Greetings CMRA members!
In the absence of regular General meetings, I am starting a periodic newsletter to keep you up
to date on what has been going on with the club. I would like to have in-person meetings as
well, so if you have turn-key venue recommendations at a location that will have us please let
one of us know!
Since our AGM on April 19, the Executive committee has been working hard to develop our
2022 events and re-boot some of our tools and processes. Thanks to Keri-Ann Reid and Chris
Crump our website is back online so the basics for communication are in place. Rob Darlington
(VP) has been working hard to get MotorsportsReg (MSR) up and running for our club, and we
have successfully sold memberships, licenses, and our race school on MSR. Jason Valdez
(AMRA President) has also graciously been assisting Rob in developing our race registration for
MSR which is no small task, so a big thanks to all these folks. I’d also like to thank the Executive
committee – we have a great group with a lot of experience that has offered their time and
expertise to restarting CMRA operations, so thanks to each of you.
Our July 5/6 Race School was made possible by head instructor Brad Gavey and with major
support from Justin Knapik and his team from OTP. This year was challenging to sell out the
school as there was no Motorcycle Show for promotion, and we had a late start at marketing.
Too Cool Motorcycle School partnered with CMRA to fill 1/3 of our track time on July 6 to get
more riders out, so thank you to Trevor Dech and team for making that happen. The school
went very well, and congratulations to the 18 students that completed the CMRA Race School –
we hope to see you at our first race! Thank you to everyone who volunteered at the school – in
addition to our Executive Team we had over ten enthusiastic volunteers come out on a week
day to help us out – we could not have done it without you!
The new Rocky Mountain Motorsports (RMM) facility is really coming along. The RMM team has
constructed a technically challenging track that riders and drivers have been eager to try, and it
is great to have a new venue to call home for the CMRA. RMM has been working with their
members, renters, the county, and their neighbors to develop a facility that meets everyone’s
needs (which is no small task). The RMM staff have been very supportive of our club and a
pleasure to work with as we plan our events (thank you Shadi, Jennifer and Jessica!).
Completing the RMM road course in June 2022 was a major milestone, but there are more to
come! The advanced Track Management System (GPS transponders, light signal boards and
camera monitoring) is up and running as of the end of July, and RMM will pave the remainder of
the paddock (2023) and install additional buildings and facilities in the coming years.
Throughout the development process there have been many challenges, some of which have
impacted RMM’s scheduling which has trickled down to both renters and members.
So, what about the big news – when will CMRA host its first race at RMM? You are aware that
we had a date scheduled for July 30-31, but due to factors related to the regulatory process with
the County, RMM felt it was best to delay our race weekend to ensure there were no last-minute
cancellations to our event, and as it turned out this was the correct decision as the final approval
for our event was not received in time. With this first year being a “short season” as it is, there
were very limited options in terms of re-scheduling. RMM provided us with a make-up date of
Sept 10-11, which then put the ball in CMRA’s court.
CMRA has several challenges to running races at RMM. Brand new tracks require a lot of
capital, and those funds come from the members and the renters. The track rental fees are
higher at this facility as compared to our former home, which means we require robust rider
attendance to ensure we at least break even. CMRA completed its 2011 season with enough
money left over to start operations at RMM, however our club cannot afford to lose money in
consecutive events. For this reason, there is pressure on the organization to ensure rider
attendance is strong, which means your support is key to our success.
Most of our members ride with the EMRA, and the EMRA generously supported the CMRA by
offering to include CMRA’s race round in the EMRA championship, with the ability to take points
from the best 5 of 6 races towards a championship. This spirit of cooperation is very helpful in
terms of boosting rider registrations. However, due to our race date change, CMRA had
concerns about rider attendance as the new date meant back-to-back race weekends with
EMRA. It would be the last race of the season (when riders funds are at their lowest), the risk of
poor weather issues starts to increase, back to school plays a factor, and being the last race of
the season the incentive of additional points in the EMRA championship would be moderated to
a certain degree. We felt this introduced significant risk to attendance.
The best way to mitigate the risk of low attendance is to open race registration and ensure a
minimum number of riders register to guarantee the race could proceed without losing money.
This is a viable strategy, but it takes time, and since the schedule change was unexpectedly
foisted upon both RMM and CMRA, RMM required our revised commitment within 1 week of
providing a new date. We felt that was insufficient time to open registration and properly gauge
interest in our event.
After detailed discussion at our July 26 meeting the Executive committee voted unanimously to
postpone our first race round at RMM until 2023. We did not feel there was any benefit to
rushing into an event and taking on additional financial risk, not to mention putting more
pressure on our volunteers to meet a last-minute schedule change.
CMRA plans on hosting successful events. What does success mean? To me it means an
enjoyable, safe, financially viable event where RMM, the riders, volunteers and spectators all
have a fun weekend with little to no hiccups. A new track, new registration system, new timing
and scoring system, and new volunteers all provide new challenges and risks. With proper
preparation and experience, the risks diminish significantly, and the chances of success
increase proportionally.
With that in mind, we will continue working with RMM to plan 2023 events and I will keep you up
to date on how things evolve. In the meantime, I will be looking to you members for your ideas
and enthusiasm to make our next shot at this a success. Hope to see you at the coming track
days or our next meeting! Until then enjoy the rest of your summer and safe riding!
All the best,
Tim Johnson
President, CMRA