An open plea to Martelli bros., BITD or anyone willing to make a change

[Nessy]

I understand what you are saying but I don't agree with this being the "culture of desert enthusiasts". Personally, I think this statement does harm to our sport and is a completely false characterization of our culture.

Agreed

 

[Evans Motorsports]

The issue can be solved very easy. They sell parking Passes, when the lot is full its full period! This is easy to determine as to how many spots are available to sell. Don't buy a beer buy a tape measure. They are not charging by the person its by the Truck or car load of people. Whatever the area holds should be considered full. I would prefer to buy 2 to 3 passes knowing i could move from area to area with a paid for parking spot available when i arrive. If its empty so what its paid for! There where people sitting 2 and 3 deep from the fence line at the south end of area 4. Many sitting behind empty chairs that were left by people who stayed by there trucks and just placed there chairs by the fence. (15 to 20 empty chairs) Pretty rude of them to do so as many chairs were not used the entire day. Newly arriving, walk in people many with Families were very polite and didn't move them empty chairs for fear of starting something with an unknown individual. If you don't know the issues you cant fix them, however these are the same issues as last year. If you own a business and can't except criticism from your customers then you shouldn't own one! These same people spent time at tech spending there hard earned $$$$ personally we spent over 400.00 at tech and 150.00 at restaurants. Over It!

 

[J Prich]

Wait, can you not say transmission alley now?

 

[tapped1069]

Mr Evans Motorsports, I too have my CCW, and did make the long trip to my truck to strap up because I was feeling a bit uneasy and wanted to protect my family. It's a sad state when we feel it's coming to this. We must have been in close proximity I feel. Good to know I was near like minded folks. I think we are done too. Every year down at tech, we are sure to contribute our fair share at the Official Mint apparel trailer for our yearly ware, especially for the 50th. We even purchased items from vendors as well. Heck, I could have parked at the hotel for free, rode the shuttle and sat where I did and not pay 75.00 for three parking passes.

I was at Spec 4 also and witnessed all that you are talking about. SAD that all don't pay attention to the rules BUT I also read where there is no "Weapons" allowed in the Spec area's. So I guess even you guys didn't pay attention to ALL the rules. I was one of the guys who "triple" parked but I asked the parking attendant if I could pull forward and block myself in with my buddies car "No worries, it's up to you". We DID all have passes attached to our cars though. One thing I've learned is if you want to park next to the fence, you better get there early. I got there about 7:00 and there was only about 10 spots left before the end. Live and learn, wasn't your typical race crowd there this year I noticed.

 

[J Prich]

The sucky thing is at some point it's going to be easier to say no spectating there any more than it will be to come up with a plan to mitigate people doing things they shouldn't be doing.

 

[Kritter]

It's not the 50th Mint.

and spectating will NEVER be good in the states even for an over hyped 31st mint race with pay for tickets. Sounds like all the people who were done wrong with the spectating need to head south to baja. The last good spectating in nevada at a big race was the primm 300...and even that went lame towards the end.

San Felipe is coming...camp out on the course, drink or dont drink, get run over by a race car if you want to, no blm, speed limits only on the highway, no bs just all good times the way desert racing was meant to be.

Its better in baja, for a reason.

 

[Kritter]

The sucky thing is at some point it's going to be easier to say no spectating there any more than it will be to come up with a plan to mitigate people doing things they shouldn't be doing.

Casey was never a fan of spectating or outside support, which is actually pretty awesome but the over hyped mint marketing crew persuaded him with $$$$ and year after year they let those who think they are going to watch some awesome racing down, sounds like this year no different. The thread from last year should have been revived or the year before or the year before that. Its a pattern.

Go to vegas to gamble, hangout, etc...dont go to watch an offroad race unless youre insde the race car or in a helicopter.

 

[Big Whitey]

I guess I am behind the times, I am not sure who is in charge of security at the spec spots. I was doing lite retrieval’s for Bitd and only heard over the radio that there was a drone flying at spec 4 and a couple of people responded to ask them not to fly. Never heard anything else about the other issues. There was hired people with security shirts on but they didn’t really seem overly interested in doing much. I had one of them come to my truck and ask for caution tape to help fix a spot people were coming through at spec 1, sounds like they were doing the proper job over there and not at spec 4.
I had a personal experience with a mad media drone pilot who was flying in a un authorized area and when I asked him about it all he said was it’s ok I know all the helicopter pilots as if he owned the sky, he then made the mistake of flying over pit A and a BLM guy was there and sent another guy out to shut him down. Mad media thinks they own the desert and sounds to me they are a pretty big portion of this issue if they are the ones selling the spec passes.
I do agree very year we get more people who care less about our sport than they do about the party or having any courtesy towards others.

 

[Wendell #527]

Remember what the MDR trajedy did to our sport. That should be a lesson. Let’s take care of this problem one way or another before we have a bigger problem.

 

[LittleZen]

As a spectator I just want to add my issue with the winners stage. I came to the stage expecting to cheer on the winners but what I saw instead was the whole viewing section reserved for VIP. We spectators were regulated to cheer from the sides of the VIP area. To me I felt like they didn't care about the spectators anymore and only concerned with VIPs and their money. I left after only a few interviews not because of the rain but because I was that agitated.

 

[JrSyko]

I understand what you are saying but I don't agree with this being the "culture of desert enthusiasts". Personally, I think this statement does harm to our sport and is a completely false characterization of our culture.

Nothing I said was a negative nor was it meant as such. The most damage we do to ourselves takes place out in the desert during races or otherwise. Google videos from Glamis or Ocotillo and we'll see countless videos of people running over bushes, shooting guns, blowing up glass containers full of gas - you really think the majority of those people go pick up the shell casing or the glass shards? You think people are replanting plants? The problem we have is we like going out to the desert as the ultimate expression of being "free" - thats what is so appealing and what some people can't control. When some of our people do that they suddenly think there are no rules however that is not the case. When you go to your local basketball court or baseball field you don't get the same feeling of lawlessness. Its that feeling that is getting us all in trouble and the perception of what we need to change before someone changes it for us.

 

[EMS702]

I guess I am behind the times, I am not sure who is in charge of security at the spec spots. I was doing lite retrieval’s for Bitd and only heard over the radio that there was a drone flying at spec 4 and a couple of people responded to ask them not to fly. Never heard anything else about the other issues. There was hired people with security shirts on but they didn’t really seem overly interested in doing much. I had one of them come to my truck and ask for caution tape to help fix a spot people were coming through at spec 1, sounds like they were doing the proper job over there and not at spec 4.
I had a personal experience with a mad media drone pilot who was flying in a un authorized area and when I asked him about it all he said was it’s ok I know all the helicopter pilots as if he owned the sky, he then made the mistake of flying over pit A and a BLM guy was there and sent another guy out to shut him down. Mad media thinks they own the desert and sounds to me they are a pretty big portion of this issue if they are the ones selling the spec passes.
I do agree very year we get more people who care less about our sport than they do about the party or having any courtesy towards others.

Thank you for your help with the drone individual at pit A. I am the rescue that responded to have the media guy put it away. Appreciate you guys being out there. Turns out only one drone pilot had permission to fly in the 3 designated spots and he had a radio with communications to helicopters,

 

[WickedGravityVideo]

MY complaint is with "friends of course workers" coming out to the course and drinking beer on course. Getting in my way trying to shoot video. Yes, I have photos and the dix are in most of my video at that place. I told them that alcohol was not allowed on course during the race, but that did not change things. I was outnumbered and just wanted to shoot video, not argue with drunks.

 

[Ol' Curmudgeon]

Close the spectator areas or turn 'em into a profit center. $100 admission, no discounts for children.

Fifty bux ain't enough.

Spectator issues were among the chief reasons SCORE left Parker.

Sal got tired of all the old couches and refrigerators he had to remove.

 

[AZracefan]

I agree with tooltime as well. My father and I have stayed at spectator area 4 for the last 5 or 6 years I believe. Year after year it gets worse and worse, which is the reason we didn't make the trip out there this year. Dogs, RC cars, stereos blaring, fights, double/triple parking, BLM getting involved, etc. It really isn't a first come, first serve bases,either. We would get up at 4:30am, only to have others show up right before the afternoon race,walk from the street, and put up an EZ Up right in front of us.
It doesn't make spectating too enjoyable when you have to deal with these things. Not sure ill ever go back.

Same here, we have been going to Spec 4 from 2012-2016 and year after year it seemed to get worse and worse with everything you specifically mentioned. Finally, the last 2 years we decided to spectate at start/finish in Primm. The race was not as fun to watch compared to Spec 4, but the crowd and control was a bit better. I think they can do a lot better with the area surrounding Buffalo Bills. In my opinion, the Score Primm race was better ran in that area, better bleachers, jump set up and the view of the course was a lot better.

Our group spoke with some race teams and other spectators right at the main finish, during the finish and this thread was basically echoed by all there. Now come Monday morning its a top thread on RDC. Hopefully some changes happen before next year's race, if not, our group of family and friends are fine with attending Parker and San Felipe.

 

[vegasloki]

Spectators have always been a major problem for the off-road racing community. Granted the overwhelming majority of fans are well behaved, there still always seems to be a sizable percentage of the fan base who trash the desert, refuse to obey the rules, get hammered and generally behave like morons.

I understand what you are saying but I don't agree with this being the "culture of desert enthusiasts". Personally, I think this statement does harm to our sport and is a completely false characterization of our culture.

Having been around most all forms of motorsports including a few higher level pro motorsports I see there is an issue with regard to behavior and culture of some off road racing fans. It's a small part but it absolutely plays into the culture. It's similar to some of the people I was around when I raced circle track and something I've not seen a lot of in other forms of motorsports. There are several examples displayed all the time here at RDC.

What harms the sport is the attitude of some of those involved particularly when it comes to land use issues or even sharing a part of the desert with other like minded people. These people tend to be belligerent focusing only on themselves. Several of these people have a disturbing lack of emotional maturity. Off road didn't make them that way but a big part of the culture condones it or ignores it. Pretending it doesn't exist is a much bigger issue than pointing it out.

We stopped going to LOORRS events after a couple of years because of it. People were way over served and out of control. Over use and abuse of alcohol is a leading factor. People complained when they had races at LVMS where they have some tighter alcohol rules but that's why the control alcohol in that manner.

 

[dan200]

Nice part about all this is that the Martelli’s listen. An event the size and scope of this one has to be difficult to manage. Wasn’t it last year that there was traffic jams on the way to the pits because of spectator traffic? They figured that out. I expect they can do the same with thiS.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[J Prich]

Nice part about all this is that the Martelli’s listen. An event the size and scope of this one has to be difficult to manage. Wasn’t it last year that there was traffic jams on the way to the pits because of spectator traffic? They figured that out. I expect they can do the same with thiS.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I dont think so. The traffic jams on Knight Ranch Road were the primary reason they went to a paid system, to control how many people could get out there. That was 2014 I think, the last year it was open season out there. I want to say 2015 was the first year they started doing the pay to park stuff.

But bottom line, totally agree that in spite of some of the nay sayers each year Mad Media has implemented new things in an effort to respond to feedback from racers. Never going to make everyone happy and not every attempted solution is going to be a home run but the bottom line is each year they listen to the gripes and complaints and almost always make some effort to remedy the problem.

 

[tooltime]

Wholly cow. Now we're talkin. Integrity, Values and Morals..... That my friends is a lost art.
Agree with many posters here. There are in my opinion economical ways to fix these issues. I would be open to a round table with the powers that be to help be part of the solution .

 

[J Prich]

Could it be as simple as numbering parking spots and just selling for individual spots? Like seats at a sporting event?