2001 - 2002 pre-snow season news & activities

June 2001

9 (Sat.) Landowner's Appreciation Day 12:00 noon - 4:00 p.m.

Food for the landowners, who allow everything to be possible, a chance to show them around the clubhouse, a closer look at some of our equipment. We had 64 landowners come. It was probably one of the best nice weather days we've had this year. Next year, should this be earlier in the year or later in the year?

July 2001

trail work completed:

Village of Mayville gave us some old dock sections, all we had to do was go get them and store them down by the bridge and telephone pole piles.

Moved one of the two bridges that were no longer need over by Sherman out into the State Lands. The creek bed was cleaned-up, the new bridge was hauled in, both tail slopes were tapered down and the ends of the bridge were buried.

Old trolley line between Mayville and Westfield. The big wash-out was prepped, a big pipe was worked in, both trail sides were sloped down some. Last year's by-pass bridge was removed and hauled back to the road for later removal.

August 2001

5 (Sun.) Grass Drag Races

September, October, and November 2001

Work parties on many weekends: major projects need completion; brush and limbs need trimming back; our first full weekend Sunday in October grass drag races to bring-in funds for our trails and equipment.

(photos courtesy of Tom Moore)

October 2001

7 (Sun.) Grass Drag Races

November 2001

10 (Sat.) All trail signs go up this weekend.

December 2001

Trails open in New York State after hunting season closes - about 12/10/2001

January 2002

At our first meeting of the new calendar year. Much discussion concerning our annual winter snowmobile drag races which have always been held on the first Sunday in February. The annual winter snowmobile drag races have been cancelled and will be permanently removed from our schedule of events. Why? Let me list in random order some of the discussion items leading to this decision:

	Lack of member help to prepare for and conduct the races. Putting up fencing, diverting trails, registration, admission, conducting the races, tear-down and clean-up afterwards. Planning and preparations start six (6) weeks ahead of race date. The Saturday before race day from 9:00 am until done, the fencing is put up (about 3/4 mile of steel posts and snow fencing is put up) and trails are diverted. Race day Sunday starts as early as 7:30 am for some and ends well after dark for most. The last sign pulled last year was at 8:25 pm.
	Labor intensive. This is the most labor intensive money raiser we do during the year. Way too much effort when we should be out there riding.
	Insurance issues: our insurance was cancelled after the accident in the pits during last October's grass drags. (A throttle stuck open for a second, knocked several people down causing injuries, and badly damaged another sled.) Insurance company cancelled our policy even though no claims have ever been submitted to our carrier. We are researching new race insurance and also researching a new insurance policy for the club and trails.
	Safety. If we do not scrape the track down like last year we could have safety issues. Many highly modified machines that have little or no suspension. They will not be controllable with much snow on the ground or ruts in the snow pack.
	The sport is changing. Snow-cross is increasingly popular during the winter. Winter snow drag races are declining. Summer/Fall grass drags are still doing well.
	Parking Problems. Not enough places to park and too many get stuck and need to be pulled out. Somebody spends the entire afternoon pulling people out of the ditch.
	Darkness. Sun goes down relatively early. Last year we were forced to stop due to darkness and refund several classes. Left some competitors disappointed and/or upset.
	This year, Superbowl Sunday was moved back one week and it was felt that many would not attend. Superbowl parties more important than our races?!
	Could not move the winter snow drag races back without conflicting with either NASCAR's twin 125's at Daytona or the Daytona 500 itself.
	(A couple of other reasons, but I can not remember them at the moment.)

It was suggested and approved that we continue three (3) snowmobile drag race events per year. First Sundays of August, October, and now possibly November.

Expand our October and possible November events to include more vendor areas and areas for anybody who has something to sell or trade.

(cut out of the Westfield Republican newspaper)