Good, bad, and everything in between. Lets hear your thoughts regarding Supercross 2014 so that we can make 2015 even more awesome.

We have to streamline registration, especially on the first day. On the one hand we were telling people who pre-reg'd for multiple races in one day to use the same number, and the next we were finding out they should be using different numbers.

And where's my shirt??

- streamline reg

The main thing I learned (well I really already knew it) is that we have a bunch of dedicated and hard working folks on this club, especially those who were able to make it out multiple days from sunup to sundown. And Myles is a course visionary. If you haven't stuck around on a Saturday night to rearrange the course in the dark, you are missing out on ton of fun and confusion that ultimately melds into a course that's not just run backwards but feels very different.

Since I worked podium/prizes on Saturday, I'll comment on that portion:

Podium - it took a while on Saturday morning to get the podium set up and once we did, a lot of the folks from the earlier races were gone. The ones that weren't gone milled around getting cold. Getting the podium set up earlier would have been good but that was a sheer manpower issue. I think the key is to do the podium immediately after the race. Like before the next race even starts. The top 3 (and 99% of the time there is no doubt who that is) should make their way directly to the podium. And the podium crew should be there ready for them. Get a photo, give em their prizes, and let em get out of their wet clothes and warmed up. I will personally be responsible to make sure this happens more efficiently next year.

Prizes - The categories that got money - no problem (except that Myles could probably write those checks days in advance and save himself the hassle on race day). The categories that got merchandise, I think it was a bit of a fail. While the collegiate racers where stoked to get a case of Red Bull, the 45+ guys were a bit flummoxed. Not sure if this improved on Sunday. My feeling is that it's just one of those things that needs someone to pay special attention to in the days leading up to the race. I would also be willing to help out with the organization of merch prizes next year. If Myles (or someone else) has made the initial sponsor contact, it could be a task assigned to someone to keep in touch with them and organize getting the material to the venue.

All for now.

jim_nelson said:

While the collegiate racers where stoked to get a case of Red Bull, the 45+ guys were a bit flummoxed. 

hah!!!! 

best music ever played during a bike race- Fugazi's "Repeater" in its entirety during Saturday's 4/5 race…..a refreshing change from the usual gaymo schlock e.g. Coldplay, Black Eyed Peas, Bruno Mars etc

Ballpoint pens do not write in very cold temps.

Announcer: I'll echo Wes' sentiment about the announcer. The guy was terrible, had absolutely nothing insightful to say. Nothing. The extent of his commentary was:"good job (bro)," "lookin' good (bro)," lookin' strong (bro)". Nice guy, but just terrible.

I agree with everything being posted here...especially the part about me being the announcer next year! Haha.

Seriously though, I've been pretty involved with multiple facets of the volunteers crew for Supercross for the past 3 years. And I have to say, that things are improving. From having more of the right tools to use during course set-up and change over like actual, mostly not broken rakes to supplement the leaf blower, to a registration process that was actually better, to a good selection of food trucks, there were many many positives this year.

In general, as we think about things we can do to improve our race, I think first about the things that directly intersect with the racers and their expectations.

• We need more volunteers, plain and simple. Because ultimately a handful or two of extra dedicated volunteers go above and beyond to make sure the race comes off smoothly and you know what? There's only so many years they can spend 6 hours in the pitch black on Sunday night tearing down the course. A job that could easily be cut in half with a few more people to assist. So what ends up happening is that those volunteers get burnt out, frustrated by lack of organization, whatever and decline to help the next year. And on the one hand, I get that. But on the other hand, Supercross is kind of a BFD, and the fact that we've got such a huge club that struggles to fill volunteer positions every year makes me grumpy.
  
  
• I don't know if we have a "volunteer requirement" like the CRCA does, but it seems to me that if you are on a club with benefits, then you should put in your time giving back.
  
  
• Dovetailing off of Jim's comment offer to "Captain" the podium team. Each volunteer area should have one person who knows WTF is going on. There was a lot of "blind leading the blind" from my point of view at registration, for example. There was way too much of me asking, "Who's in charge of _____?" and getting shrugged shoulders and "I don't knows" in response. We need a team of race volunteer captains.
  

• Tom Mains, our timing guy let it slip that he can do registration. The numbers, the everything. That's one of his things. Yes there are ways to improve registration should we continue to keep it in-house. And I can say for sure, we improved from last year. But for me, take the money we spent on Gnarly Monkey which has yet to post anything about our race on their website or youtube, the money spent on Mr. Green announcing, and give some/all of it to Tom to take care of registration. He promises that he can handle 300+ riders per day with just one other person.
  
  
• Bike wash station. To me, one of the things that makes the better races stand out, are the ones with legit bike wash stations. We were close this year, with a power washer and a big barrel of water, but one of these years, it's going to be really muddy and we're going to need a bigger barrel. Maybe we can get Pedros to come like they do to Gloucester and run the bike wash station.
  
  
• Gift cards, if we have cash to give out, like the "Mall Gift Cards" which were AMEX cards, making them as good as cash really. We should use them as prizes. If you look at the pre-reg numbers, and the number of people who did not care to even pick up their cards, it just wasn't a registration motivation. On the other hand if a cat 4 gets $15 for podiuming, then that's better than he would do at Providence, Gloucester or just about any other big cross race. (Oddly enough, the small local races usually do a better job of prizes for all.)

FWIW, riffing off my last point. I'm here at Bay State this weekend, and their race registration numbers are up about 100 over ours. And what did they offer? Gift cards? Happy Hours? Red Bull? No, nothing. Zip bubkus. Racers are used to going to races and getting jack shit. Guess what kind of goodies they have at the race for racers? Food trucks? Nope...well, the Hot Shot Cafe is here, but they're more of a coffee truck than anything. Our race is so much better than Bay State in so many ways, and yet people flock to Bay State because it has history. And they benefit from being a part of a series.

That's all for now. My brain is going a little mushy.

And don't do this... upside down sponsor banner = fail