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they are now posted on the njbmx forum under state series.
on readying your posts about how bmx helped you avoid jail time, etc it reminded me of a discussion i had with roger in ct some time ago. he said his track sponsors some youth every yr( they officially have a fund for this from their track) where they take some kids who are first time offenders and sponsor them to race. they are not violent kids just trying to get them on the right track. they have someone who picks them up in a van/ brings the trailer to the track( trailer has a bike for each of them to use and helmet) and they race every week at no cost. they use this as a promo for the town also which is helping them plus the kids. eventually they become track regulars ( some of them) and parents say it has turned them around as well. giving them a place to have fun , contribute and release energy and learn to follow rules and gain self esteem in the process. i dont know the exact set up of this program but it sounds great. i can see some of you guys who have been thru similar issues doing this (mentor thing again) in your home town. you know they always listen to those who have been there , done that…. just a thought.
water over the damn and that had nothign to do with the track that was another issue as i have explained to you before.
i will say that i had heard somethng while at the nat last weekend and i hope to God its not true… will know this weekend “fo sho”…if it is true i can tell you now i will be very very upset and you wont be hearing from me any longer.
i hope the maturity level hasnt sunk to this as in the long run it hurts the riders not anyone else.
end of discussion from my end….
i for one was all excited to hear when rich( back a few yrs) offered to help out hc but i believe ( now dont quote me on this)there were some “personality issues” and “ego issues” at that time and the people involved in this are no longer involved(older riders) so that tells me the ppl who come and shoot off a bout you should do this and we should do that…come in like gang busters and when someone dosnt agree with them..well im going home…not very productive.( not rich)
that sseems to be the order of the day not just with flem but others as well.
so when you say someone offerd to do a face lift and hc refused..thats not the whole story…. please dont make it sound so simple when it wasnt ( from my recollection)and please lets not rehash old crap that is not relavant at this time…
yes jimmy is correct. ther were a few there yesterday all day ( it was dry untill later on in the afternoon) untill it started pouring/ gate practice. i got a call last night they were finishing up around 9pm. its too bad i imagine alot more could have been done with more willing to help.
when the mulherns and klamkas and bevins did track maintanance it was really them- even then there wasnt alot of parents helping out. when you see its all done and pretty before a race on sat everyone says oh great how nice the surface is… its done so no one helps….( like the majic bmx faries come down and groom the track) now it needs alot of work and ppl say oh its horrible someone should fix it……10 yrs later and the same attitude. let someone else do it.
i just dont want to hear ppl bi*ch and moan on this weekend when the track isnt smooth as glass, too many rocks, yada yada…blah blah blah..when everyone stays in their little comfy cacoon and dosnt go out and help other tracks then dont complain if its not up to your standards…
in the past few yrs i have seen a few well intentioned older riders come and go with big plans and ideas that never seem to materialize. all offering to “take over” the track and start something new…well where are they today? for whatever reason they come and go… everyone has stuff in their life to do and we are all busy, but excuses are like you know what….
i dont know where they got 20K i can tell you i doubt very much eht or hc has that kind of cash in the bank… maybe they do who knows….i doubt each has the $$ to lay out for a total track redo. what i am talking about is free.. manpower dosnt cost much just time and sweat. but you cant have 1-2 men doing it all. before the cj redo how many dads/ riders were there grooming /maintaning the track on a weekly basis?
howell must have ppl who live pretty close who work on the track regularly. thats the key esp with gas prices nowadays.
back 8-10 yrs ago it was jim mulhern and his boys and sig and chris klamka who used to be at flem religiously ( after steve bevins passed) twice a week to make sure that the surface was smooth, the weeds were gone and the grass was cut. neither of them are active anymore and no one has taken over to the extent that they have but not for lack of trying. riders have been put in charge of that and dont show up, for whatever reason. they have been given free races, even being pd for it, but no riders want to commit on a weekly basis. but it cant be done by 1-2 people
i dont know what the answer is but boycotting a track is not the answer.but dont you agree that if no one came to the website and there were no conversations going on that that “apathy” would cause the shut down of this site?
its the people that make the website more so than the person who made it. its the people that keep coming back to whatever( website track etc) that make it successful.
if there are no volunteers or a limited amt of them then the ones who are there get burnt out and eventually themselves stop coming.
so in fact you are agreeing with the board when they say that each track is in fact its own business and only ressponsible for itself? not to help out each others track is nonproductive in this sport.
in ct they all helped out last weekend for the race. they even opened the local on sunday an hr later to help accomodate the riders coming from the national. so do yo think they should have said oh screw you we are running our local at 1pm regardless? then lose the volunteers who helped out there also?
so what do the riders do when their local track becomes unsuccessful? and possibly shuts down?esp when they are mostly rookies, i would bet they play baseball, etc rather than drive 2 hrs to eht or howell. there goes more riders…
“If rundown becomes shutdown, then there is nothing to do about it”
_________________this is what is called apathetic attitude… and personally i am really suprised that anyone with a long history in bmx would say this, no less a rider….
i hope i am wrong
but when howell needed work ( and it really wasnt that bad before compared to some) what if everyone went their separate ways.
not to pop anyones balloon or anything but wouldnt it be a good idea to improve the existing tracks that nj has first before starting up new ones…being it takes volunteers/ bodies to do all this work? when we have a track like cj that is on the come back with a new face lift and all, why not make the other 2 tracks of the same caliber first? if all the effort is split in the state to more and more tracks (be it practice only or race) there will be less ppl to help out with the other ones.. maybe its just me but i like to clean up one project before starting another ( yea i know brett you are all over the place so you have an excuse..lol)
my fear is that if a track gets so rundown the next step is shutdown..that is not good for bmx growth in the state.
if anyone has other ideas please let me know.
i know eht had its issues with having to redo their track facilities due to vandalism and such and flemington is lacking volunteers to maintain their track . how bout we focus the attn on the tracks that need the help? plus when you go to the towns and want to bring them to a race to help them decide -what happens when they go to a track that does not look like its successful? i know its more than a facelift, its ongoing process but if there is no long term solution then anyone who helps out( no matter how much or how little) will be chasing our tails so to speak…
just my 2 cents