Chris Phipps wrote:I pre enter races when I can, but it is tough when these early bird races don't allow pre-registration. I'm really glad they decided to add another 4/5 race on Saturday, as were some people who drove much further than I did.
It would be a real bummer to drive 3 or more hours and have them say sorry, you can't race.

Since there's no pre-registration for Patterson, I plan to arrive well before registration opens at 7AM, with my entry form already filled out. I'll just look for the line of people camping out from the night before. :D
There seems to be a large group of new riders this year who are eager to race, which is a good thing, right?

At least with the Early Bird RR additional groups can be added to accommodate large fields. last year second groups were added for the Cat 5s and the 35+ 4/5s.

Especially with the early season races where it seems everyone wants to race promoters should offer a pre-reg option. By having pre-reg promoters can see ahead of time if a field is filling and maybe work on a option to accommodate more riders ( like adding a second race)

I pre enter races when I can, but it is tough when these early bird races don't allow pre-registration. I'm really glad they decided to add another 4/5 race on Saturday, as were some people who drove much further than I did.
It would be a real bummer to drive 3 or more hours and have them say sorry, you can't race.

Since there's no pre-registration for Patterson, I plan to arrive well before registration opens at 7AM, with my entry form already filled out. I'll just look for the line of people camping out from the night before. :D
There seems to be a large group of new riders this year who are eager to race, which is a good thing, right?

Personally I don't like the idea of increasing the field size on the day of the race for several reasons. One of the main ones is it isn't fair to the riders who showed up expecting one field limit and then finding out things have changed. Some riders might not have showed up in the first place if the advertised field limit had been 75. Increasing the field size could lead to some safety issues which in turn could lead to some liability issues. In general the NCNCA frowns on increasing field limits.

Cat 4 and 5 riders should realize that a lot of races are going to fill up this year. As noted in the past if you want to increase your chances of getting into a race you really want to do pre-enter. Riders shouldn't expect that a field limit will be increased just because riders showed up and want to get into a race.

It probably made it a bit more sketchy, but hard to say for sure. One of the crashes right in front of me was caused by a young kid who just plainly needed better pack skills as he made a huge swerve then someone over reacted and slammed on the brakes and skidded out into the curb (right in front of me - fortunately he went left). I would personally prefer they separate all the 5s, which has already been hashed and rehashed. The 3/4 was so much cleaner(and faster) than the 4/5. They also added a second 4/5 at 2:00 and perhaps it would have been better to make them both 50, but it really should not be anything to complain about. The field was tough for the first race of the year.

Jason

Only if they stayed home because they thought the field was full. Seem this issue with the new 50/75 field limits for races with only cat5 or cat5+4 will take a while to set in...