please explain club racing and track days

i am looking into trackdays and club racing. Not to sure about all the details, i figure some of you guys do track days, and club ridin. What are some of the rules about your club. I live in NJ, so i am familiar with pro-motion. There is 1 other i have seen the flyer for, i forget. Pro-motion i saw i the net, like $500.00 membership, that's not including the track days, classes, etc... Do i have to be a member to do track days??? I saw other memberships, cheaper ones, but not all the god stuff as the expensive membership. What do you guys recommend, or have tried! Just looking for some input, don't want to join a club and don't like it. I know i will love the track time, and that's what i am looking for the most! If it's better to just do track days and show up somewhere, so be it! ct

Track days you don't race and you can ride your bike lightly prepped for the track. You also don't need a racing license to do track days Club Racing is full out racing. Think of it like the farm league for the AMA. There are various Club racing Organizations around the country. CCS and WERA are two of them. To club race, you need to attend a race school and usually participate in a rookie race. Then you apply for a license. There are also many requirements for bike prep which vary some organization to organization.

Trackdays are a ball. Once you do one trackday you will think the street scene sucks. Trackdays for a sportbike rider is like crack to an addict, you're always chasing the next hit. One day at the track with a riders school (not a race school) is worth more than 1 year on the street trying to "learn" on your own or from others. Club racing is grassroots racing. Like the above post, it is the farm league for us wanna be AMA racers. Some AMA racers that do not have full sponsored rides in AMA will dip down into the club racing circuit to earn good money to help them achieve their AMA dreams. The top expert in each club racing assoc. can earn around $10,000 (maybe a little more, maybe a little less) in a single day of racing provided he raced in about 5-7 races. I race in CMRA (Central Motorcycle Roadracing Assoc.) which has put out more top AMA and some MotoGP riders. The Haydens, Ben Spies, Collin Edwards, Ty Howard are to name just a few recent top riders out of CMRA. Club racing is expensive to do as a hobby, easily costing $700-$1000 (depending on number of races and tires for multiple bikes) per race day with race fees, tires, gas, lodging, food, misc. parts/equipment. The atmosphere a club racing is on fire, you have to attend a club race. We're talking 20 sprint races (thats about 6-8 laps) in one day. One race after another with very little stoppage.

The atmosphere a club racing is on fire, you have to attend a club race. We're talking 20 sprint races (thats about 6-8 laps) in one day. One race after another with very little stoppage. It is amazing. So fast paced. I do it for a lot less than 800 a day though. Probably around 500 a weekend as long as I don't crash or have to buy tires (or both :D ) That includes, gas, electricity, tolls, entry fees for 5 races, and food. I have a sleeper trailer and park it in the infield. Plus I race an SV which goes through less tires than a GSXR.

It is amazing. So fast paced. I do it for a lot less than 800 a day though. Probably around 500 a weekend as long as I don't crash or have to buy tires (or both :D ) That includes, gas, electricity, tolls, entry fees for 5 races, and food. I have a sleeper trailer and park it in the infield. Plus I race an SV which goes through less tires than a GSXR. We mini endurance a TZ125 (aaaaah, the smell of 2 strokes in the morning), plus I do about 4 sprints on my R6, fresh set of tires every race day. So even if you bought tires everyother race day and split the cost between 2 race days that would be about $650-ish :hmmm: ? I want an RS250 so bad

Oh, just a thought. Even if you don't want to club race or just don't quite have the nerve or budget, you can get the best seat in the house by being a corner worker at the race. All you have to do is pay around $50 per year to the race organization to be an associate member...not an actual racer. When you corner work, you will get paid (at least in CMRA they pay $60 per day) and you get to be feet away from the action/crashes and help the racers. The radio traffic is cool to listen to as a corner worker, you will hear all the action that is happening in each corner as it happens

We mini endurance a TZ125 (aaaaah, the smell of 2 strokes in the morning), plus I do about 4 sprints on my R6, fresh set of tires every race day. So even if you bought tires everyother race day and split the cost between 2 race days that would be about $650-ish :hmmm: ? I want an RS250 so bad I can get about 2 to 3 weekends out of a set of tires depending on if I practice on the day before the race weekends or not. How long do your 125 tires last? I was going to get a 125 but I weigh 200 pounds and wasn't sure I wanted to o rebuild the motor every season.

the pro motion membership you were looking at is thier platnium or premier level one. i cant remember what they call it now. for most trackday orgs they offer membership which get you discounted entry fees to their events. with pro-motion it saves you around $25 per day so if you do more than 3 or 4 days a year you've saved money. they have a membership that only costs like $65 a year or something like that. They also have one that's like 135 or so, this one gets you a few extrs benifits, better discounts on parts and no late entry fees for events. thatalonesaved me a couple of hunderd this year alone. then there is nesba, a good org. that i rode with a few years ago until a disagreement with their mgt. (long story... good group but i dont ride with them, there are others for me to spend my $$$ with) then there is sportbike track time, another good group that even offers a "school" withtheir novice class for free. they are great for a first timer because they go over all of the track basics with and offer some really good instruction. there are "cr's" or control riders/ coaches with all of these groups and you can get a ton of great help from any of the "shirted" riders. all you have to do is ask and they will help you out. track days are fun filled days pushing your personal limits and finding out what you and your bike can do in a fun safe enviroment where the only trophy is going home in one piece at the end of the day. then there are track schools and race schools that will get you your liscense to race. there are some really good ones out there. racing is just that. if youre in front of me i want to pass you and beat you to the checkerd flag.

thanx for all the info guys, like i said i live in NJ, anyone around me go to any of these things? I could probably afford to go, but my buddies maybe not. So i would like to meet some people there! Good people=good times! Taz, what tracks do you go to now?? Figure the below NJ stays warmer a little longer! Definetly want to get into club racing, fill that need for speed!! Anybody got any contacts, or links, so i can do some more checking?? chris

CMRA webpage: http://www.cmraracing.com/ WERA webpage: http://www.wera.com/ SportBike Track Time (STT): http://www.sportbiketracktime.com/ Those are the ones that I know anything at all about. For others you can always google "motorcycle club racing" and that sort of thing. I have done four trackdays with STT and I have nothing but praise for the novice class. They want you to have a good time, but they really want you to learn how to ride your bike better and expand your limits in a safe environment. I have ridden at Barber with them four times now; two days (one weekend) in June and two days (one weekend) in October. I finally jumped up into the Intermediate group for the second day in October, and I felt incredibly confident after that. Even though it was my first time in Intermediate, I was still able to pass quite a lot of riders, making me feel even better. Knowing I could ride my bike the way it was meant to be ridden really made it all worthwhile. Plus, I turned over 15,000 miles on my 2005 600 while I was there. Yippee! Chango

Taz, what tracks do you go to now?? Figure the below NJ stays warmer a little longer! chris I race at Loudon, NH at NHIS. Next year if time allows, I am going to go to VIR at least once. The people at the track, by enlarge, are some of the best people I have met in 24 years of riding on the street.

TAZ - look into Shannonville. Great track. Also, do you know Wildbill?

If I do, I don't know him by that name :headshake Shannonville looks nice but how far is it from Ontario to Massachusetts? My wife always go with me when I race. She would probably enjoy a change of scenery. I wonder if my CCS license would transfer over?

check it out man www.shannonville.com Several of us are planing on renting the track this summer. 4 hours from Central NY. His name is Bill, he races at Louden too. Kick ass track. I've been there many years in a row for the Louden Classic.

I was checking it out. Where in Central NY? It takes around 6 hours to get from here to Oswego/Syracuse. Definitely keep in touch about the track rental, I might be interested as long as my time off could be managed. I could probably get other rider/racers to go if you needed a few more.