Ambulance question with LSTD (Friday practice)

[Michael Klesel]

Not starting this thread for drama but I do feel upset with how the past 2 LSTD events for Friday practice have gone.

The past 2 events there has been a bunch of track time lost. I understand that in the event of a accident if the rider needs to be transported then the track cannot and will not be ran until another ambulance is back at the track. I understand that, I agree with that. What I don't understand is why we can't have 2 ambulances on site to help minimize this issue?

So im curious, is $150.00 a rider not enough to have 2 ambulances on site? We pay premium price to ride this Friday "race" practice, yet we haven't got premium track time.

What do some of the riders think?

[Kasey Lewis]

I wouldn't call $150 "premium price", seems about the going rate.

[Tom Anderson]

Mike if you would have attended the riders meeting Friday you would have been able to ask this question probably. The easy answer is that we have to pay for and schedule these events in advance. Sometimes, like last Friday, we have a good turnout. Easily 80 percent of the people in attendance Friday paid the day of. More times than not, attendance does not pay the bills on Friday. However if we know in advance by pre registration that attendance is going to be good, we can make accommodations for a second ambulance. unfortunately at almost every single Friday event, there is no pre-registration. We have no way of knowing how many people are going to come or are not going to come.

[Chris Fields]

What would the track day price be if two ambulances are reserved for each event?

[Steve McNamara]

There are two issues. Pre registration numbers are very low this season except for our street group. We have to guess who is just going to show up. Another change at the last 2 events is St. Joseph Hospital is now the ambulance service for TWS. They are in Bryan which is pretty far away. The experts got 6 sessions on Friday everybody else got 5. Not bad considering the last event of the year crashing. An extra ambulance would pump up the price by $10.00 per rider. If I could predict the future I would buy another ambulance and not raise the rate. Maybe we could ask riders to make an attempt to pre-register so we can plan better.

[Greg Gilstrap]

Tom, you make valid points that the people attending the track day are most-often last-minute registrants. Is it plausible though, that this is a historical pattern that LSTD could still expect, that people register last-minute, and LSTD can truly expect?

I did not attend the event this past Friday, which I always normally do, but did hear about the events that unfolded, upon my Saturday arrival. The situation brought up here, it's not just the last two events, but the last three events, as the afternoon at Cresson was delayed with a helo transport too.

The character of the day, as you pointed out of attending the morning riders meeting, is always treated as "it's a track day". But, let's really be honest... This is not just a weekend track day, it's a race practice day for the Novice / Expert class racers, preparing for Saturday endurance and/or Sunday sprints. It's only a 'track day' for the Street group. Shouldn't it be a default to have two ambulances present, in this situation?

(I was typing my post, as Steve replied, thank you for that information Steve)

[Mike Petitpas]

I have also been dissappointed in track time at last 2 Friday LSTD events. However, I am not dissappointed in LSTD at all. I put the blame solely on the participants. I realize crashes happen. I just think some folks have been pushing too hard as it seems like there has been an inordinate amount of crashes and injuries. This often ruins not only their weekend but negatively affect a lot of other people as well. As Steve mentions at every single riders meeting, it's a practice day, not a race. Nobody wins a track day.

[Peyton Inge]

I wouldn't call $150 "premium price", seems about the going rate.

Cmra racers pay about $80 with Ridesmart. Extreme charges even less. $150 is more than any other org has ever been able to sustain.

[Michael Klesel]

Cmra racers pay about $80 with Ridesmart. Extreme charges even less. $150 is more than any other org has ever been able to sustain.

I would also like to add to this.

RS had a track day which racers paid $80.00 to ride and they had some red flags that day and I believe we lost 2 sessions. What did Dave do? He spoke with whomever, I'm assuming the owners, and got the track for another hour to help out the riders.

I thought this was real cool.

[Dennis King]

Other organizations manage to offer trackdays at much smaller cost to the riders and seem to still be in business for many years.