Originally Posted by
carpediemracing
As a promoter (or former promoter I guess) ....
Ultimately what I want (and what I think most racers want) is to have at least an illusion of "I have a chance". I don't know exactly how to make that work, but the reality is that most licensed racers are 4s or 3s, and given the chance, they'll do 2 races in a day. A promoter needs to be able to leverage that to help meet costs or, if they're doing well, make some money.
As you know the junior fields and many women'd fields are so small. Some can be 0-5 riders and promoters get social media grief when not offering these fields. Then some races they have 15 juniors - all doing Cats, non doing juniors. I've seen women doing men's while not doing women's.
I've bounced this idea around, I'm curious what you think for the for local/regional type racing.
Have 8 (pick a number) categories. All genders and ages race whatever category they are qualified for. No reason a promoter could not have multiple Cat 5 races. Nationals, selection races and the like would be gender, age graded.
Cat 8 - 52X16 gear restrictions, 25 max field. Everyone starts here. Maybe everyone 14+
Cat 7 - 52X16 gear restrictions, 50 max field.
Cat 6 - 52X14 "
...
Cat 1 Maybe what it is today - gender divided
Pro what it is today - gender divided