Hello, and thank you for having me in your community.
I am an older road cyclist, but I have created some trails on my property and would like to host some sort of CX type racing events there. I need advice and ideas on what to do and what liability precautions I need to take to avoid issues should there be injuries on my property. I also want to allow others to use it if they wish at any time, but again I do want to be liable for someone being injured. It is a small area with about a 0.2 mile field loop and .6 mile of various wooded trails with obstacles (depressions, ground logs, overhead logs). No pavement, all grass and packed dirt.
I would like to have children, teen, and adult competitions; both short and longer events (15 to 30 minutes or so); to include weird events like drag races (0.1 mile) and log/weight pulls.
1. This is a lawyer question, not a TR question.
(And you don’t speak to your location, I’ve responded with a US bias)
That said, sanctioned racing usually provides significant insurance/indemnity benefits to property holders.
Congratulations on exploring ways to be open to sharing your private course/property with others to ride. There are probably ways to create a “club” whose members gain legal access to your private property and with a stronger waiver that just hanging a clipboard at the driveway trailhead. (Still, I’m not a lawyer).
Liability laws in the US vary from state to state. In my state, signed event liability waivers provide almost complete protection for the landowner or event organizer. You may want to talk with other race promoters in your area to get a feel for what they’re doing.