vr6

iTrader: (22)

My local track where I am the race director has so far since the beginning of November has ran 5 points days, 1 warm up day and one trophy race

for our points races and warmup day, we have averaged 141 total entries with this past weekend having our highest total of 175 entries

My question is when is it to many entries for a points race ?

it took 12 hours this weekend to get through the race program with about 20 mins break for a resort between rounds

all the days about 98% of people stay because they are local or within a 90 min drive

I am not the owner and he would not limit the total entries, and have yet to hear complaints about how long the days are

we do run most 10th scale classes and even ebuggy and etruggy on the same day

days are 2 rounds plus the mains

Silverbullet555

iTrader: (16)

I'd kill for those kinds of turnouts.

It could certainly be a long day. As the RD, it's a really long day. Is that the rub? Does there need to be a second RD?

vr6

iTrader: (22)

few things

• with it being such a high turnout, these days just drag on and concerned that they are starting to feel like trophy races where they could be a 2 day race format
• are we potentially hurting interested in people in coming to the track or joining the hobby because of the very long days?

lastly, yes this is kind of a rub as the RD. I have tried to get others to help out and about 2 people do, but it is usually 1 or 2 heats a round (pee breaks for me) and that is all, they are there to race, not call races. No one has interest in doing any RD even though they would be compensated and their race entries would be free for all their classes

this also has had a negative impact on my time to race where I have yet to race this season because of the high turnouts. the owner works the hobby shop with his 1 other staff member which leaves me alone for daily RD duties

jiml

iTrader: (3)

First thing I gotta say is there are worse problems to have

But it does suck for you if you're not getting the help you need. Keep asking the racers for help. Entice them if you can with free entry or even pay.

If you only have a few complaints about the length of the race day then you really don't have a problem. With that many entries you can lose a few. Yes you may be losing some newbies but you need to find something else to get them to stay.

Split up the race days? Or more than one so people can choose when to race?

Silverbullet555

iTrader: (16)

Makes sense. There is certainly a limit to what can be done in a 1 day program. A 2 day program would expand, reduce stress and potentially cause some people not to come. But, if it was expanded slightly to add more value may attract some out of towners. I know there are some races about 8 hours away that pull 180ish for a 1 day race. From a travel perspective, it's 8 hours drive each way for a very large club race. If it was a 2 day race with an expanded format, we would.

It sounds like a good conversation with the owner is in order to determine the next steps in the progression of this race. Shrink it a little by combining classes perhaps or expand it and make it more impactful.

billdelong

iTrader: (33)

Out at Thornhill, they have learned to start the program earlier, do away with re-sorts and don't take any breaks other than to sort the mains for their series races.


They do a really good job of finishing the program no later than 8pm... if time permits based on turnout, they may add some breaks and possibly a re-sort, but not uncommon to be done by 6pm

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

Sounds like they're taking advantage of you. I'd suggest making yourself unavailable for a round, to remind them how much they rely on you. Then tell them the maximum number of hours you're prepared to do it for. Make it their problem to either get someone to take over at the half way mark, or shorten the race program.

jiml

iTrader: (3)

The problem with this solution is the potential that you will lose more racers than gain help. Unfortunately there are a number of racers that are just selfish.

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

If the club is going to lose racers due to the RD missing one day, they're already in an untenable position. What if they actually get sick or have some other commitment?

jiml

iTrader: (3)

Good question. I'm not a fan of putting people in a bad position just to prove a point. That tends to backfire

vr6

iTrader: (22)

thanks for everyone's replies

This weekend i will be able to race and the owner will take on the RD duties for the day and will get a family member of his to help out in the hobby shop

I do not want to steer away from my original post though, when and if should the owner limit basic club style race entries so as to not make the days so long or to get others that have considered coming to our track actually come

we have 2 other indoor clay tracks within 2 hours of us and their numbers are no where near ours but can say that by looking at just the names, most of them have not come to the track i RD at. I can understand loyalty 100%

GerryH

iTrader: (26)

One of the things we did when we had lots of people showing up and racing was going well past the point where we should be ending, we made a couple of changes. First, we reduced the time between races to 2 minutes. Normally it was 5-10 mins. Sorry if you're not ready after being warned near the end of the previous race, then we're moving on without you. I ended up using Live Time's announcement feature to count down the time between (but not actually start the race).

And if that didn't work we reduced the length of the heats by 1 minute.

vr6

iTrader: (22)

I currently only give 2 minutes between heats and the races are ran with a "live loop" so when that 2 minutes expires, I start the race unless I need to field additional marshalls

One of the reason we have a weekly high entry count is because multiple people run 3-4 classes. when asked why they run so many classes, most common answer is because the days are so long....... well duh... more entries means more time needed to complete the day

1 thing that might help is breaking up the days where we only run 10th scale cars 1 day, and 1/8th scale cars on another day, that there is about 40-50 entries on a given race day

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

I'd start limiting multi entries before limiting the number of people. Max 2 classes initially.

GerryH

iTrader: (26)

This was the next thing we were considering too. Running only certain classes per day. We looked at who was running which classes and determining which ones to group together. The goal was to minimize the number of racers that would be forced to run 2 separate days. But luckily the other changes and making sure we start on time made enough of a difference to work.