.

Fast line usually did their track days in Houston area...now not anymore, apparently they ran out of money.
It is just weird...Texas is so BIG and evrything is bigger here...well not many organisations though...maybe it will change.
I like that it is cheaper to go to a track...but i wish it wouldnt be so crowded and there would be more events...

Their events are actually pretty open compared to what insurance will allow. I've never felt the track crowded, hell lots of times I can do several laps and never pass/see another rider. Yes there are clumps of riders that can be tough to get through but that'll happen no matter how many riders are on the track. No idea why, but riders always bunch up, doesn't matter if there are 100 or 10, there will always be a bunch for no real reason. And also remember, in order to run the track with a smaller group the cost is going to go up. If you want to run the track with half as many people, you're going to have to pay twice as much.

Valentina wrote:

Tooner wrote:Sunday at Cresson I was parked next to a couple that had drove in from Arizona and they said they really liked the way Ridesmart was geared toward safety and that the few track days they had done back in AZ were more of a free for all without ability grouping. I wouldn't mind paying more if that would get smaller groups. All of the 3 track days I have attended (level 1) were sold out and Sunday they did a 1, 1.5, and level 2 seemed to work ok. I would be willing to dive to a neighboring state for a good track day, but MSRC sure is convenient.

I have mixed feelings...it is good that they are safety consious but sometimes it is too much...i think...
Their track days get sooo crowded so it is not fun anymore to be on the track...i think need to have a balance...if there would be more orgs then people would spread out between them...

Maybe, but that wasn't really the case when there were other orgs. Everyone kind of stuck to the org they knew best. I only ever ran with LoneStart twice, and never did that other group that was around for awhile.

The 1, 1.5 and 2 on the 1.3 track is only done because the racers that run in level 3 don't like the 1.3 and therefor the level 3 never sells out. Which to me is a real bummer because I want to run the 1.3 in the level 3 so that I can pass more freely and not be restricted by the level 2 rules.
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Valentina wrote:It is just weird...Texas is so BIG and evrything is bigger here...well not many organisations though...maybe it will change.
I like that it is cheaper to go to a track...but i wish it wouldnt be so crowded and there would be more events...

Even though it is bigger and has more people, Texas may be too skewed towards Harleys.

So far I think I'm the only one that doesn't feel like the track is crowded.

I've never really felt it crowded. Not to put anyone down, but I feel those that think the track is crowed are the newer, less experienced, who simply can't handle traffic and passing/being passed. As I said, there are certainty times when there are large bunches of riders, but that's easily solved by pulling into hot pit and letting the bunch get halfway or so around the track. If/when you catch up, the bunch should have dissipated some and you should be able to pick your way through. Honestly picking my way through, finding the right time/place to pass is what I enjoy most at the track. Sure running a few laps out in the open is nice and can get you a good idea of your fast lap times, but dealing with traffic is what keeps track days interesting.

I agree. If I had wide open track all day it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

I have to agree. I enjoy some traffic and I don't think I have ever really thought it was to crowded. Besides that running around the track on the SV without traffic would be a very boring day at the track..... I really like passing on a corner to watch people fly back past me on the straight (makes me giggle).

DemonDuck wrote:to watch people fly back past me on the straight (makes me giggle).

BMW... just sayin.

fixxervi6 wrote:So far I think I'm the only one that doesn't feel like the track is crowded.

You have a fast bike?!
Well i do feel crowded...maybe because i stuck in Level 1:)

Valentina wrote:

fixxervi6 wrote:So far I think I'm the only one that doesn't feel like the track is crowded.

You have a fast bike?!
Well i do feel crowded...maybe because i stuck in Level 1:)

Based on what I've seen of your riding, you don't strike me as a level 1 rider. Level 2 they allow outside passing all day and I can tell you that makes a big difference.