I know I have seen in the past some tracks that ran a 10 man gate( Elkhart Indiana??). Have any of you raced these? How was it and how did it compare to 8 man gates. What do you think of bringing it back today. It would seem simple enough with a few minor changes to the front straight. I would love to give it a try.

Changstar

I think that would be very cool. I just wanted to post so you wouldn't stay at 0 posts....lol

Orlando, Florida had a 10 man gate BITD. I could be wrong but I think they used it for the Worlds. They always used 10 spots for practice at the nationals there too. It was pretty tight on the first straight as I recall.

i raced the 10 man gate at elkhart , in 1980, the track was wide enough and and fast, ITS funny i never realized we had a 10 man main untiil i got the trophy, but i was a lame arse 11 novice at he time. elkhart was always a killer track no matter what...

We raced a 6 man gate at Corvallis Indoor in Oregon in the early Eighties.

I remember a full 2 page spread shot of the pro class from Elkhart, anyone have it and can post it? I always thought it was killer seeing 10 pros down the first straight. I would love to hear from any of them about what it was like. Or any of the older riders that were at those nationals. I say bring it back, or if we want to up the ante we should go with 12 riders.

Changstar

Goota be more thoughts out there besides letting us wear shorts, which I like by the way. But really, if there is enough riders wouldn't it be cool. If it is bad then why? This would have been a killer way to test at the ERA race.

Changstar

Not a gate, rubber band.

Two more riders...

I was just trying to make a 5th place feel better

Changstar

Sometimes the ten man start was necessary due to the shear numbers of entrants at a race. That way they could put as many people in as many motos as possible. It was just a given at the Yamaha gold cup races. The ten man start was the minimum because so many people showed up for those races.

Note #4 of the general rules for the Gold cup.

#14 is a good one too.

I liked the idea of wearing shorts (to race in) when I was a teenager, but as an adult, I tend to lean towards 'more protection is better'.

We not only had a 10 man gate at Elkhart, but as robert foshag aludes to, at our local races everyone who made the main trophied. "Hey guys, I got a trophy" What place? "tenth"

Wildman

Now that right there IS Bicycle Moto Cross!!! With a huge emphasis on the MOTO CROSS. Too cool!
Man I wish there were tracks like that again.
Nothing against todays tracks, I just dig those mx roots.

First off I want to apologize up front for not being serious, but your question (10 man gate,Y not?) made me think of this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzxJy-7ggx0...feature=related

Wow the Red Baron and the Wildman on here. Cool. Well at least This has not drwn any harsh critisism, so can't be that bad of an idea. I think it would be fun, and like I said 5th is not so bad anymore. 9th and 10th at first doesn't sound good, then think about those who did not make the main. Hey how many times have you got a 5th in a semi? Now you would be in the main.

Changstar

Ok Jason, let's turn up this thread.

I didn't stick around into the 80's to witness any tracks with wide enough straights to handle a 10 man gate. We had mostly 6 man gates with a few tracks that might have been able to handle 8.

Here are a few different angles of Saddleback, SoCal mid 70's. The first shows all 6 of us hitting Bonsai at nearly the same time. Add 4 more to the mix and it would have been quite a party!!!



Below is a far-away picture of the same track. We had a short starting straight into a slight downhill right turn, hit the ledge and fly down Bonsai elbow to elbow (watch out for Kevin McNeals elbows!)



A 10 man gate would have made things very interesting. Maybe I could do this same analogy with some pictures of Corona. What do you think?

How 'bout that Jason, does that help?

Sodbuster, that was my first racing helmat in your avatar, lol. I used to be embarrassed by it. As far as 10 man gate, more the merrier I guess. Of course, I guess it would make coming last in cruiser hurt a little more since moee 8-12 year olds would be on it.

I think we had possibly 15 in the Yamaha Gold Cup mains. If anyone wants to count the riders on the Coliseum race video....?

Soledad Sands had 10 to a start and not a real long run into the first turn.

Palms Park only had 4 to a start.

Corona would have been a good track for a 10 man gate. A long first straight and a wide sweeping first turn. Here is a picture of a Corona start with 8 guys. McNeal is just out of frame at the left.

Well seems like the only reason I can think of for it not to happen is if the clippys think it may be too dangerous to battle with 9 guys in the first turn. I think it would be more MOTO, and be more spectator friendly, and TV friendly. If done for nats only, then it would give everyone a big push to step it up for nats. As it is practice nowadays seems more like warm up than to actually figure out how to race the track like the old days. I like that before you dealt with different tracks that had different people do well because of how the track might better suit one riding style over another. Now locals are just about the same as nats, so this may be good to separate the two. We used to squeeze 8 guys into a 5 foot tall berm, now with big paved 20 foot berms and much wider by many feet, I think it would be fine. Just looking at pictures you can see how much room there is at many tracks. The Olympics being a good example of a track meant for 8, but can easily hold 2 more. I think only the weanies don't want it. What happened to the MOTO part of Bicycle motocross?

Changstar

San Diego (and other tracks) would often run only 6 riders but 4 hacks..Always seemed a bit odd. I guess we were disposable

I was thinking that a lot of points would be made about it being a bad idea. But so far it is neither too bad or too good, just kinda so so. Maybe it can be tried without a lot of strong emotions one way or another. I have heard that a track has a ten man gate that they use for practice, as it helps get more people on the track and shortens the wait. Would be awesome if they ran a open class using ten guys and try it out. Hey we could be on to something new from the old. Ten double A's would be totaly exciting, great to watch, look better on TV and can be done very simply. I have been fishing for the bad side of it but so far nothing to get people to riled up. A whole lot less controversy than say, clips. So who out there thinks it would be bad and why?

Changstar

Darn it, didn't make it in 3 days.

Changstatr

I raced a 10 man gate at Aguas Calientes (I think) in Mexico around in 1985. It was one of my hairiest racing experiences. The first straight was crazy! I pulled lane 10 in both mains and got taken out both times. I just think that most of the tracks are not wide enough. Too dangerous. Memorable experience though.

A 10 man gate wouldn't do anything in NBL. They'd just split it into two 5 man motos.......

I had a tenth place trophy from Buds. The turnouts back then warranted that many riders on the track at once as well. 500 riders at a single point local? Buds BMX!!!