Prodrift Rd 2 Afterthoughts

[Mick K]

Midweek only for me Petey T

[gem-s13]

im thinking i might get an auld meeting going one night soon down in the D.I hq, anyone with an opinion is welcome amd wel brainstorm a few realistic ideas...

tea nd biscuits for all!!

you may put the kettle on now if its to boil on time!! peice of crap!!lol

a few things have been said that i agree with i did motorcross racing for nearly 6 years the orgainisation in it is very good, i think pd shold look at other sports in this country and see how they run i no motox is diffrant but this is how we did it you got givin a program when you go to sign on in the morn all spectators were given one as they came in the gate a simple bit of paper on it it had all the entered riders names, licence numbers, sponsers, bikes, ages (this is not only handy for the spectators as the comintators could do with it at times) a timetable of events
8.30-9.00 sign on
8.45-10.00 scrutiny (not when you are on the way to practice)
10.00-11.00 group A practice
11.00-12.00 group B practice
and so on very simple!! then people would not find them self asking whats happining now???? or running around because they see a car from there groupe out on track and there was no announcement to say go to the line and so on!

this is a simple idea i no it does be planned and there is a timetable done up but it is not given to the drivers only to the event staff,

but my number 1 thing that needs to be done is GET RID OF THAT MUPPET GIBBENS he is an embassment to the sport he has no clue what a car is so haow can he comment on how it is being driven!!

[thegosson]

a proper P.A. system (sound system) is needed at these events in order to get any interaction with the crowd. i also work for a P.A. hire company called M.G. Audio and could help get this sorted out. The sound needs to be evenly spread out along the track and each stack properly time delayed, not just squawking out of the judges stand, even as far as down to the drivers who are queuing up, to let them know whats going on. Screens too, as mentioned by many could be sorted without any hassle by M.G. Audio. something to think about and look into, would make a huge difference to the atmosphere at the events. its as simple as, if people are having fun they will come back.

[SRray]

Id be up for a meet to air some views on this.Im not going after PD on some witch hunt either I just think they have some issues to sort out,they are easily sorted too for the future of the sport and future of crowd support because without crowd support you have no driver support and no driver support you will have no sport at all.Also we need the people who have been there from day1 to air their views of the way things are now.

[Fredericks Balls]

**oh yea, the last PD event I was at was Punchestown last year, and this was a big improvement. As said above, its a great event, but just needs some improvement to make it even better**


From a spectators point of view, we have no idea what is happening. So our only way of know what's going on is by listening to the commentators. But when they dont know then that gets frustrating. Before some of the events were to start they were saying stuff like:

"well it should start now at a quarter to so just a few minutes, although it will probably be ten or fifteen more because we are running late haha so about five past"
So i go to the jacks and come back and ive missed the start

I, and from what I could gather too most people around me had no idea at all when the runs were starting. Again neither did the commentators.

The Judges, well two of them, were very tame in making judgements, there seemed like a lot of OMT's that probably didnt need to be run. They also seemed to change their minds quite a bit depending on what other judges said which makes no sense.

Dont get me wrong, im not having a dig here, just making points. OMT's are great, and id have been happy to see, for instance, Colfer and Dean OMT 45 times because it was great to watch, but in the fairness of the sport you have to also be fair to the lads too. They are the guys paying the big bucks to put on the show.

IMHO Prodrift needs:

A timetable. Visable at certain points so drivers and spectators know whats going on. But not a decorative one, they need to stick to it.

I agree a screen for the judges would be an advantage

Some sort of fog horn/light system visable/audable to the spectators to alert them a run has just started. And by the looks of it to inform the Judges too.

I thought the commentators were ok but neither guys had a clue about drifting itself. Maybe it would be better to have one clued up commentator. Kind of like in F1, you have one guy to talk shite, and the other to give some informed opinions, which is great.

I thought the judging was a bit all over the place, in the super lap the guys were being fairly critical in a good way but come the battles a lot of the time they seemed a little bit afraid to make a decision.

€20 entry is top money, for any motorsport event in Ireland. I dont for a second think that Prodrift were down the local AIB unloading the tipper full of cash yesterday but at the same time it lacks some basic features that pretty much all other Motorsport events in Ireland would feature.

As previouisly said, City West is a new venture for them, it would be great to see them step up the running too.

[EvojeepGal]

Another thing i feel that needs to be done is having a timetable printed out, for competitors at least.. No one knew what was happening all day sat, and most of sunday unless the commentator announced it, it would defo help speed things up as competitors would be ready!

Didn't they usually have timetables printed? Serious lack of communication for drivers.
Fridays practise was a joke (thankfully my car broke pre so dint sit there all day) No offence to non PD drivers but WTF, they had an hour tothemselves, 8/9cars? When competitors in the amount if 50 odd had to share an hour also where most only got 3 laps throughout the whole day!! What a waste of €50.

If organised proper there should have been a continuous lane or even seperate into more groups so everyone could make full use of their time, instead of waiting 2hours between laps.

Yes it was a great event but god someone is seriously lacking in organisational skills even at this stage, how many years later??
I can easily compare a lot of things but surely if other organisations can manage, why can't PD, especially a it's one of the oldest Championships in Europe?

For crowd interaction, u need funny commentators, not serious, the odd laugh and talkin a lot of bollix! Along with general banter and discussions about runs the way the average person would chat about it, give out bout drivers wen they fuk up, have the banter and change of tone every now and then instead of a boring same toned voice all along, boring!

[Stevo]

Didn't they usually have timetables printed? Serious lack of communication for drivers.
Fridays practise was a joke (thankfully my car broke pre so dint sit there all day) No offence to non PD drivers but WTF, they had an hour tothemselves, 8/9cars? When competitors in the amount if 50 odd had to share an hour also where most only got 3 laps throughout the whole day!! What a waste of €50.

If organised proper there should have been a continuous lane or even seperate into more groups so everyone could make full use of their time, instead of waiting 2hours between laps.

The non PD drivers ponyed up €100 to do the practice day and i seen all the cars alot more than 3 times

[EvojeepGal]

*Removed post*

[Mick K]

Did they treat Polo poorly? Was he OK,Will he pull through?
Does he need a cuddle?

Can someone have Aidan organise a cuddle for whoever it was?

Also this is a handy link...
http://www.samaritans.org/

[EvojeepGal]

The non PD drivers ponyed up €100 to do the practice day and i seen all the cars alot more than 3 times

If I had've had a working car I would have had to pay €100 to be in the PD group, I can assure u I wouldn't have been happy if I did participate for 3 laps.
Of the amount of drivers I spoke to throughout the weekend I didn't come across one who had more than 3/4 laps after been there all day. And not one happy either with the track time they got, I must have just come across the unhappy ones all wk end!