BEHIND THE SCENES

The 2020-2021 season has brought in a number of new members to the Florida Trail Riders organization. Because of this I wanted to do a write-up on what all goes into making these events happen.

I decided to interview members of three seperate clubs to get the details on what goes into planning and executing these events.

“Tractor Jim” Agate

Palm Beach Track & Trail

PBT&T Treasurer, tractor tech, member for 11 years.

Pete Rose

Scott Doerr

Old School Dirt Riders

FTR Vice President, OSDR Vice President, tech guy. OSDR member for 14 years.

President of Suncoast, member for 13 years and all-around nice guy.

Suncoast Trail Blazers

What was the process for finding land to race on?

“We have a very unique situation, we were friends with the landowners back when our property (Snake River) was used by a different club. We reincorporated the club back in 2009 and were lucky enough to be able to use the land.”

“Our club president, Ben Kelly, knew the landowners from racing cars down at DeSoto Speedway and over in Punta Gorda. One thing led to another and we were lucky enough to be able to use their property, they are super into racing and some of their family actually races FTR.”

“I know that we made an attempt in 2000 to race at the Mondon Hill property but we ran into issues with the county. The landowner ended up trying to mudbogs there and it never really worked out, eventually we were able to work our way back into the property succesfully in 2008.”

When does the club start preparing for the race?

“Typically our event is in January and February so we start preparing the property in September. We will scope out certain sections and decide how we will run the course, unfortunately for us our trail gets overgrown quick so we have to go in there with a tractor and clear holly bushes and pepper trees.”

“We are typically out there mid to late October, our race is early December. We have our main five or six people out there and we lay out the course with ribbon to get the intitial flow going.”

“Section leaders first go out to the property the weekend after Thanksgiving to do some scouting. We are there every weekend until our race the first weekend of January.”

Besides building the course, what else goes into preparing for a race?

“There is a ton of stuff, deciding how many portolets to get, communicating with the county in order to have EMS on sight, we have to set up with insurance through the AMA, we coordinate all of our food vendors, creating the flyer and the list goes on and on.”

“We start setting up food vendors, event flyers, trophies, t-shirts, gate workers, porta toilets, dumpster, EMS, permits, & insurance in September. Then follow up on these at least two to three times to try to and avoid surprises. We also have to coordinate with the land owner, the rancher who has cattle on the property, and hunters who lease the property to ensure all parties are aware of what is happening on what day to avoid conflicts.”

“Permitting is huge, without that the race doesn’t happen. Luckily. Mariah Lacey handles that for us. We have to get cowboys out there to move all the cattle across the street. We mow the parking area, trophies, t-shirts and all that just to name a few things.”

“We go over all of that at our monthly meetings, it is usually the same core group of people that take on the important roles. We are lucky to have some very committed members.”

How do you decide who does what on race weekend?

“Basically each member does the same duty each year, that way everything runs smooth and everyone knows what they are doing. We have a sign up sheet that goes around via email prior to the race where people can sign up for certain duties.”

“As a club we get together to see who will be working the race that weekend, we try and place people in positions that we think fits best. After so many years it all kind of falls into place.”

What happens once the racing is finished?

“The first order of action is to return the land to the state is was before the race. All ribbon, all arrows are pulled so the cows dont eat them. We try and take down as much as we can that Sunday, but we usually go back the next few weekends and finish pulling everything.”

“Well once the 1pm race starts we start tearing down the starting grid and work our way into the fields and what not once the racing is over. We typically go out to dinner Sunday night and everyone stays until Monday and finishes tearing everything down.”

“We get as much ribbon and posts into the dumpsters as possible before they take them. We have to fill in every single post hole out in the fields so the cattle don’t injure themselves. We try and pull as many arrows as possible as we only have a few weekends where we have access to the property.”

Why do you continue to be involved in the club?

“The ability to pull off an event, having it run smoothly and to see everyone enjoying themselves. It is the satisfaction that keeps me coming back every year.”

“I just enjoy the company and being out in the woods. I work a desk job during the week so anything that can get me out into the woods and be outdoors.”

“It is something I look forward to, we have a great core group. I call a lot of them my friends and it is just a part of life at this point.”