Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125861
; How to put on your own i High School Motocross 5li:lI g -"r r- O"l 00 N By J ohn Ulrich Slightly over a year ago high school motocross did not exist. It started with a slippery course outlined by old tires on a football practice field. It warmed up a t a Cath ol ic boy's school with more berms adde d and a co up le o f jumps built on tarps laid over a cinde r tr ack. It reall y started to roll when two sch ools di ced it out o n some empty land. It got slicked up with two schools com peting aga in s t ea ch other at a professional raceway , wit h bleachers, rooter buses a nd cheerlea ders. It stumbled a bit over o rganizational p roblems as seven high schools (an entire sc hool district) met with 120 racers and 2 0 0 0 onlookers. I t exploded from th ere, with football-t ype leagues and a 16 ·school, 16·week elim inator series staged b y a profes sional promoter - and a co lle ge sch olarship fo r the grand prize . In Southern Cal ifornia, high sch oo l motocross has arrived . It didn't co m e easy. Besides having to deal w ith a number o f tough procedural problems, one thing every su c cessful high school moto cr oss organizer ha s had to face is work by the truckload s. Mik e T ha tc he r , 16, w as the mastermind behind a school district san ctioned three scho o l race that Yamaha International almost sp onsored as a public relations m ove. The ra ce was p ostponed at the last minute b y a liabiii tv -fearful school board until their lawyers cou ld thoroughly in vestiga te . Frust rating delays a re com m o n in high sch ool motocross. "It was lo ts of work," T hatcher says . "Twice as much as I thought it would 1: c Z w a: u, w > OJ = = = IVl _::.:iOl..... . Don 't forget girls in your race plans. 28 b e. It ke pt getting harde r and harde r an d more and more inv o lved ." Then the re are the sp ecifi c d etails to be resolved. When college stu de n t Rex Ree se started to put to gethe r a four-school race for some high school buddies, th e fir st q uestion facin g him w as liability. " T h e schools wanted to be su re th e y wo u ldn' t b e sued d ry if any th ing wen t wr ong,' h e say s. " As lo ng as I co u ld ge t th e in suran ce, th e y wou ld su ppor t it ," Reese fo u nd th e p olicy he n eeded , but d ug up tw o n ew problems in the process. The $ I million liability an d $3 ,0 0 0 per parti cipan t m edical policy would cost $3 0 0. To ge t the policy for th at p rice , the race would h ave to be held a t a reg u lar motocross facil it y . Finding a tr ack own er w illin g to hol d th e e vent in return fo r 100% of ga te receip t s an d o ne dollar from ea ch rid er w asn 't too hard, b u t he still had t o fin an ce th e insuran ce policy . Wh ile he h ad run int o th e sa me pro blem as Re ese did, Mike That ch e r didn't hav e to w orry ab ou t cost , since Yamaha was picking up th e ta b for renting a track facili ty and in surin g th e show. But Reese still had to raise money. He went to work sell ing sp onsorsh ip s to lo cal motor cy cle d eal ers . In return fo r a donation; ea ch sponsor would receive an advertisement in the race program (whose preparation and prin ting added another expense to the g r o wi n g l ist) . He limited de aler contribut ions to $50. "Th is is h ig h s c hoo l, not blood -an d-g uts pro racing. We d idn't wa nt anyone trying to take over the who le show j us t because 'th ey gave a lo t of m on ey. We did n't wan t to run it lik e a big football thing, b ut instead kin d of down loose. Grass roots," Reese said. S uccessfu l m oney -ra isin g techniques used by student race organizers include car washes, can d y sales, $5 e n try fees, and gate fees for spectators. The method eve ryone wanted (b u t few got ) was for one big sponsor to pi ck up all the e xp enses. Even when it looked like Yamaha would finance Thatcher's race on a one- time basis, he still planned to charge a small race entry fee to b ui ld up a fund for races planned the next year. But no matter where the money com es from, there are plenty of obvious and not-so-obvious things to spend it on when putting together a high school motocross. Student promoters should think ab o u t paying for things like phone bills run up during the organizational stages, track surface preparation and marking fees , scoring booth ren tals , a mb ulance rental (ha ve a first aid c rew at the race. just in case ), prizes and/or troph ies, flags, p rograms , ban ne rs and ad ver t isin g. No n-financial m atters need attention, too. What abo ut entry restriction ? Some schools a llow ed gra d uates to co m e back and cl ean up. Others Iirni ted en try to c u rren t st ud en ts and fac ul ty m embers. Still others lim ited entry to c ur ren t st udents onl y. "The stars of th e show sho uld be stu d en ts ,': Mike That ch er feels . "1 d on't think past gra d u a tes sho uld en ter. " Th en there are the li tt le things th at have to be d ecided in advance . Wh o will m a ke ac tual decision s before a nd d u ring t he race ? Th e first seven sc hool race p u t on by the Garden G ro ve Ci ty School District an d th e Ga rden Gr o ve D ivisio n of Recr eat ion started to disi n regrate into m ass confusio n before it was e ven hal f o ver. As tr ack o wner V ic Wilson o bserved: .. It w as a case of simply too man y generals. If o ne person w ho kn ew wh at h e was d oing w as in com mand an d m aking a ll th e d eci sion s , this would not h ave h app en ed." Where th e race will be held is usu all y d ecided by ec on om ic co nside ra t io ns , like wh ich track will give the st udents a price break. Bu t a t times the d ecision s h ave been in flu enced by geographic distance a n d avai la b le fa cili ties. Will the re b e gran d s ta n ds for specta to rs who would ra ther not st and along th e t rac k perimeter ? \Vhat ab o u t sanitation faci litie s? How many m othe rs will come ou t to w a tc h Sonn y race if th ey have to put up w ith p orta-pot ties ? T h en there is the co nside ra ti o n o f ra ce scheduling . If th e tr ack d oes not h ave an y lights, th e prob lem is m ade easie r - th e racing wi ll be during da yli ght h our s , allow ing e no ugh d ayl igh t to fin ish the pr ogr am, Th e rac e co uld b e held o n a weekend. but then some of th e m ore serious racers commi t ted to o t he r even ts may not show up . If a ride r is in con ten tion for a top posi ti on in a regular sanctioned m o t o cro ss series , he may not be willing to lose points by I J • Put in your own city's name and ima gin e the possibilities. Many racers think accessorie s more u sef u l than trophie s.