Kids at the track?

[d4jsmit]

Question, mostly directed at the leadership team, but also anyone with a thoughtful opinion is welcome to chime in.

I’m a shop manger at a local “community workshop”. It’s a medium-sized workshop, where we have a variety of tools and equipment (full wood shop, metal shop, welding, plus 3D printers, laser cutters, etc.). Recently we had someone ask us about bringing a young child into the space. I’m trying to define a *policy* for this versus having a one-off answer to the person who is currently asking, and it got me to thinking about CSS. How do you guys handle this? it’s pretty rare, but not unheard of, to see kids at CSS schools. Do you have a formal policy? What’s the youngest you’ll let ride?

Although it may not seem it, there are some reasonable similarities that cause me to ask you about this. Kids at the track are similar to kids in the shop. There’s a basic “don’t run around like an idiot” that needs to happen, but also they are working in the same space as other adults. If they make a mistake, it could cause injury to an adult member. Likewise, a kid could easily get hurt by a mistake made by an adult member. We have a big waiver, of course, but kids make very sympathetic plaintiffs, and I’m not anxious to test the strength of our waiver.

I’d be curious to know how N2 thinks about it if you don’t mind sharing.

 

[HondaGalToo]

For kids, I'd suggest starting them out at miniGP. The minimum age for N2 is 16. And it was a requirment, at least in the past, to have reached a certain skill level with miniGP to be approved to ride with N2 if aged 12-16. I don't know if that is still currently the situation. But no one under 12 regardless.

From the Riders Manual:
Minimum age for ALL participants is 16 years of age. All participants under the age of 18 must sign a consent form the day of the event and have a parent or guardian present at all times. Minor riders aged 12‐16 interested in attending events must contact our office at support@n2td.org prior to the events for approval. Parents or legal guardians of riders below 18 years of age must sign a Minor Rider Waiver the day of the event be in attendance for the duration of the event.

The requirement for 12-16 used to be to have reached a certain level with miniGP. As I said, I don't know if that is still the case. Usually the 12-16 age riders are competitors with miniGP or Junior cup or such, and have a lot of track experience.

 

[bmart]

Or are you asking about them being in the pits, not on the track?

 

[tdelegram]

If there are kids in the paddock they should be well behaved and not wandering into other paddocks. They should have adult supervision at all time from the adults that brought them. My personal opinion is I don't want to watch, babysit or parent someone else's kids. Honestly you wouldn't want me too because I like to crate train.

 

[HondaGalToo]

I assumed he was was asking about them riding. Maybe not.

 

[GeorgeB]

They should have adult supervision at all time

There are a lot of us that need that too.

 

[Goodman]

There are a lot of us that need that too.

Even big kids need parental figures.

 

[Menotomy]

I assumed he was was asking about them riding. Maybe not.

Might've been both. He did specifically ask what the youngest age for riding is.

 

[Quetzie]

I saw two kids riding regular Intermediate group at Summit. They were not 16 for sure and could barely hold the bike up on one foot. Their dedicatef track bike was "well worn" as was his race suit, so I assume he's been at it a while. The dad seemed well involved.

 

[D-Zum]

So as far as I can tell here, nobody with kids provided an answer....so I will.

My son was basically raised at the track in the summer. He started as my "Crew Chief" when he was 4. I kept him under watch at all times, kept him involved in my bike prep. He's my kid, so he's my responsability to cover...nobody else's. He new the rules and faced consequences if he didn't follow the rules. When I was on the track, my girlfriend at that time, took him with her out to the various vantage points to watch. When the track went cold at the end of the day, he was free to ride his bicycle and we'd go on scooter rides terrorizing the paddock as he said "hi" to everyone. So to answer that question....bringing family to the track is great, but understand it's your job to keep them out of the way.

He got his TTR 50 when he was 5 and started NJMiniGP when he was 7. I became his "Crew Chief" for those events and the 3 day camps. He raced up there until last year when I got him an R3. He's taller than me now and Ohvales ain't cuttin' it for him anymore. He won his first WERA Novice regional championship last year (D SuperStock Novice), but I asked WERA to curtail his bump to Expert because I think he needs a little more time to grow as a racer. It was kinda cool that our Expert letters came in the mail together.

We're racing ASRA this year and he's running third in two 300CC classes now. He will be 14 next Saturday. I'm relegated to his Crew Chief now. He's a better rider than I ever was anyway.

Unfortunatley NJMP has decided to be greedy bastards and went Bidenomics on the track rental costs, so the MiniGP program is in shambles this year. It sucks completely. There are many NJMiniGP riders in the MotoAmerica paddock now. Ryan and Nathan built a tremendous feeder program to that series and have been huge in building roadracing in America with American talent. It REALLY sucks.

N2's policy on underage riders is minimum 16, like Judy said. It's all about lawyers and insurance. That's the world we live in now. My son has done one N2 day, but it was a racer only practice day before the WERA Endurance weekend last Sept. On those days, they break the event down to small displacement machines on one group and larger machines in another. And it worked pretty well. I don't disagree with N2's current policies on this because there's NO way in hell I want him out there with the bigger bikes flying by him in A group. It's a hazard to him and the other riders. I also don't want him in the Novice or Intermediate groups for the aforementioned reasons, and he's got over 5 years track experience under his belt already. Novice is just that...Novice....lots of people that kind of don't know what the hell they're doing. Bless them for coming out and wanting to learn, but I came up through the N/I/A progression and I've seen some completely idiotic stuff.

Track days and racing are completely different animals, and racing actually works better because the key component is that in racing the groups are divided up by experience (Amateur/Expert) and equipment classification based on measured performance numbers. You won't have an SV650 racing against an R1. N2 understands their place in the track riding landscape/marketplace.

Once I got my son his R3, I wanted him to start at Track Days and was trying to get Jim Curtis to let him ride. It wasn't pleasant to get the answer that I got, admittedly, and I felt that I was sending my son out to the wolves going racing rather than starting with some "Practice". A year later, and a year wiser, I understand better and racing was the right decision. Now his first weekend was at Nelson Ledges last Father's Day weekend...and the Friday before he did get a couple sessions in at a Track Day there in the afternoon, but that's all it took and the kid was off and running after that little time to adapt to the bigger chassis of the R3.

Hope that helps.

 

[NothingClever]

Bad ass testimony, brother.

 

[D-Zum]

Thanks @NothingClever

One last point on the topic of kids and racing. John Ulrich wrote a tremendous series on parents/kids/racing years ago.

Part 1 is here: https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/taking-kids-racing-advice-from-dads-who-raced/

It's kind of been one of my guides to not being a "soccer Dad" at the track with my son. First and foremost, I really don't care how he finishes. I just want his best effort. If his best effort is last place....but the lap times are his best and/or consistent, and HE HAD FUN....then I'm a happy Dad.

He had one weekend in NJMiniGP where he didn't go to bed early like I told him to, and he was a grumpy half-asser all day the next day. We talked about how I spent the week prepping his bikes and spent the resources to give him reliable and safe equipment to race....I gave him MY best, so he should have felt obligated to give me and HIMself HIS best effort. If that didn't happen, then I'd expend my time and resources doing other things. He got it. It was just a matter of puberty kickin' in...he's one competitive self-motivated little SOB now...that switch flips itself.