Frankston VS Shepparton (hard vs boring)

[bmxkirk]

I think it is great to have opinions and sugestions on what tracks are like andhow to make them better but at the end of the day they are for racing. When you race it comes down to who can race the best on any particular track whether fast or technical. Once in a group of riders a track will become a different place. When you watch a gates night on any particular track you will see riders do quite extrordinary combinations but on a race day and in a group of riders elbo to elbo those combinations become obsolete. This is the nature of racing and that is the name of the game - BMX racing!

We travel all around Australia for BMX racing and I have witnessed awsome racing on both high tech and low as people call them boring tracks. We need to race the track that we are given on the day and enjoy what any club has to offer.

For my own opinion on what a track should be like - follow the world trend and you can't go wrong. Last year the first straight was fast and not technical, the second straight was alittle more technical but still ridable, third straight was very technical and last straight quite simple.
When speaking to organizers from around the world the reason for less technical first and sometimes second straights is to allow racing to flow more so that when there is something like a national event you don't end up with stopages all the time holding up the event.

[bonzai]

VERY WELL SAID

[Trev Stamf]

after attending the NR round at shepp,i found myself going away from the meeting quite dissapionted. Weather it was the hype of Tom Ritz building a track in VIC that was permanent, [after riding many of his tracks at Worlds] which have all been very good,and expecting too much, or the fact that the track was boring for the am's. This is after all specifically built for the Nationals. As a pro track it was very good. I would have thought that any track should test the riders skills,strength and fittness, not just strength and fitness. I hope they can get things fixed up in time for the Nats.
On a seperate note, since the reply's have been blocked on 'frankston 2nd staight' subject.[I'm a bit slow]
For your infomation Shane or any one else that is bothered, with regards to my track designing qualifications, i don't have any. If you know of any Tafe or other courses let me know please.
My knowledge of track building comes from 27 years of racing in many countries around the world, including world ranked 4 times from 9 tries, 5 National titles 2UK, 3AUS, many state titles,ex VIC board member,ex State coach.Ok thats enough, i don't like to brag but i think this might clear up a few things with you Shane. Thankyou for posing the question in the first place.
I would like to thank Frankston BMX club for trusting my  judgement and giving me and the riders to try and make the track as good and challenging as possible.keep on riding and see you at the nats.
Trev Stamford

[haro82]

this is what i feel from a person who has raced it trained on it and loves the track how bout before you diss our clubb you come down and ride it i dont care what yous all say learn to ride before yous diss our club its an awesome track so why have a sook on here bout it all yous do is bag out the track in stead of baggin it out how bout a little feed back because that helps everything i think it always seems to be the old guys who sook bout it you dnt see no sprockets from shepp crying bout it no old guys from shepp its just melbourne anderson i dnt care how many titles you have thats the past not the future alright learn to ride then come ride it and see how you go with it

Brandon May

[Greg]

Brando !  I dont think anyone is dis'ing your club. I think some of them expected something else of the track itself. Personaly Like I have said before I like it. Oh and I like Frankston as well. I just take a leaf out of Shane Jenkins manual and thats why I dont ride at Lilydale because I dont like it.(Lilydale track that is)

[may56]

Guys and Girls

After watching gregs video i hope a few of u have seen that the 3rd straight is not hard at all, and i would Lay $100 that a young kid like Brando Tahiko could doggy doo-doo that straight in if you AA or A and cant ride the straight then dont turn up or ride age class. As for the long pedaling first straight i agree that it is long and a heap of pedaling after talking to Tom whilst he was building the track he wanted to make the first straight a drag strip as that is what he is being asked to do in the U.S now days. SO if any kids want to go over to the U.S and give it a good crack from day dot they know what to expect. YES i agree it does need a lot of work to be up to scratch. i Also agree that its not as hard as i expected but the 2nd straight pro section is pretty damn gnarly. But after all we are racing BMX.

Nathan May

[mich70]

An Open letter to Shane Jenkins

To Shane,

This post is in response to your recent posts regarding the now locked “Frankston Track Changes” and the “Frankston V’s Shepparton” threads, and in particular, your post on February 16 at 12.08pm.

First of all I would like to thank you for clearing up the matter regarding Dan and for encouraging people to stay on the topic and to keep personal cracks out of it.

That being said, your comments regarding my post, date and time of February 15th 9.19pm are a direct attack on my integrity and character. Your summary of the posts I supposedly had not read are patronizing to say the least. Please let me quote the initial post that started all this nonsense. Post by Jamie “Just a quick poll to find peoples views on Frankstons second straight. Who likes it and who doesn’t and maybe what changes can be made to improve it?” There it is; a question about the design of the track!

Your quip about there being “a big difference between the design and the implementation of that design” infers that I am not qualified to read a design / plan and that I am also not qualified and therefore I am incapable of implementing a design / plan. I shall let you know now; I earn my money by working day in and day out, in the construction industry. I read plans, I work off plans, and I can tell you I’m pretty darn good at that. Your assumptions are false and damaging.

You may have unintentionally questioned my professional ability, but you did all the same. At this point remember; you removed posts from the above mentioned threads because you thought they were off topic, irrelevant, personal etcetera, yet yours is still there!

Your comment re: focusing on the elite. Should you have bothered to speak to me, or anyone on the our committee, you would have found out that our club is in the process of building a Pro-Straight, a separate practice area for the State Team AND a separate practice area for novice / younger riders. We are hoping to have all of these things finished sometime in 2011.

You are right, as the President, I am the face of our club. This is why I put a post onto the forum in the first place – to let all who were commenting and reading know, directly from the source, how the track design came about, where we are heading as a club and as a sport, and to clear up the confusion that was reigning in earlier posts. My post was not “spoken like a true politician” it was purely worded factually to ensure there was no ambiguity to it.

As we are both involved in the sport of BMX, do you really think posting your sully comments does anything to promote the sport, let alone assist me in my role as President? If you feel there is a safety issue, by all means contact me personally, not on a public forum, where things are so often misconstrued and misinterpreted.  You will find my number on our website.

I suggest that you publicly retract you’re comments and issue an apology to myself for your derogatory and highly personal comments. Then and only then, can this whole debacle be put to rest.

As you stated, you are the owner of bmxultra.com. Being the owner, you may see fit to pull this post, alter it or even ban me – do as you will.

Thanks for your time, and thanks in advance for your retraction and apology.

Regards,

Paul Cockayne
Frankston BMX Club President

P.S. To all who have offered their support, thank you

[dugga]

Does Bindi Irwin get an apology?

[secret squirrel]

Set you're stopwatches, lets see how long Mich70's post lasts or this thread also gets locked out. 

[piedpiper]

To Mr Cockayne just a couple of quick questions.

1: How long have you been involved in bmx?

2: What makes you and the Frankston bmx club experts on where this sport is heading?

Im in no way questionig your abilities to read, draw, plan, build or whatever it is you do for a living but am curiuos as your formal "training" in bmx. Do you ride yourself and know what does make a good or bad track that 100% of riders can negoiate safely without the fear of broken limbs and so forth. Or are you one these so called "experts" that we see everywhere thats happy to sit on the sidelines criticisng everything and everyone but never puts a wheel on the dirt. Just curiuos..............

[surlybyname]

Me and my right collarbone  are just glad that double at the end of the first straight is gone

[madness]

From Qld, and after all the hype and going to the Worlds we were looking forward to something great after last years disappointment in Perth. Is that definately the finished product or will they make some changes before May?

[krusty66]

Well I have only been racing for six months on the Bmx coming from mtb and I like the 2nd straight. Its good to have something like this in all categories. Simple fact in my category roll and pump thru loose, dial the manual in and win.

Hats off to the track builders to create an amazing track flows really well.

[Shane Jenkins]

Thanks for your time, and thanks in advance for your retraction and apology.

You know what? If you read my last post backwards you might even find directions to your local McDonalds too.

There will be no retraction nor an apology.

The safety of my fellow riders means more to me than your opinion of me.

That's the end of this discussion for me.

Now back on with the topic.