I would definitely scrape together money for the Level 2. You will be glad you did. The race starts for example that you will learn and get to practice in that controlled environment alone will be worth it. In the past, lining up for your first novice race is when you do your first race start. They are not a stellar thing for most people and take a while to master...not that I know, because I have yet to master it. This is something NEW that we are adding to the curriculum this year.
The passing and dealing with traffic is also a valuable skill to learn for safety reasons. Your fellow red racers will be glad that you chose to learn how to pass safely as we all have to go to work on Monday and need to be as safe as we can and manage the risk in this sport appropriately.
And well suspension, that is also important as you probably don't want your bike to be ejecting you unnecessarily.
You won't be disappointed.
Trina
EMRA #28