How often do we want to race in the winter?.......

[Gavin Collingwood]

With the indoor winter season fast approaching, I was wondering how people felt about how often we hold meetings indoor?
Now I know last season myself and many others weren't best pleased with the fact we only had 7 meetings all winter, the question I'm asking you guys as members is
How often do we want meetings held?
Please enter your answer into the poll

[fil9144]

Originally Posted by Gavin Collingwood

With the indoor winter season fast approaching, I was wondering how people felt about how often we hold meetings indoor?
Now I know last season myself and many others weren't best pleased with the fact we only had 7 meetings all winter, the question I'm asking you guys as members is
How often do we want meetings held?
Please enter your answer into the poll

I think doesn't alot of it come down to cost and venue? I going try and get hold of the number for the owner of a very large mill which is in Radcliffe which i did speak to si about as i spoke to roger quite some time about it.. I will try get one with getting contact details next week but would say it would be cheap to rent but only issue will be weather it can be used on a part time basis or not

[Si Coe]

Last year there was us, Southport and Chadderton.
There is zero point going up against Chadderton so we can cross those weekends off to start with.
Several Bury drivers went to some Southport events - including you and me! If they run a Turf Wars series like last year I'd expect those days to be quiet for us too.
So I'd say 1 in 3 works best.

[budfish]

Non of the above I think it should be once a month 2 weeks after each chadderton(batleys) meeting untill a better and cheaper venue is sourced for next winter just my opinion

[Gavin Collingwood]

Originally Posted by Si Coe

Last year there was us, Southport and Chadderton.
There is zero point going up against Chadderton so we can cross those weekends off to start with.
Several Bury drivers went to some Southport events - including you and me! If they run a Turf Wars series like last year I'd expect those days to be quiet for us too.
So I'd say 1 in 3 works best.

I won't be going to southport this winter everytime I went there last year was because bury was closed. I hate the surface it's rubbish in my opinion and very hard on tyres

[sticky]

Only going to race at Bury indoors, not interested in other sites. I can't always make the dates I want, so if meetings only every 3 weeks I could miss loads. I'm guessing others could feel the same?

[Gavin Collingwood]

Exactly. See si, not everyone wants to do chad. It's a strange venue with a funnie surface. So not everyone likes it. So far 100% fortnightly...... Interesting

[Si Coe]

I've not raced at Chadderton since Batley took over. However it does get 80-100 drivers so it will reduce the numbers coming to Bury. That matters as indoor meets barely break even as it is.

In a more practical note you'll be needing a race controller every other meeting if you run fortnightly.
My wife says I agreed once a month over winter and she's got a gym membership based on my looking after the kids the other Sundays.

[sticky]

Maybe look at it the other way, Bury could poach from that 80....?

[Gavin Collingwood]

Well we'd have to arrange times for other people to do race control. I'd say a huge amount of those drivers are batley members. I would guess of the bury member that go to chad would be around 5-6. You're thinking about this the wrong way si. And if this other venue is cheaper AND closer. It would make sense to keep fortnightly. It's been popular in the summer. What's the worst that can happen? If it turns out your right we just run less....

[Big Show]

I agree with Si. As a club we bearley break even on winter racing as other clubs run meetings on the dates we dont run, like chadderton winter series, and southports indoors. I think we have left it a bit late in the season to be looking for a new venue. The other thing is like Si has mentioned He has to share his time with his family. The other rason for me is it hard enought to get people to set up a track when racing once a month, people would soon get fed up of setting up and putting away as we have seen in the summer series. People turn u when the track has been set up and soon disapeer when racing is over leaving the same people to put away. This task is harder over the winter as everything has to be put away and last year I got a bit p***ed off doing this task ( always the same people packing up).

[Big Show]

As to the amount of racing over the winter. IF I am correct and anyone feel free to correct me, the winter racing was descused at the AGM i.e venue and amount of dates. If people wanted to change the winter racing details they should have come to th AGM and put their veiws across to the commity.

[Big Show]

I dont think we could poach any drivers from the chadderton meeting. It is a well astablished venue and race meeting which is well attended. We race at this venue and their are more than 7 drivers from Bury that race their. Some of the drivers from other clubs that have raced at Bury over the summer also go to chadderton so you would see very low numbers if we increase the race dates which have already been decided.

[fil9144]

The only way you get people is to do somthing diff i think Gav ie racing on week night but that wont suit every1 and yet again it be down to cost..southport indoors and chadderton arnt worth competing with and even if we did a winter series we would have do it on diff dates to them or risk having low number

[budfish]

Chadderton winter series sets up on a Saturday afternoon like we did when we ran the event. It meant we had a good few hours to set up and add big time consuming features that you couldn't even think about doing on the morning of the race.

As for cost chadderton cost roughly double than count hill but 90 drivers average per meeting makes it more financially sound than where we race.also the place the raced before count hill in farnworth was a dusty felt surface that was cool to race on was half the cost of count hill. When I nailed roger down on his figures the club made £800 over the winter when we raced at farnworth and loses £500 over the winter at count hill

[Lee1972]

If you can get a venue in the Bury / Bolton area why don't you try weekly meets? Ribble Valley runs at Leyland every Friday night over winter bar about two weeks for Christmas and can have over seventy racers attending granted twenty maybe Mardave racers. My point being with a venue closer to this area you may attract people who would normally go to other venues when you're not running.

[johnnygibbon]

agree the farnworth venue was the best we ever had great surface
we lost for a year to cricketers but that years passed, can any one remember what it was called?
i think any racing in winters a bonus, i missed chadderton last year but i will be racing it this year for sure
chadderton aint just batley members its packed with racers from all over england scotland and wales i enjoy the big meeting and love the surface i reckon they do to , it just needs woodys jumps like years ago hahaha
but i think we will always get an ok turnout through winter no need to compete with other meetings really
and also who else can work the software we do depend on si a lot it would be good if any one else who is computer savvy could learn the software and give him a break now and again , also it would give us more options to run race days
share the load

also good work today darren , daves a top chap hope he can help us
burys a busy club again and the committee and members are making some positive changes
its good to see
indoor or out racings generally enjoyable for all

[Howler]

I'll be back soon, i would be ok with race control i think. Si might have to give me a bit of a refresher.

[Si Coe]

Be better if you download and have a play with RC Timing because I want to switch to that. Then we can work it out together.

Finding a venue isn't easy. We need a hall for a whole Sunday, we need a large amount of space in the hall, somewhere to park cars, power and most importantly we need a large area to store ramps and carpet at the venue.
Its the latter that really determines where we can race.

[budfish]

Originally Posted by Si Coe

Finding a venue isn't easy. We need a hall for a whole Sunday, we need a large amount of space in the hall, somewhere to park cars, power and most importantly we need a large area to store ramps and carpet at the venue.
Its the latter that really determines where we can race.

Agreed. There's nothing can be done as far as a new venue this year but we all could scout possibilities for next winter hopefully closer to bury metro.