The Good:
People are generally helpful in the paddock. Do you need information, or to borrow a tool, or a hand with something? Most people will help you. Don't expect that help on the internet though. You'll get derided for everything you ask and probably won't get an honest answer. The lack of people willing to give a Novice real information outside the paddock is realistically a problem.
The quality of riders is generally higher than in B group trackdays. Getting passed in a race is usually pretty safe, getting passed in a trackday is kind of adrenaline inducing. I say generally because shit happens and bad decisions still get made, they just seem fewer.
Racing has a few aspects you don't necessarily get from trackdays, such as race starts which are pretty exciting. Other than that its just track time like any other.
There's some other good aspects, but I have yet to experience an "ah hah!" moment during a race weekend where suddenly it all makes sense.
The Bad:
Expense. Yeah, riding is expensive and gets as expensive as you want to make it. Converting my bike cost roughly $1300. Once I start using more expensive tires as I get better the expense will go up. For a Saturday race day with two races, that costs $220. For that $220 I get two practice sessions and two races. So four sessions on track for the cost of a trackday. The time on track to money ratio is skewed with racing. Add in to that other expenses (that may not necessarily apply to my typical track day) like motel stays, and meals. Generally I do the Friday trackday, stay the night, and race Saturday. If I stayed Sunday I would only get one practice session and two races.
The hurry up and wait. If you're only on track 2-4 times in a day, you have a LOT of time to kill. But there's opportunities to hurry up and wait like the tech-line and riders meeting. I don't particularly care for this aspect.
If you suck, you don't get to ride as much. I got this notice during the September round. In OMRRA Novices can enter in the Sportsman class as well as the Novice class. The thing is though that if you're outside 20% of the top lap time in Sportsman, you aren't supposed to enter in that class. The Novice representative let me know after the Sportsman race that Race Direction didn't want me entering in the class anymore, its a safety issue. From one point of view you'd think they would want Novices to get more time on track to get better, right? But alas no, if I can only enter in the Novice race class, then I'll only get three sessions on track Saturday, and only TWO on Sunday. To add insult to injury the Novice races are near the end of the day, and the practices are in the morning, so I'd have all day to sit around doing nothing, then rush to get ready for one ten lap race (which is only 8-9 laps for me because by the end I'm getting lapped), then have to pack up my shit and drive 2-2.5 hours home.
You lose friends. Once you start racing it sort of consumes your time off. In that regard you tend to lose your street riding friends (even if you still ride street). The converse is true, that you lose your friends that start racing as well if you only ride street and Trackdays! Granted you gain new friends in the paddock, but you only see them once a month. This point will get argued not just because people like to argue, but because it hits home and people get defensive about it. Before I started racing I saw it happen more than a few times, someone starts racing and you never see them again. When you do see them they act fairly high and mighty, know it alls that deride you for still riding on the street. I'm trying real hard not to end up like that, not just because I still very much enjoy the street, but also because I feel there needs to be someone who lives in both worlds to bridge the gap and get more street riders to the track (be it racing or trackdays) for their own safety and enjoyment.
The OMRRA club isn't in the greatest of health and may simply cease to exist. Its no secret that membership is declining and the number of people showing up for race weekends doesn't always generate enough money to pay the bills. When this subject comes up, plenty of people in the paddock will wring their hands and place blame on manufacturers not giving concession money, trackday orgs stealing riders away, insurance costs/government regs, and anything else except for one thing: isolationism. Occasionally I'll raise my voice and ask, "what was the last time any of you went to bike night and talked to street riders?" to which I get shouted down with statements like "I hate those squids and crotch rocketeers" or "I don't ride street anymore" or some other defeatist and isolationist statement. You can't use peer pressure to recruit new members, if you aren't a peer.
Why disrespect all street/trackday riders just because of some hopeless squids? In reality a club like OMRRA is dependent on a constant influx of new riders to replace the attrition losses. Those new riders aren't going to just go from non-rider to "I'm going to club race" overnight, they have to come from somewhere. The manufacturers will only keep selling race replica bikes as long as people are buying them. If only club and pro racers were buying them, the manufacturers wouldn't sell enough units to bother making them. Realistically how many new bikes are purchased by club racers each year? In order for the economy of scale to keep rolling, there has to be a certain number of bikes getting sold. To paraphrase Ken Hill "If you want to help racing, go to a dealership and buy a new bike.".
I'll just point out that trackdays are a better use of time and money. The same cost and same logistical effort, for more time on track. Additionally the bar is lower, you don't have to permanently modify your bike or use tires that are not street legal, so you can go back and forth. If you only ride your race bike once a month you lose familiarity with it, and have to spend time each race rounds relearning that bike, as opposed to a street legal bike you ride every week. When I pitched the idea of letting novices use street legal bikes I got shouted down. Well excuse me if I think it impractical to maintain any kind of decent skill level on a machine I only get to use once a month, six months of the year.
In closing I'll share my plan for 2020. I'm going to grid up and race the first three rounds next year. I've accidentally gotten a handful of my street/trackday riding friends interested in it and I'd like to grid up with them. At this point I'm also planning on starting my season in March down at the California Superbike School. If by the July round I'm not fast enough to race in Sportsman then I will do the honorable thing and hang up the number plate, having completed what I set out to do. I intend to revisit this topic at that time.
