bitingduck

The next video that comes up is even better - an HD rider's-eye view from a team sprint, so you can see the gap as a rider would coming around the turn. I don't see a problem, but I learned to ride on Blaine where you have about 12" of duckboards to warn you that you're about to be on the grass, and then grass. I only hit the grass at speed once there (and not only didn't go down, but made it back onto the track safely). The gap at BVV doesn't look all the different from the apron width at VSC, maybe a little narrow in the one spot, but there are effectively narrow spots at various points due to things on the apron, and particularly the top of the ramp where people are coming up.

At VSC you get onto the apron at the top of the ramp, but you really can enter the track at any point where it's clear, and on a busy track it can help to do a few apron laps to adjust your timing.

That's a pretty good chunk of change for a track to have to make before it gets to the actual operating costs. I suspect many of the tracks in the US still run on annual budgets smaller than that.

Nearly every track I've been to has been like that with the exception of Forest City, but I was only there for a few hours and everybody was super nice. Blaine was also very good when I started riding, but that was partly because some people I already knew organized an AYH track day, plus Bob Williams was teaching the intro class (long before he was track director). He was super-encouraging. Even within LA, there are people who ride VSC who think Encino has attitude and vice versa. My first experience at Encino was when the olympic velodrome was all but closed and the VSC may not even have been a gleam in anyone's eye, and the track director there came across with some attitude. I started at VSC very shortly after it opened and found Roger to also be very welcoming. It was me and one other guy when I took the accelerated class. After we did our laps to get used to it/show we were safe, he put on some Nirvana, got out one of the little electric scooters and motorpaced us for a while. He was always very strict about safety and was very consistent about it. Being in the "in" group made you more likely to get called out for doing something stupid, not less.

The team sprint video gives a view of those sharp features and I tend to agree. They're pretty far back from the track, but I've seen people hit the inside rail at VSC in a lot of ways and would be inclined to put some padding on the corners facing oncoming riders.