[amex420]

Let me give you a little background on my situation. I am 24 and I have been racing for 2 1/2 years. I upgraded to sport about a year ago. My first three sport races I DNF'd and didn't finish the season. I don't do well at losing, so I trained my butt off and came back the next series. I finished top 3 in all the races and even won the series. I live in South FL, so our classes are a bit smaller. None of the Sport 19-29 groups were over 10 people. The first 3-4 racers usually finished within 60-90 seconds. So all of the races were close. I want to upgrade to Expert and go through pure agony for the first season and just try to finish the races like in my first season of Sport. All of the racers that I talk to advise me that I should stay in sport for one more season until I can dominate the class. They say once you move up to expert there is no turning back. I don't want to be a sandbagger, but I have had every single racer I spoke to advise me not to upgrade. I really want to upgrade. Does anyone have any real life experiences? Was upgrading better or worse for you riding? Do you regret it? What would you do? Any ideas or thoughts would be helpful. I just want to do what is best for my racing.
Thanks in advance
Andrew

 

[turdburgle]

Let me give you a little background on my situation. I am 24 and I have been racing for 2 1/2 years. I upgraded to sport about a year ago. My first three sport races I DNF'd and didn't finish the season. I don't do well at losing, so I trained my butt off and came back the next series. I finished top 3 in all the races and even won the series. I live in South FL, so our classes are a bit smaller. None of the Sport 19-29 groups were over 10 people. The first 3-4 racers usually finished within 60-90 seconds. So all of the races were close. I want to upgrade to Expert and go through pure agony for the first season and just try to finish the races like in my first season of Sport. All of the racers that I talk to advise me that I should stay in sport for one more season until I can dominate the class. They say once you move up to expert there is no turning back. I don't want to be a sandbagger, but I have had every single racer I spoke to advise me not to upgrade. I really want to upgrade. Does anyone have any real life experiences? Was upgrading better or worse for you riding? Do you regret it? What would you do? Any ideas or thoughts would be helpful. I just want to do what is best for my racing.
Thanks in advance
Andrew

Compare your lap times to the expert lap times. Then you'll have an idea of how you'll do. I'm in the same situation. This year was my first year of racing. I raced sport and even won a race... However, if I compare my times to the expert times I'm not too close.... I think you should train as though you are going to be an expert. But start out as a sport next year. You'll know rather quickly if you've improved enough to hang with the experts.

 

[jl]

Compare your times. If you are faster than 50% of the experts, move up.

 

[merlin]

expert

I moved up to Expert this year and am glad I did. However you have to do what feels right for you. You said " I really want to move up to Expert". So go ahead and give it a try. It will bring your riding up to a new level. I would say that if your going to move up to finish the races you start unless your sick or have a mechanical. You will be going for longer the urge to DNF will be bigger then ever, but thats what moving up to expert is all about...sticking it out and gettting better...and getting humiliated at times!! But it's worth it. I would rather be a mid pack expert racer then on the podium in sport class. I;ve been there done that.

 

[Motivated]

If you won the Sport series you should move up

It is going to be tough, but you need to move up. Racing another year in Sport won't make it any easier because you won't be getting much faster competing against guys your own speed - and if you do get faster and are winning by 3+ minutes you will be a sandbagger and have lost out half of a season you could have been in Expert. Train really hard again over the winter and I bet you will do well.

In SoCal the top finishers in Sport must move up - it may even be a Norba rule.

Let me give you a little background on my situation. I am 24 and I have been racing for 2 1/2 years. I upgraded to sport about a year ago. My first three sport races I DNF'd and didn't finish the season. I don't do well at losing, so I trained my butt off and came back the next series. I finished top 3 in all the races and even won the series. I live in South FL, so our classes are a bit smaller. None of the Sport 19-29 groups were over 10 people. The first 3-4 racers usually finished within 60-90 seconds. So all of the races were close. I want to upgrade to Expert and go through pure agony for the first season and just try to finish the races like in my first season of Sport. All of the racers that I talk to advise me that I should stay in sport for one more season until I can dominate the class. They say once you move up to expert there is no turning back. I don't want to be a sandbagger, but I have had every single racer I spoke to advise me not to upgrade. I really want to upgrade. Does anyone have any real life experiences? Was upgrading better or worse for you riding? Do you regret it? What would you do? Any ideas or thoughts would be helpful. I just want to do what is best for my racing.
Thanks in advance
Andrew

 

[turdburgle]

It is going to be tough, but you need to move up. Racing another year in Sport won't make it any easier because you won't be getting much faster competing against guys your own speed - and if you do get faster and are winning by 3+ minutes you will be a sandbagger and have lost out half of a season you could have been in Expert. Train really hard again over the winter and I bet you will do well.

In SoCal the top finishers in Sport must move up - it may even be a Norba rule.

IF you get 3 top 3's in Norba events in one year you have to move up.. However, this rule is only in effect if there are 20 or more people in your class in each of those races. Around here we're lucky if 10 people show up to race the Norba series.