ESK8 Racing Organization and Logistics

The Citadel - Essential References for Esk8
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After reading this thread about the technical side of esk8 racing I thought one should be created to discuss the logistics as well.

I’m hoping this thread could become a guide for anyone thinking of hosting their own race, no matter how small. Here are few of the questions I thought of to start things off:

  • How do you fund it? Sponsors?

  • How do you pick a venue?

  • How do you get enough people to show up?

  • What kind of safety gear do you require?

  • What kind of hardware classes should exist, if any?

  • Have you organized a race before? How did it go?

  • What would you change if you had another chance?

Also, please link any related threads, skatan forbid we repeat ourselves :wink:

full disclosure I made this thread because im butthurt about the lack of east coast race events

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@MoeStooge is the head of esk8 racing as far as I’m concerned he can answer you questions. And @Arzamenable is humble but he’s the most consistent racer I’ve seen.

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Thanks for getting their attention :slight_smile:

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Haha, thanks. I’ve just showed up.

coloradocadi on IG had a hand in some Colorado’s thunder event.

@MoeStooge is a saint as far as Esk8 racing organization/promotion goes (obviously the actual business of skating its self).

It looks like piggy backing off another ‘wheeled’ event is a particularly successful strategy.

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Good point, do you have any examples?

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Downhill skate events like Barrett, Bakersfield, etc.

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The Lancaster race was added in thanks to moestooge’s connections with shifter cart racing

Barrett junction is an old down hill race sponsored my Muir skate, they let us do up hill at the end.

Go cart tracks (in case of evolve World Cup) open up to large events.

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That makes a lot of sense ,sucks that those are rare on the east coast :frowning:

Damn so you’d need some connections to start. I’d love to hear the pitch they give to tracks when asking to have events there.

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Multiple heats is always helpful to establish pole positions so we aren’t killing each other on the start. (Barrett junction was kind of a cluster F start)

I really wanted to do the San Francisco Cannonball run. Location helps and unique racing conditions are enticing.

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How would you describe heats in the context of esk8 racing to someone that knows nothing about racing?

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Basically, you do a lap for time, either by your self or staggered. You are just racing clock.

Then based on times, you line up in order with quickest first, staggered Mario go cart style.

A few prelims helps shake out the quickest riders.

It sucks for bad luck or a fall or broken gear to be the reason you didn’t get to have a shot at winning. Multiple heats with gives you a chance to recover if something happened.

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Maybe a “best of two runs” could work. I ski race and we do this sometimes, usually for casual races.

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“ Short” courses with many turns put an emphasis on technical skating ability, and help to level the playing field gear wise. This makes the races open to a several commercial boards as well as conservative diy builds.

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Agreed, I don’t think anyone should be going more than 30mph on a course with multiple people on it.

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Well, some people wanna go fast. The point of having the course shape limit speed was To make it viable to more racers. It’s not so much safety. You can break a collar bone going 10mph or 50mph.

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We’re gonna be running it again in a couple months, come down. Our group ride route is the best ever(quoted from NYC eboarding)

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Oh, and batteries!!!

Ask a potential racer from Portland why they didn’t show up to your race. How am I going to get my batteries there? True, ground shipping, ughhhhh …post office and planning :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:.

Some folks drive, our overlord, @longhairedboy drives up, I drove an RV to Colorado With multiple boards from other racers in it. I am not an RV driver apparently, but @Bobby is :call_me_hand: . That was rough.

Some one rent us batteries already! Alternatively, maybe u put out an address people can ship to and then you get to babysit their diy IEDs.

Edit for specific shoutout to @Hoyt’s modular packs and the nesse packs (@s5300
Seemed to think dissembling and reassembling nesse was viable. But imagine bringing 84 21700s on your carry on)

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you drive to races. You tour in a land based vehicle. You have to take at least half your shop with you. Spares, tools, gear, way too much shit to fly around or ship. If I was going to get into racing i’d have a small trailer with enough parts and tools to build three boards right there on the track if I needed to.

That’s how its done.

Who knows, maybe i’ll get jake and matt on a track this year or next. But that’s how i’ll do it if I do.

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also fat high current cells. and target a top speed around 25-27 because its all about torque and turns unless you’re drag racing or doing some huge grandprix track

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Only for Moe’s outlaw series, the rest of our shit needs high top speeds

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