Ontario Track Championships turnout

Jimmy D

I had expected to see more that 43 competitors show up for the championships, racers came from Alberta, Nebraska, Detroit, Rochester N.Y. & across Ontario. Is this typical for track events like this? At $20 to enter for all events, a great deal.

Spectators seemed to be down also. I hope this is not a trend as I would hate to see this track close due to lack of interest, there has been a lot of hard work to get this venue off the ground.

any thoughts?

BillyBlass

Seems to be right. Numbers are relatively low where I live. Too bad. I hope it is not on the brink of collapsing. Great sport for the spectator. There is some posting on Pedalmag regarding pumping up of the numbers. But nothing really feasible at this point.

nbf

Any idea what the turnout for provincials is like in AB/BC/QC etc?

If participation really was low for the Ontario race, I wonder if it might have been an issue of low #'s of experienced trackies in the province? It's the first season for the new track, and it could well be that many of the people who have been out for weekly racing were a bit intimidated by jumping into a provincial championship. Just a thought.

BillyBlass

Good thought. People are just plain intimidated to get on a track bike. I see it here all the time. It must be a mind-set that a vehicle with no brakes is dangerous. My experience says the opposite.

nbf

Ya, this was my first year being on a track bike after a lot of road and mtb racing/riding. IMHO, it's a far more "comfortable" environment for pack riding. Removing brakes from the equation leads to much more predictable riding! The learning curve was pretty short, too.

I've also found that (in my neck of the woods at least) trackies are a lot more supportive and willing to teach. Perhaps as a result of the fringe-sport feeling that it has within the cycling community, perhaps also because of the relatively small size of the community. I'm amazed at how approachable the elite level athletes are in every respect.

Not sure how things are where you're located, but here in Calgary it sounds like things are growing quickly in terms of numbers. I'm guessing that we average at least 40+ riders for the weekly race nights.