Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

TOUr01llrD By John Ulrich High school mo to cro ss. Intramural and in tersc holastic race s held on school grounds. High school teams competing o n p ro fessional MX co urses, wit h cheerleaders, rooters, and co ncession stands. A few ye ars ago, things like th at were almost incompre hensible . Today , they're rea lity. One of the m os t po p ular quest ions th a t q ue stion askers ask us these d ays is, " How can w e put on a mo tocr oss a t o ur high school?" T hat's what this is all about. Let' s su p pose that you're a h igh school student a nd racer who would like to have a h igh scho o l m o t o cro ss at your sch ool. The firs t thing to d o is to ga ther support. Get toge th er a b u nc h of y ou r frie n ds an d get a rough idea of what you wan t to do. T he next ste p, according to Ned McNabb, De an o f Fac ult y at Serra High School (w hi ch held a m o to cro ss in 1973), is to get an ally in the a d m i ni st ra ti o n : P ic k o u t a n ad m inistrator o r teach er who is lik ely to b e sy m path e tic to your ca use. Convin ce th em th a t you idea will work, and that o ther schools have m ad e such p rograms work. With luck , they'll help you carry your p lan fa r the r. T wo questions are likely t o co me u p im me d iate ly . First , where will th e race be h eld, and second, wh at liabilities are involved . The track • .. up to th is date , the schools that h ave he ld successful m oto cro sses h ave done so on schoo l gro unds, usually on ath le ti c fiel d s. If you pla n to do the same , you w ill h ave t o co nvince the school athletic directo r that y o ur race will not ruin h is fields and /or track. Mo st o f th e school tracks have been b asically flat (in th e S oCaI trad it ion) with pil es of truc ked-in d irt fo r be rm s an d jumps. A t Serra High, a gian t tarp tha t had once been use d t o cov er _th e hardwood gy m floor was cu t up and used u nder jumps built o n th e ci nd er tra ck . A m ud h o le was dug in the grassy are a bord ering the track. Corners an d berms were built up o n th e grass y fiel d ar ea s: After the race the same ho rd es of student vo lun teers th at b uilt the track disasse mbled it , remo ving th e jum ps and tarps, filling in th e m ud hole , and ta kin g aw ay the berms. All the d irt wa s co nso lid ated in to a gian t pil e in a far -flung co m er of th e school, and will be u sed next y ea r for ano ther MX. A ft e r raking the cinder tr ack and seed ing the m udhole, th e p lace w as as good as new. At Ing lewood Hi gh Sc hool, ( the firs t high sc hool to eve r hold a n o n-cam p us MX ) . th e entire co urse was built on the grassy p ract ice fie ld a t the sch o o l. Jumps were built with dumped dirt. The track was ex trem e ly flat and slick. (If it had been vertical a nd slick it would have been j ust lik e th e real thing, but that's only a p ip e dream when you t alk a bo u t hig h school MX .) Since aU th at w as needed w as to rake up the loose dirt afte r re moving th e ju m p s, damage was n on-e x istent. If y our athletic d irect or h as OJlY d o ubts, have h im call Ned McNabb at Serra Hi gh School, (2 13/644-333 2), or Bob H offm an , As sistant Principal at Inglewood H igh 21 3 /67 3 · 311 0 Extension 308-9. (Hoff m a n als o puts out a package of h igh school MX info rmatio n with sam p le form s and letters. You ca n ge t it fre e by wr iting him a t Inglewood High School , 23 1 S . Grevillea, In glew o o d , CA. 9 030 I.) Ano the r id ea is to hold yo u r race at an est ab lished moto cr oss fac ility in you r area and bus in student spectators. That's ju st what San Mar in o H igh School and A rcadia High Sch oo l will be d oing at Irw in d ale Raceway Fe b ruary 14. It will co st the sch o o ls abo ut $300 fo r trac k prep ar atio n fees. Irwin dale Raceway is not charging fo r track ren tal Whe th er o r n o t o ther schools might be ab le to ge t such a d eal o ut of Irwindale or tracks in th eir area remains to be seen . Irwindale Raceway ca n be re ached at 2 13/334-4949 . Liab ilities Another big co ns ideratio n, after you've worried abo ut where to hold the Scbool MX race, is how to avo id getting sued dry if someth ing go es wrong. There are basi cally two wa y s to handle this aspect of hi gh sc h ool ra cing. T he first way is to d o wh at Ing lewood High School did. Bob Hoffm a n. Assistan t Principal, sent o ut fo rms to parents explaining th at each studen t entere d in the race must b e co vered by his o wn medical insu ra nc e. T he paren ts also had to sign a "liability rele ase" abs o lving th e school of a ny liab ility claim s resulting fro m ac cid en ts during the MX. It sho uld b e p ointed ou t that while such a m ethod has b een used , un der th e laws o f so me states liability releases a re relatively easy to overtu rn. Se rra High Sc hool did it a no ther, m or e sec u re, wa y. The school co n tac ted t he C o ntinental Motos p orts Club ( C M C ) , a p rofess i o n a l ra cin g promo ter /sanctio ning com pany , and b ough t an insurance pack age. CMC will su p ply a sc hool with a package includin g $100,000 liability coverage $3,000 i n d ividu al r ider and med ical/death coverage (which pays 100% o f expenses over $ 1 DO) for abou t $ 170. A $ 1,000,000 liability package w ith the m edical/death covera ge rais es the price to about $2 20. Medical/dea th coverage alone can be bought fo r about $I 30. To be eligi b le for su ch insuran ce , each competitor in th e even t , whether intra or inte r sc hool, must join t he CMC for a $ 7 m embership fee. T he CMC can be con tac ted a t 714/557 ·3323 or b y mail a t Box 1402 , Costa Mesa, CA. 9 262 6. . Of course, eve ry rider sho uld be required to wear a helmet and he avy protective clothing (p re ferably lea thers) so they w on' t get too dinged u p if t hey over cook it. Yo u ma y have to m ak e t his cle ar to so me riders , as people wh o d o not race o utside of sch ool will wan t to try it at a school MX. Ambulance While y o u're thinking about crashes and liability, you'll have to also think abou t first aid treatment. The best th in g to do is to hi re an ambulance . Serra High Sch ool got a good deal o ut o f a lo cal a m b ula nc e service and it only cost them a bo u t $30. Ing lewood got an eve n better d eal , w it h a lo cal co mp any' loaning them use o f tw o amb ulances as a public se rvice. (T he ambulances did not have to roll a t eithe r school as th er e were no inj u ries , but get o ne to play it safe anyway.) If you do ge t a deal out of an am b ulance firm , make su re that ample thanks a re given to the m in your program, pre-race p ub licity, a nd ove r y o u r loudspeaker sy stem, if any. Money T here will be other c ost s, such as the case of beer Serra High Scho ol gave to the gu y wh o used his skip lo ade r t o b uild th eir ju mps, course flags, ch alk for la yin g o ut the cours e , posters, etc. What can you d o about ra isin g tha t money ? Yo u co uld try t he usual high school type money rais ing things like the pep cl u bs do. What Se rra High Sch ool did was convince A me ric an Honda (w ith th e help o f Serra graduate Da ve Pessy ) to do nate twenty Ho nda jerseys. T hen th ey we nt aro u nd t o various p laces and asked fo r d o nati ons of $50. If a b usiness donated, Serra sil k scree ned the name 0 1 the b us iness on the jerseys, thanked th e m in th e program, ov er th e lo uds p ea ke r, etc. Cycle News, :VIX Act ion Magazine, Hockies, KFI ra d io , Cu rnutt sh o cks, and the Serra studen t body all co ntrib u ted , givin g the Serra m oto cros sers six hits an d f ift y m isses in their so lici tation effo rt. Obvi ou sly, other schools should not try to hit up these same d udes for th eir p rogram Serra did not charge an e ntry fee. A D the in dividual st udents had to b u y was, CMC license, and the e igh t or s. studen ts who a lready had a CMC licensr di d n ot ha ve to pay anyt hing . In s tead of tr ophies, Serra gOI d o natio ns of :.IX eq uip me n t fro m local d ea ler s and co mpanies, an d includ ed the ir n am es on the program. In gle wo o d High Sch o o l got local dealers to p ro vid e tro p hie s fo r their race. In glew o od me t o ther ex penses wi t h a 5 e ntry fee fr o m eac h o f fo rty racers part icipating. A n oth er w orry so me would -be ra cing high sc hools face is th at o f city zo n in g law s. If for ex am p le , a high sc ho o l l\IX held w ith a CMC (p ro fessio nal) sanction

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