Granny Gear unveils 2010 24 Hour Series Dates, Laird Knight lights a cigar with a 100 dollar bill

Even though Granny Gear hosted the 24 Hours of Moab as the 2009 24 Hour National Championships less than a month ago, Laird Knight is keeping his foot on the gas.  Earlier today, the schedule for the 2010 Granny Gear 24 Hour series was released to the public.  The 24 Hours of Moab, Big Bear, and 9 Mile will be the three races to comprise the series, with the 24 Hours of Big Bear acting as the 2010 National Championships.  The series is doing a phenomenal job of making getting an even distribution of races in the eastern, central, and western part of the US.  However, the big question that popped into my mind, was is three races really enough to comprise a complete series?

If you head on over to the Granny Gear page, you can see that from 2006 to 2008, six separate races were used to comprise the entire series.  In my opinion, six races makes a proper series, because racers have more chances to race, on varying terrain, and with six racers the best racers will emerge with the overall title.  So why would Granny Gear shift to three events in 2009 and 2010?  My theory is pretty simply, because the entry fees are so high for Granny Gear events, only three races are needed for them to turn a healthy profit.  Why go through all of the headaches, red tape, and general BS that goes along with putting on a 6 separate 24 hour races, when you can make enough money off of 3 races?

The race prices are really high, and that is compared to both the biggest 24 Hour race out there (Old Pueblo), and probably the smallest 24 Hour race (Rapelje).  Now I dont know what sort of costs go into the 24 Hours of Moab, Big Bear, or 9 Mile, but it just seems like the Granny Gear name puts a huge tax onto the entry fees.  Granny Gear, also seems to to a great job of milking every cent out of anyone who shows up to their events, racers or not.  At Moab this year, you had to pay 10 bucks a person a night, just to stay at the venue.  Technically a solo racer, who spent the whole night awake, either riding laps or refueling in the pit was being charged to camp out that night.  There were about 900 racers at Moab this year, and I'll guess an extra 200 non-racers, making 1100 total people, staying an average of 2 nights, comes to an extra 22 grand for Granny Gear charging people to sleep on PUBLIC LAND!  Maybe next year people will be charged for using toilet paper in the port-a-jons, or for taking showers.  I can see the signs now, $3 toilet paper, $5 cold shower, $10 hot shower, you may think I'm joking, but stranger things have happened.  

Rapelje cost me 55 bucks, and that included a whole bunch of food, hot showers, free camping, and a great weekend race vibe.  Even though the race was rained out after 8 hours, I didnt feel like I had been screwed out of any money.  Why does Granny Gear have to charge so much money, I guess because they give away such great swag, and I didnt see anyone get any swag at Moab.  I dont know what goes on at the inner circle of Granny Gear, but I would sure love to hear why they only feel the need to put on 3 races next year.