Still way short motorefs. Please help our 2026 outreach.

[Bill Nagle]

Issue. We're still short local motorefs. MABRA's 2026 calendar will call for around 60 motoref days. We'll do well to fill half of that with local folks. Good motorefs enhance safety and sporting results for road races. Imports raise costs. Gaps increase risk. 

Action Requested. Please complement our upcoming push for new motorefs by using your network to find promising prospects, particularly beyond the bicycle racing community.

Outreach kit. 

• Steer curious folks to https://sites.google.com/view/motoref-mabra
• Contact mabra....@gmail.com 
• A very bush league flyer is attached

Some timing

• This topic is a likely talking point at the MABRA meeting Jan 11. Probably more concerted outreach after that. 
• Feb 7 is the next motoref course. They don't come around often and it's not the first step for someone getting started, so there's a very actionable window right now. Maybe we get lucky and find prospects quickly.
• But there will be other motoref courses. Let's not have our proselytizing begin or end over that date. We're engaged in a long struggle. Please keep this ongoing community need in the back of your head for idle chatter at your many cocktail parties, etc. 

Other musings

IMHO, outreach to our racing community is appropriate but it is probably more effective at finding folks to help us admire the problem than at directly reaching anyone who might be a solution to our needs. Racers are busy racing. Former racers already know about the possibility and may trickle in on their own when they feel like it. The sweet spot for the cure is in the meta-outreach to the fringe of or beyond the racing community where there are new folks who are moderately rational and have a passion for bicycles, motorcycles, and sport. 

Granted, it's about as hard to find a well-adjusted motorcyclist as it is a bicyclist. Our hunt is further complicated by needing folks who are in a life situation where they want to and can come out to the races now and then. But if you know one, please make a proactive direct personal appeal. Even if you don't, you will eventually bump into one of those special weirdos with potential. Please try to hang onto this notion of need to talk them up on the possibility. Even better, remember enough to send them our way. Rebuilding our bench is a marathon, not a sprint. 

Fingers crossed.

- Bill

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mabra....@gmail.com is active now and will be passed along to the future motoref den dad (or mom?) du jour. For now, Mike (rides the white Himalayan) or I (tall old fat guy on the little red Honda) will field emails there and are happy to get on the phone, too, with anyone who's interested.

[Bill Nagle]

The virtual USA Cycling motor commissaire course is Sat Feb 7. Register here. Those sessions don't come along often. That's the last one we're aware of, probably until after this road season. If you're on the fence, jump on that session now. If you want to know more about the motoref biz, here's some helpful info.

Help us play the long game, too. At some point in the future, you're going to run into an emotionally balanced, skilled motorcyclist with an interest in bicycle racing. No, really! It can and will happen. When it does, after you buy a lottery ticket, please steer them to that info site and mabra....@gmail.com, or just point them to a convenient race to chat with someone. Be an Ambassador for MABRA to help educate outsiders about the need & opportunity, which will help us find and develop our local motoref bench that is good for MABRA racing. 

In non-motoref news, the door is always open for new officials; entry-level official training is available 24/7. Some info at that same site, and more from Jared.

One of these days, this snow will melt. See you on the road.

- Bill