MA National Grading System Proposal

[cormac]

Hi Nick,

Hope you don't mind me sharing my perspective on the grading system and club racing from the perspective of the novice.

I came to road racing in my mid-thirties, like many mostly because it was the only phase of my life where I could afford the cost of the machinery, track time and the training to make me safe enough to participate in a racing event. As with any sport, I assume our goals are to encourage participation by making things accessible, fair and safe.

Fairness

The challenge I see with D grade is participants are not actually graded. In ClubSport 600 at EC we have the faster end doing 1:40's and the slower end doing 1:58's. The large disparity in times and skill levels within the group diminishes the enjoyment for new entrants as they are simply never going to be competitive in their own grade. Other codes go to great lengths to make sure participants are competing against people with similar skill level at the initial stages.

My view is that it’s not helpful to refer to novices as not being in a grade. I think grading is most critical at the entry level as it will drive ongoing participation.

My suggestion would be to make the grading for new entrants more dynamic, by continually assessing race results and moving riders with times consistently outside of the normal distribution.

Accessibility

The leap between participating in a track days and club racing for many is a huge one. The leap has to be made by the novice with little or no support. By contrast, the transition from road riding to track is supported by StayUpRight, SuperBike School, TopRider etc. while the transition to racing has no direct support that I am aware of.

By direct I mean events where participants are coached on race starts, race etiquette, strategy e.g. don’t try to win the race in 3 corners, etc.

Perhaps the concept of mentoring should be promoted at club level so people in the higher grades would be encouraged to support newcomers in D grade.


Safety

After seeing the horrific incident on Saturday at St. George I would prefer the introduction of the smaller 3x3x3 grid as you have already proposed.

The importance of getting away on the grid is also a worthy topic for the D grader briefing on the first day. Newcomers like myself arrive at with zero experience starting from a stationary grid.

As silly as it sounds an already overwhelmed newcomer may not understand the implication of stalling on the grid and is taking risks they don’t full understand by attempting to get an aggressive start.

[Metal-Man]

The leap has to be made by the novice with little or no support. By contrast, the transition from road riding to track is supported by StayUpRight, SuperBike School, TopRider etc. while the transition to racing has no direct support that I am aware of.

By direct I mean events where participants are coached on race starts, race etiquette, strategy e.g. don’t try to win the race in 3 corners, etc.

They have Race Your Mates (RYM) at Wakefield Park, which gives you an introduction into race starts

[Marshy]

They have Race Your Mates (RYM) at Wakefield Park, which gives you an introduction into race starts

Not any more. Pity, because it was the best thing anyone ever did to encourage new racers. Credit where credit is due; good work by TON.

[Ruckos87]

They have Race Your Mates (RYM) at Wakefield Park, which gives you an introduction into race starts

Not any more. Only in other states Terry parted ways with Wakefield park. Was a great introduction and needs to be introduced in some way at SMSP.


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