Air Fence

[bikerscum]

Back in the day, Briggs was pledging air fence funds. I see that it's up for most (decent) track days and race weekends. I think it's a God-send at Seattle - but how does it get maintained and paid for? Is there ever threat of needing to replace a piece but no money to do so?

If there's a fund or something that would keep our air fence in good working order (in its entirety), I would like to know about it.

Thanks!

//bikerscum

[Studio819]

http://www.wmrra.com/airfence.html

[timk]

Yes, WMRRA has an Airfence Fund and donations are always welcome. Even minor repairs can be costly, and they have to be made fairly often because high speed hits almost always seem to do at least a little damage.

The easiest way to donate is with your race registration. At the bottom of the registration form there are places to add donations for the Airfence Fund and the Injured Rider fund. I make it a habit to toss $10 or $20 bucks at those every race weekend. That way it doesn't seem to hit the checkbook quite as hard as a big once-in-a-while donation, but it adds up for sure.

-tim

[Rustynail]

IT would be nice if we could buy some more airfence sections , we NEED another 30 feet in turn 7 and 30+ in turn 8. Dose anyone know the cost per feet ? lets raise some money!! If all racers could make a one time donation to the club ,and we were guaranteed to see an air-fence there this year....... I know i would be in!!!! that's alot better then 10 or 20 Every race day.

Colin

[Studio819]

Or use the money to repave that "whoop" in T8. :)

[timk]

Dose anyone know the cost per feet?This is probably out of date because of exchange rates (Airfence is Australian), but a couple years ago when I was doing some work with them the Airfence Bike modules we use were $650 each. They are 2 meters in length, so a rough estimate is $100US/foot. It has probably gone up a bit, but that's the ballpark.

There is also the issue of storage. I have no idea how much the storage containers we use cost, but any time we want to buy more modules we need to calculate container cost along with the actual Airfence cost. (This also presumes that PR will allow us to bring in more containers -- I don't know whether or not that is an issue.)

Sorry that wasn't a very definitive answer. Just trying to share what little I know. :o

[datlouie]

IT would be nice if we could buy some more airfence sections , we NEED another 30 feet in turn 7 and 30+ in turn 8. Dose anyone know the cost per feet ? lets raise some money!! If all racers could make a one time donation to the club ,and we were guaranteed to see an air-fence there this year....... I know i would be in!!!! that's alot better then 10 or 20 Every race day.

Colin

Ditto...we need to be a little more crative to raise mney for the more air fence.

[Ex Presidente]

Tim really nailed it guys! The storage is the biggest issue. Up to this point Pacific Raceways has allowed us to put containers on site so we don't have to store it off-site and truck it in (logistics Nightmare). Which I might add is a huge help....if you have ever set-up or torn down the stuff you know it isn't the easiest thing to be throwing around.
I agree we need more, but it is not in the cards right now and to be honest I'm not sure when it will be. For those of us that have raced at Pacific when there wasn't ANY airfence...this is a big improvement.
By the way, we purchased new Airfence for T5 this year which created the need for 2 new containers...and some repair to those containers.
Since the purchase of the new Airfence ($12,000.00 WMRRA Out of Pocket) the Airfence Fund has been in the RED, so please remember this when you are registering for your first race.

Luke
WMRRA President

[timk]

If all racers could make a one time donation to the club ,and we were guaranteed to see an air-fence there this year....... I know i would be in!!!!Forgive me if I'm misreading this, but it sounds like you just wrote that if you were to get a guarantee that new Airfence will be put in turns 7 and 8 then you'd contribute to the Airfence fund? I hope I'm misunderstanding something there.

that's alot better then 10 or 20 Every race day.Twenty bucks every race day adds up to $160/year. If a hundred racers put $20 in every race weekend, that would add up to $16,000 over the course of a season. That's real money. Sitting on your hands waiting for some kind of guarantee, or for someone to organize a fundraiser rally, or whatever, is not.

Bottom line: Donating money to the Airfence fund in any amount is a lot better than talking about what would get you to donate money to the Airfence fund.

[Rustynail]

Forgive me if I'm misreading this, but it sounds like you just wrote that if you were to get a guarantee that new Airfence will be put in turns 7 and 8 then you'd contribute to the Airfence fund? I hope I'm misunderstanding something there.

Twenty bucks every race day adds up to $160/year. If a hundred racers put $20 in every race weekend, that would add up to $16,000 over the course of a season. That's real money. Sitting on your hands waiting for some kind of guarantee, or for someone to organize a fundraiser rally, or whatever, is not.

Bottom line: Donating money to the Airfence fund in any amount is a lot better than talking about what would get you to donate money to the Airfence fund.

Yes you are misreading my intentions, the point is How many riders actually contribute?. Some riders may see donating to the air fence fund as a wast if they are don't see an improvement to the track safety year to year, so in fact contributions my dwindle down. So my thoughts where a perposal to the club members for a one time donation at the start of the year. 200 or so riders $150 each $30,000.00. That way each rider would benefit this year with added safety, to turns 7 and 8. Which i sure almost all would agree that these are two problem spots. If the cost in expanding our air fence coverage is less then that (30,000.00) than our initial donation would be much less.

I'm not saying only make one contribution. Amber and i both contribute to the fund Every RACE DAY ! Just that it would be nice to get this thing going sooner then later.

We could send out pledge sheets to all members asking for a donations with a set goal in mind. (Cost=X) As pledges are made we could post them on the site that way each member could track the progress being made in reaching our Goal. We could also ask dealers to make Donations, perhaps the dealer that supports the most get there name on the Air Fence in turn 8.

Just some thoughts out side the box , i'm sure we would all be surprised in the attention this might get! And yes we all know this is a dangers sport, but if there is a definite area we could improve track safety we should do all we can to accomplish it.

My 2 cents

Colin Rimes

[ewok]

The registration folks do a great job of getting us all taken care of on race day. With just the adrenaline if the prerace prep, I sometimes forget to do anything other than hand them my credit card or check. How about if we asked them to ask every racer if they wanted to donate 10 bucks as we register, sort of a well intentioned "do you want fries with that?"

regards
ed

[Apex.One]

I might be wrong, but this is my perception...

Are we not able to just put a blanket cost increase on the price of registration so that the donation happens automatically whenever someone registers to race? It would be ideal if everyone would pay extra on their own, but the reality of it is that a lot of racers might think that another "item" on their racing expense list sounds worse (because it's just one more thing to pay for in this already expensive sport) than having a slightly higher registration fee. Registration fees cover many of the behind the scenes expenses already. Why wouldn't this work for the air fence?

[EmDee]

As someone who pays a pretty good penny everytime we rent the airfence from WMRRA, where does that money go? General Fund or Airfence? I realize about 1/2 of the rental fees go to the crew to setup and tear it down which is a major job, but I'm hoping it goes to the airfence fund. Between our selves, AF, & NESBA the fees we pay to rent the airfence minus the portion of that to pay for setup and tear down, it still should be a pretty substantial amount to buy/maintain air fence each year. May not cover it all, but I'm pretty sure it amounts to a small 5 figure amount.

When WMRRA calculates Race fees, did they build in a AirFence charge into the regsitration that we don't see? If not, I would suggest it be done. Or the alternative is to have a mandatory $10 or so charge at the bottom of the form. Just like the Medic One mandatory $10 charge. If we get 200-300 guys a weekend racing, thats $2000-$3000 directly towards the airfence. Multiply that x 4 PR races each year and you have another $8k - $12k for the airfence fund. To me its just logical and although you might get a few complainers and whiners about another $10 charge, ask the ones that have ever hit the air fence if it was worth it. So I think the answer should be, "you wanna race at PR?, Then anti up $10 each weekend to cover the airfence to make it safe!"

You could still have the additional airfence donation option there too.

Add the Track Day AirFence Rentals to that of the Mandatory $10 or so charge and now you're talking enough money to repair, replace and grow the airfence each year w/o dipping into the WMRRA kitty.

Maybe its a good idea http://www.wmrra.com/forums/images/icons/icon3.gif , maybe not, but thats the way I see it. :D

[Studio819]

I agree with Mark here, many people hit the air fence this first weekend and I am sure they can appreciate it being there at the speeds they were travelling versus impacting on that wall of tires

[Darkside]

I for one started to donate to the airfence fund after I was introduced to it in T7. Since I started donating I havent' been back. I think the airfence gods like donations.

[Hypnotiq]

Im thankful for the air fence being there during track days and races. I donate every race weekend when I register because I want to ensure that its always there and have the $ to replace anything if it gets damaged in a get off.

Im fine with making it mandatory too.

[FISHGUY]

Amen brother.....Great idea between the racers and the local shops/vendors. Even if 1 shop and 1 vendor went into it together; there would be enough air-fence length for 2 names. Maybe all the racers should start hitting up there sponcers for donations? Or what if we had a WMRRA schedualed track day and put the funds, after costs towards the fence????? Sorta Seattle 100 style...

My 2 cents as well

[AndrewN]

+1 ! yeah.. i think the Airfence is a little bit closer to a saftey necessity rather than a luxury, like the medic fee, I would like to see it included in mandatory fee's. I saw my buddy land on top of it on T8, and don't want to know where his head would have landed if it wasn't on the airfence.

[tarheel]

Amen brother.....Great idea between the racers and the local shops/vendors. Even if 1 shop and 1 vendor went into it together; there would be enough air-fence length for 2 names. Maybe all the racers should start hitting up there sponcers for donations? Or what if we had a WMRRA schedualed track day and put the funds, after costs towards the fence????? Sorta Seattle 100 style...

My 2 cents as well


I like your idea bro. Let's send it to the board members. See what they have to say about it. I would even be willing not to ride and help out putting this thing together and volunteer to work the event. It would be well worth it. I would like to see that Airfence everywhere. I think that one of the major issues with the Airfence right now is storage. They have them in huge shipping/connex boxes. I guess the track owners are fickle about the space. However, I am sure we can come up with something.

[FISHGUY]

Well I did some checking and it's money,storrage and transportation. The money is the biggest problem and WMRRA cant do track days for insurance reasons. I know that the air fence is rented to all the track day clubs and think that money goes back into the general fund, so what if all the retal money went back into the air-fence fund? Seems like the better way to go!!! That's alot of track days per year and alot of money into the fund for the year?????!!!!! I'd still like to put together somekind of fundrasier and get a lump sum started and in the works, It would be nice to see more fencing up this season???? Yah....Ideas, let me know...Thanks Eric #871

[chd]

Great ideas guys -- and I do the same as Nico -- it may not be much, but I have imposed a mandatory donation (on myself) to give an extra $10 EVERY race to the airfence fund, along with $10 to the injured rider fund. Until something else is figured out (may never happen), everyone should highly consider donating to these -- it's important.

CD

[Ex Presidente]

Hey Guys,
The remainder of the AIrfence Rental goes back into the Airfence Fund!

The reason the Airfence Fund is in the red is due to us buying about 20k worth of new airfence last season.

The biggest issue is storage!

Luke
WMRRA President

[whtnxt?]

I would agree with storage part, money is always an issue. A few years ago I was at Hallet speedway outside Tulsa for a CMRA event and they opened up the track during lunch for anything on 2 wheels (or three) for $5 a bike, $5 a rider (bike +rider + passenger= $15; $5+$5+$5 = $15) for two laps.
All controlled speed of course, as their was race bikes next to pit bikes next to bicycles next to 6year olds on 50cc bikes next to race bikes towing rolerbladers, you get the idea (this is in Oklahoma, so pretty much anything goes). Looked like fun and from what I remember darn near the entire pit and grandstands emptied out for it.
Just an idea for helping with the airfence fund to get in the black again.

:rolleyes:

[FISHGUY]

Something like that just might work... thanks for the idea and if anyone else has some, please let me know... :)

Thanks again
Eric

[FISHGUY]

Hey Guys,
The remainder of the AIrfence Rental goes back into the Airfence Fund!

The reason the Airfence Fund is in the red is due to us buying about 20k worth of new airfence last season.

The biggest issue is storage!

Luke
WMRRA President

Luke, so is it impossible to get more fencing because we cant store it or move it? Even if we had the money to add more?????? If we had no storrage, would we have no fencing?????

[FISHGUY]

And what do you mean by the remainder of the funds??????

[whtnxt?]

I'll be htiting up my major sponsor for an Air Fence donation. Firstt hing I could see is if he gets some kind of promo out of it for his money, El Prez, let me know what he'll get for the dollar amount; $25, $50, $75 etc.

[EmDee]

By remainder of the funds he means for Track Day rentals of the fence. We pay a good chunk of $$$ to rent the fence for our events. As you can imagine, setup is not easy on this stuff, I know because I helped do it the first year WMRRA had it. So they pay a crew to setup and teardown the airfence for track day events.

I don't know how much of the rental fee this eats up, but I'm guessing its bout half of the rental charge. So you take the difference between the rental fee we pay and what it costs WMRRA to hire a crew to setup/tear down the fence and the result is the "Remainder" that we are talking about.

Glad to hear it goes into the Airfence fund.

Is it the cost of the storage containers, the rental fee's that PR charges us to use up land to put them, the hassle of getting them or just the overall size of all the airfence thats the main storage issue?

[dmurrey]

I was thinking of the same questions as Mark's??

So, why can't we think like a motocross event with all the track protection wrapped in sponsor adds. Sponsors buy a bail, then get to cover it with there name. I would think the airfence will take to printing just as the banner material does and would be a great backdrop for a lot of photographs. That is a ton of add space to sell as an anual fee. Is this being done anywhere else?

-Darren

[Studio819]

Darren makes an interesting point, I can see myself being interested already depending on the cost. That is a nice large area, not a piece of 8x10 paper staple gunned to a phone pole.

[Ex Presidente]

ok - here is the deal....all the points being brought up are good ones. However they aren't new. The thing about the ad's on the bails is this, to get them directly on the face of the bail you'd need take apart the Airfence to get them printed, the other option would be to have banners made that fit the face of the bail, and then you have that much extra set-up time to make sure they are tied down properly.....both ways are super time consuming.
And the cost to get the banners made would be super expensive, and then you run into the issue what if the banner/ad gets destroyed? Who pays for the replacement? What if the replacement doesn't take place, than the advertiser wants their money back?

[Hypnotiq]

What about large vinyl stickers for the face of the bail? They remain there for the season and at th end of the season the advertiser can renew or you remove it and give it to the next one that wants on it. Then you dont have extra setup time. Might be cheaper than the banners too. Not too familiar with vinyl costs.

Just a thought...
Nico

[FISHGUY]

All great ideas, but I wonder why a club that works on a voluteer basis would have to pay people to set up and take down the fence for any event????? I was also told that the air fence is already inflated and stays that way all the time, and the big problem is that we have no place to store the massive containers that the fence goes in; so intern...the money doesnt matter, because if we cant move or store the large containers for the fence, than we cant get anymore fence!!!!! Right? So we need money to use for fixing and replaceing the fence we have and that's it...But as far as more fence goes, I just dont see it happening until someone else owns the track????????!!!!!!!!..........

[timk]

I wonder why a club that works on a voluteer basis would have to pay people to set up and take down the fence for any event?????
That's an easy one -- nobody has volunteered to commit to set up and take down the air fence for every event for free, so we gotta pay.

[Ex Presidente]

Fishguy,
I don't mean any disrespect...but I invite you to go out and set-up AND teardown the airfence once, if you haven't already, and we'll see if you would like to set-up and teardown the airfence numerous times over the course of the season.
I have set-up and tore down that stuff more than enough, and it sucks. But it is a neccesity now.
As for the track owners....I'm not sure getting more containers is a track owenr issue. We are storing and taking up a great amount of space for our containers....any business owner would out a cap on that. In other words Pacific has been very gracious about letting us the space that we have.
If you or anyone else would like to know all the details about Airfence please feel free to contact me president@wmrra.com

Thanks,
Luke
WMRRA President

[Mr Sunshine]

But if there was a different owner it is very possible that owner would take ownership of track safety and would provide air fence around the track where it is needed at their cost. They can make up those costs by making the air fence rental an add on to the track rental.

I have to wonder how it works at other tracks around the country.

[FISHGUY]

Fishguy,
I don't mean any disrespect...but I invite you to go out and set-up AND teardown the airfence once, if you haven't already, and we'll see if you would like to set-up and teardown the airfence numerous times over the course of the season.
I have set-up and tore down that stuff more than enough, and it sucks. But it is a neccesity now.
As for the track owners....I'm not sure getting more containers is a track owenr issue. We are storing and taking up a great amount of space for our containers....any business owner would out a cap on that. In other words Pacific has been very gracious about letting us the space that we have.
If you or anyone else would like to know all the details about Airfence please feel free to contact me president@wmrra.com

Thanks,
Luke
WMRRA President

Luke, no I have not taken down or put up the air fence as of yet, but plan to do so more than once this year alone. I understand what you're saying, but at the same time the air fence is something we need and want and that out ways how much it sucks to do as you put it. How about this; crashing sucks more than putting up the air fence, right? So if you crash the first time or the 5th time, are you going to quit racing because crashing sucks? I dont think so. We do what we must because we love the sport and the fence is just another part of that; good or bad it really doesnt matter. I didnt love working the corners in the middle of summer either, but I never complained about it,.. It was just something that everyone needed and I was there to help. On the other hand, I see a whole lot of land around the track thats not being used or has crap and junk laying all over; so I dont think that the track owners are doing us any big favors...enough said

[FISHGUY]

But if there was a different owner it is very possible that owner would take ownership of track safety and would provide air fence around the track where it is needed at their cost. They can make up those costs by making the air fence rental an add on to the track rental.

I have to wonder how it works at other tracks around the country.

Amen brother, out with the slum lords and in whith some real owners...

[Ex Presidente]

Fishguy,

You were obviously not around when the current owners were not managing the track. I would caution you to get all your facts/information correct before going off half-cocked.
Like I said before, I'll be more than happy to discuss the details of the airfence with you my information is available on the website including my phone #. I was part of the initial purchase of the airfence, along with a few others, and spent numerous hours talking and meeting with the current owners/management to ensure we had Airfence in place.

[firebolt428]

You should of seen the track before the old owners came back and took it over. It was pretty miserable. So I would be happy with the way it is now.
:D
Yes it could be better but it seems like every year there are improvements.

[tarheel]

I have committed to tearing down the fence for every event I make this year (and I plan on making them all) due to the fact I live in the Yakima Valley and set-up is logistically out for me considering that it is put up in the middle of the week, Especially if there is a Track Day the Friday before.

So you can count on me when I'm there!!!