Okay, since I know of an impromtu venue for us to use the kart track, but the biggest thing lacking is involvement right now, I'll just post the opportunity:
Sonoma Raceway Karting Center, karting/(super)moto open track days:
http://www.jimrussellusa.com/programs/karting/calendar
Fees and rates, expect $40 for a half day.
http://www.jimrussellusa.com/programs/karting/motorcross
The biggest thing of importance here is that your bike must have excellent acceleration in order to not be in the way of 125cc centrifugal clutch karts and 125cc four stroke supermotards which I expect to be the majority of the traffic on open track days since they are the most popular machinery.
If you're dangerously slow they will kick you out, if you do not yield to faster traffic (blue flag with yellow diagonal stripe) you will be black flagged and if you continue to block it will result in getting kicked out, since the karters are usually out practicing for the championship on test days.
Some test days there aren't anybody else out there, so it could easily turn into a full on motorbicycle race! If we got enough serious regulars it would be quite easily to rent the track out exclusively for the whole day. The Russell Racing School is hurting for money these days, and so is Sonoma Raceway after that Infineon sponsorship lapse, so I'm sure if we approached them about next year's calendar with about $1000+ of prepaid open track day for a group of riders, we could carve out a day in the schedule.
Of course there are other karting tracks around the area for recreation and racing, and if we had enough people already signed up, we could prolly race on Scandia's kart track at their amusement park in Rohnert Park.
Another idea, which involves no money or approval really, would be to have a open road rally, since our bikes top out below the speed limit most places we could compete on the road as long as we observe the laws of the road, which are set above the limits of a motorized bicycle in many places, like say the West Marin coastline, which would make a beautiful setting for a road rally. All we'd need is a couple pickups and a toolbox and some extra gas to follow up and make sure nobody gets abandoned.
I would like to start NorCal motor bicycle racing in this informal manner, as more of a get-together with track access.
Instead of trying to build a huge event out of nothing, how about we build up a group of new friends who are serious enough to continue to put in effort and practice and become involved and make a racing association. I would like to use a volunteer system similar to NASA or SCCA where everyone has the opportunity to become involved in the administrative process of the organization and the financial data is fully disclosed to all members of the organization.
At this point I'm not concerned about winning or losing or the racing competition, more so in just getting the few motorized bicycle riders and moped enthusiasts out of the woodwork to collaborate and see if anybody else would like to join efforts and make a democratic racing association much like the club auto racing associations I currently race with in NASA and SCCA, which both have good and bad points, the good points of which we can model after.
In order to make all discussion from all members relevant I propose that all group discussion be done at rider's meetings and in open threads here on this forum. I think that if every bit of club organization is done in a public and transparent manner, versus a network of phone calls between unnamed individuals, all members will have their voices be heard and there will be a public record which can be accessed for later discussion at any time.
Transparency in their administration and rule enforcement is one reason why NASA has become the emerging leader in club auto racing, all racers are deemed important and their concerns are addressed in a public forum manner. I enjoy running my formula car and saloon customers in NASA, and would like to use their organization as a model for Motor Bicycle racing becaue it has been so successful. All the people tired of the overly officious, contradictory,whistle blowingly totalitarian rule of SCCA go to NASA, where they are valued as a consortium of racers who collaborate to improve the experience to further the advancement and enjoyment of the sport.
Get involved!
