Potential drag races in the Lisbon, ND area

[catmechanic]

as some of you already know, i am pushing to get some side by side drags back in our area. i want to see who has interest in this. we haven't worked all of the details out yet, but i have a local meeting tonight that should answer a lot of questions.

what would you like to see? any particular classes? post your ideas here. i am very open to new ideas and any help we can get would be much appreciated. even if you don't want to race, you are more than welcome to come and lend a hand.

races will probably be around the end of jan to early feb. more than likely a 2 day show.

[Bump]

Will it be club sponsored? Will you have a groomer for the track? We had to re-groom a couple times at ours last year as it gets a little torn up.

[catmechanic]

i spoke to a couple of local business owners in the watering hole last night. sober. and they both said they would sponsor it. i will keep asking around.

as far as grooming, not sure how we are going to do that. i don't think the club can use the trail groomer for that purpose. might have to get crafty and think of some other way to do it.

[Bump]

You will need a way to create and maintain a track. SND will NOT allow you to use the groomer to groom anything that is not a marked and certified trail. We just happened to have a new guy who was learning how to groom and happened to "practice" his skills in the same empty field that we were running in.

The first thing I would look into is insurance. If its not sanctioned by the club, you dont have insurance. If it IS sanctioned by the club and its like ours, side by side racing is a no no.

Check that out first.

[catmechanic]

i know what you mean about keeping the track up.

i have brought up the insurance multiple times and i will bring it up again tonite. as far as i know, we should be good to go on insurance.

i am trying to think of everything that i would want to see if i went to drags somewhere else. food, maybe a warm up shelter, parking, etc. we only have 2 motels in town. a super 8 and a smaller locally owned hotel. there is also one in enderlin that is newly rennovated. thats 17 miles away. i have a feeling there will be a lot of people showing up. and if we do a 2 day show, which i personally think is the only way we will get all of the classes done, people aren't going to drive back to bismarck or dickinson for the night.

[Bump]

It was a super nice day when we did ours, but if weather was not cooperating, you could have a warming trailer. Just a big enclosed trailer that had a table with the food and beverages and the registration table inside. We had some chilli for cheap and it went over real well.

you will need a radar gun, light tree, timing system, and power generation to start. I'd hate to have a big turnout and then its just the drop of a flag and a guy watching at the end of the track. Could make some guys mad if its not more "official"

for the radar gun, check with the local HP. They dropped one off last year just to be nice (although there was a HP racing too). We have our own, but a second was nice.

for the lights and timing system, check with fargos track. I'm pretty sure they have an 1/8 mile track, right? Maybe they would be willing to sponsor by donating the use of some equipment.

All depends on how big you want to make it... If you build it... they will come. (but only if they know about it. better get on the ball and set dates so you can advertise. No one will come if no one knows about it!)

[catmechanic]

i posted an ad on bismanonline a few weeks ago. i have a lot of people interested already. from vintage up to full blown drag sleds.

i guess we have a tree and sensors down in oakes. one of the guys in the club was going to check on getting ahold of that.

i really want to set a date in stone here soon. i was pushing for the end of dec, early jan, but it just won't happen. we are shooting for late jan, early feb now. once i get done with this meeting tonite and find out about one of my potential locations, i will set the date.

[Rob1334]

Yup, you won't get insurance through SND if you are doing side by sides, that was something they made clear last year. You might have to look elsewhere to get covered, otherwise they will only go as far as one person at a time, Radar runs.

Also, if you get covered by them insurance wise double check how you have to advertise with the names. We could not use our club name but we could use it as a sponsor to Missouri Valley or something like that, you need to advertise EXACTLY how they have it written on the insurance policy. We had to redo our signs before we hung them up. Also, make sure the land is leased properly from the landowner, contract and club is paid so that they are not responsible in case of something happening.

I know you want to hold it close to Lisbon (very familiar with the area from work..) but you might get a better turn out somewhere closer to Fargo area. Just a thought.

[catmechanic]

i realize about the whole location thing. but we also need to look at it this way. this is something we are trying to do through the ransom county driftskippers club. therefore it makes sense to have it somewhere in or really close to ransom county.

i have people from all over the state that have responded to my bismanonline ad and said that if i have the drags, they will be there. if people don't like the location, they don't have to come. it doesn't make sense for me to travel 50+ miles each way to a alternate racing location to get things set up. how many trips is it going to take? im sure even with the location i have picked out now that is only 2 miles out of town, i will put on a few hundred miles doing this and that.

if people want to race, they will be there.

insurance, location, and rules are things i am going to bring up tonight.

[Bump]

Sounds like your on track! Keep us posted!