PREZ SAYS

BEHIND THE SCENES

I will start out by saying, ‘Where do I start”. There has been so much going on for the last several months that it is almost like a bad dream. The uncertainty of anything is front and center in our daily lives and the fact that it is not letting up has a lot of us experiencing some sleepless nights.

One in particular was the pain of canceling our banquet. The pure agony that led up to the decision was enough to put a couple years on all of us. We waited hoping that things would turn around and we could enjoy our biggest event of the year with the plans already set in motion. I know the Executive Committee was in constant communications with all possibilities and the question of “what if” or how can we negotiate all this. The uncertainty that was changing daily reminded me of back in the day, when we had real mud events and each lap that you made was a completely different trail than the previous lap. We kept positive and kept thinking “we have to make this work for our kids,” but the reality came with the obvious of the daily changes. We kept referring to our motto, “Responsible Motorcyclist” and the decision was made.

Moving forward, we are working on a plan to have some type of presentation for our youth and will be announcing this in the near future. All the class winners will be mailed their jackets and the trophies with be available at the upcoming races.

I will say that our circle will not be broken and that plans are in the works for the first several events of our season. There will probably be some requirements in place at our events but our events will happen. I hope that most of you have been getting out and keeping the blood flowing as it doesn’t take long to lose your timing, cardio and sharpness.

Croom is now open with an annual pass, which can be purchased online at floridastateforests.reserveamerica.com. Bring your email conformation, vin number and a driver license to the front gate to receive your sticker. Besides Croom and Bone Valley in Ft Meade, we have a new opportunity with the reopening of the old Florida Tracks and Trails in Punta Gorda. “The Sandlot Off-Road Park” comes with a new owner, attitude and new ideas. Our VP Pete Rose and myself took a weekday morning (we both write the schedules at our day job) and went for a tour of the facility. We spent the morning talking about the revamping of the entire facility. Besides offering trails for all OHVs, they will be putting in single track for bikes only! The owner rides, races and understands what we like and has an open mind to offer something for everyone. We have been asked for input and will be helping with the design of these trails as he looks to open in October. So keep an eye out on Facebook for more details.

I have been hitting Croom every weekend since the re-opening and even sometimes in the afternoon during the week (here’s that schedule thing again). We could have a race with all the FTR folks that have been showing up, but thank goodness nothing has been organized yet. LOL

I don’t know if this is off the chart or not, but picking my riding buddies up at 5:15am on the side of the road and doing the 2.5 hour drive to Croom, just to pour sweat from getting dressed is normal or not, but until someone calls me out on it count me in for some seat time.

I hope all my FTR friends and families are doing okay under the circumstances and I look forward to hearing the “TEN SECONDS” very soon.

Thanks for listening,

Randy Faul FTR President

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