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Texas/Oklahoma 2006 - Race Series???? Part 1: 2005 Classes and Entries |
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The purpose of this series of reports is to provide background information about the habits and wants of the racers in the Texas Region so we can work together in making improvements. In Part 1 we'll focus on statistics taken from the results of nearly all the 2005 Regional Racing that Texas and Oklahoma are a part of. Regional level racing in Texas and Oklahoma tends to start out strong and by mid season participation drops off sharply. That could be a sign there is too much regional racing to keep the interest among everyone. The same message echoed from racers has been "too many races not enough racers". Contributing to the problem is the fact we have too many Orgs trying to collect from the same group of racers. Each Org runs their own Regional series, and each org tries to stand out from the rest with what they offer. In 2005 the Texas Oklahoma Regional Race scene just plain got out of hand. Too many Regional weekends of racing, too many classes, too much cost, not enough racers to go around. Adding the total, there were 43 weekends of Regional Race events not including special and National events.
Sifting through the results from each of series we compiled the racer market data:
Adding to the data are some of the more common complaints heard among the racers. In the order they seem to be said the most; "Not enough entries in my class" "Too many classes not enough track time" "Travel time and costs are high because the Region is too big" "Friday should not be the only practice day" "Racing in 100° heat is not fun" The Rotaxians fit into a unique set of circumstances; Most of them run as an exclusive points series with a "Region" awarded to each Franchise. Franchises in Tulsa, Ft Worth, Austin, and Houston all have their own series. Tulsa and Houston have teamed up with KART, while Austin and Ft Worth have added each their series to their local track's Club racing programs. Among the largest of the 4 Rotax Challenge Series is held centrally in Denton Texas. There are several suggestions currently to revise this program as a stand-alone series. If that were to happen, it could help ease the excess class issue for the non-Rotax class issues as the rationalized class count would drop from 14 to 9. Shifters have continued erode following the Regional class structures. 80cc participation levels have practically dropped off the radar over the last two years with no interest among any upcoming Cadets. There is still some interest among the Long Track crowd but there to the entries are dropping fast. 125 Shifters have become fragmented with various configurations that the existing organizations have put together. Stock 125 Shifter has a significant growth potential even better then TAG Sr enjoyed. However as it sits today we have 7 variations of 125 shifters running in Texas alone;
If these 7 configurations were merged into two groups, they actually have the 3rd and 4th highest average entry counts of all 14 classes. 125 Motos are big at the Long Tracks while ICC's are big at the Short Tracks. Many Motos would come back to race a few Short Tracks if they were given a fair adjustment to run with ICC's. The following is a list of the classes in order of the total entry counts;
Those who are looking at a new class for Regional Racing for 2006 would probably want to consider the following; Cadet Karts
Junior Karts
Senior Karts
Shifter Karts
Tracks are a major part of any planning for a series. Here are a list of tracks that would meet minimum requirements for most but not all racers;
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