Good racing but where are the riders?

The Nordic region Norway, Sweden and Finland had a fast development of flat track since just about when covid started. Danmark was on the move for a couple of years, but the danes seems to prefer the wibe of party and less racing while the rest of the Nordic region seems to have both race heads as well as party animals.

Åke Jansson and Jonathan Falkman was the first to organize races in Sweden, but after we ourselves introduced the informel Trotteln i Taket, lots of new riders joined our sport and it took off. Svemo registered new licenses in a hurry and the region got more flat track riders than speedway riders for a while. But last year was the first with less riders signed up than the year before and we noticed a set back in the upgoing trend.
Yesterday we raced the first round of the Swedish flat track cup and we belive 25 riders made it to the starting line. Way to little to actually cover the costs of organizing a race. In the Nordic Flat track Cup we spot the same trend, the sign ups has been slow, especially from Swedish and Norweigan riders. The Finns has signed up more then ever and it seems they are on a opposite curve than their neigbours, but where are the rest and where are the new ones?

Newbie and Rookie are soo empty and thats where the new ones should be.

The answer is probably not a single one but lets start with some explainations. From the start the sport attracted everyday riders, the pressure was low and almost any bike any age could attend. But hey they still can and here is a clue. While many of the ones started in the early process has developed a lot, getting better, faster and maybe more serious about their racing, the ones with slightly lower ambitions, time and effort slowly dissapeared for different reasons, there seems to be less new comers every season.

Why? The answer to this needs to be solved otherwise we are about to start all over in just a few years. We have a theory though. Of course we have 🙂 We just need to be better offering fun events, easy accessed events, for both spectators and the ones who likes to have fun without pressure, without goals and we need to do it now.

Some claims that young riders are the answer, and of course thats a part of it, but more we need to attract their parents, friends and everyone who loves to have fun, getting dirty and getting happy feeling the rush of adrenaline battling others on the gravel track.

To make that happen we need organizers who dares to think outside the box, to attract the ones maybe never introduced to the sport, to attract the young, the not so young and even the old who feels that a decent level of racing for fun would be great. But the organizers needs to find ways to work within the rule book without forcing the newcomers spending a fortune for a first try. So can we have our federations working with us on this? We hope so!

Anyway to wrap this up, we have a plan and meanwhile if you read this and still thinking about if you gonna sign up for a race in our region or not, there is only one thing to do, sign up, and do it now, cause if you dont, there wont be any races to go to in a very close future. And BTW there are classes for everyone, from the first time rider to the experts, for the old beautiful Vintage rides to the framers and the Hooligans.

And we would love to see a bunch of riders on all kinds of levels all kinds of bikes signing up in all of them. So just do it dirt doesnt hurt and our community is the nicest, most friendly and fun group to join. C ya!