Posts
1394
Joined
9/4/2006
Location
Wisconsin Rapids, WI, USA
Edited Date/Time
1/17/2012 8:54pm
Got Sammy out of school early on Friday afternoon and headed south with my friend Brian and his son Jordan both whom never been to any kind of mx or sx race ever. We packed up into Brian's Pontiac G6 and plugged Lola in. Lola (our Garmin GPS) said we should be in St Louis in 7 and 1/2 hours. The ride down seemed like eternity only because we all were really excited just to get there.
Arrived in St L about 11pm and hit the sack. Got up early, ate breakfast and went downtown to see some sights. We saw the Gateway Arch by the way is the largest manmade monument at 630 feet tall. Went by Busch stadium where the Cardinals play. Cool stadium. The downtown area is very clean for the most part around the Edwards Jones dome. We had free pit passes but couldn't get into the stadium until 12:30 so we went backside of stadium to find some action. Came across sound testing and watched painfully as #96 Wharton's bike could not pass sound. They tried running it hard up and down the street, jetting it diffently etc, and kept coming back but still not passing. Finally someone came through and with less than 5 minutes the mechanic was able to put a new dual Yoshi stock system on it and it finally passed.
Next we turned around and James Stewart and his dad just about ran into us. Sammy and Jordan thought that was pretty cool. We then checked out all the semi's parked in the street.
Next we went back to the car for a sandwich and watch the "street sellers" These are the guys selling free pit pass tickets and tickets for profit. Free USA enterprise at its best.
Got in for practices and it was awesome to see a pretty cool designed track by Travis Pastrana. It was very technical. The best part of practice and getting in early I think is sitting right next to the track in row 1. We made our way around the entire stadium during the practices but really liked the step on intended triple triple. However, not one person ever hit the huge lip. Most were even scared to double in and triple. Mike Alessi was eyeing it up all first practice and never even tried it although he wanted to along with a bunch others. The double part was blind landing and probably 65' The triple in off the big lip would have been about 85'. The dragons backs that only Reed, Stewart and Millsaps did was very tough and of course it bit Stewart in the heat.
Everything about the track was tough. Uneven whoops, switch back under the bridge, hard right hand before the finish was hard for the 250's as they couldn't double from the inside like the 450's. The dirt was absolutely perfect. Watching Reed Stewart, Pastrana and JLaw rail outside corners were impressive. They all have such great corner speed.
Speaking of Pastrana. Who doesn't love this guy? Ever the showman, opening ceremonies, comes out rides around and hits a two foot berm and backflips it. Then eyes up the finish line jump and backflips that. I will post photo later. He had some great rides just came up a little short in his quest to make the main.
Because the track had multiple lines and was tight, it made for close racing action. It was great to see Wharton get his first win in the 250 class. Izzi had his best chance I thought to get his first win but just couldn't close the deal and ended up 3rd.
Kevin Windham also between motos drew a section number out of box and that whole section got free dinner from Jack in the Box. He yelled 142 and low and behold I was sitting in Section 142 Row L seat 16. Free Jack Burger for the ride home. haha.
Went down to the pits and saw lots of cool stuff. Talked to Hepler and Hill at Yamaha, got autos and pixs. Then saw Grant and Ramsey over at JGR, more autos and pixs. Ordered jumbo corn dogs for the four of us. $24 later haha. Washed down with a $7.75 Bud Light.
Kevin Windham was also trying his hardest to please all his fans by signing as much as he could. They were literally pulling him away from the table to go but he just kept signing.
The main event was epic. The main players got out front and the battle was on. James pushed hard early as he always does and pulled into the lead on lap 4 with Reed hot on his tail. This time though, Reed had the track dialed, jumped to the same line as James and stayed tight with the pressure on. James could have kept it there but just kept pushing and it bit him. We watched the battle for 4th between Short and Lawrence and JLaw stayed within 1/2 second the entire race but Shorty never exceeded his limit and that is what James should have done. When Stewy went down the place went crazy and the celebration was on for Team Suzuki.
We stuck around until the end. Got out to our car and turned Lola on in hopes of finding our hotel 11 miles away in the dark with a lot of streets closed off do to the Dome traffic. Lola kept saying she had to recalibrate but by then we were in East St Louis and in a very dark neighbor by the crack houses. Lola eventually got us back to the dome and then on the right I70 to our hotel.
Had a good ride home today and seemed like only a couple hours as we all were chatting cathy's on the way about last nights great racing. Jordan and Brian are hooked and want to know if we are going to Toronto this weekend. haha
PS. I saw the bossman too but he was busy taking photos and didn't want to interrupt him.
Arrived in St L about 11pm and hit the sack. Got up early, ate breakfast and went downtown to see some sights. We saw the Gateway Arch by the way is the largest manmade monument at 630 feet tall. Went by Busch stadium where the Cardinals play. Cool stadium. The downtown area is very clean for the most part around the Edwards Jones dome. We had free pit passes but couldn't get into the stadium until 12:30 so we went backside of stadium to find some action. Came across sound testing and watched painfully as #96 Wharton's bike could not pass sound. They tried running it hard up and down the street, jetting it diffently etc, and kept coming back but still not passing. Finally someone came through and with less than 5 minutes the mechanic was able to put a new dual Yoshi stock system on it and it finally passed.
Next we turned around and James Stewart and his dad just about ran into us. Sammy and Jordan thought that was pretty cool. We then checked out all the semi's parked in the street.
Next we went back to the car for a sandwich and watch the "street sellers" These are the guys selling free pit pass tickets and tickets for profit. Free USA enterprise at its best.
Got in for practices and it was awesome to see a pretty cool designed track by Travis Pastrana. It was very technical. The best part of practice and getting in early I think is sitting right next to the track in row 1. We made our way around the entire stadium during the practices but really liked the step on intended triple triple. However, not one person ever hit the huge lip. Most were even scared to double in and triple. Mike Alessi was eyeing it up all first practice and never even tried it although he wanted to along with a bunch others. The double part was blind landing and probably 65' The triple in off the big lip would have been about 85'. The dragons backs that only Reed, Stewart and Millsaps did was very tough and of course it bit Stewart in the heat.
Everything about the track was tough. Uneven whoops, switch back under the bridge, hard right hand before the finish was hard for the 250's as they couldn't double from the inside like the 450's. The dirt was absolutely perfect. Watching Reed Stewart, Pastrana and JLaw rail outside corners were impressive. They all have such great corner speed.
Speaking of Pastrana. Who doesn't love this guy? Ever the showman, opening ceremonies, comes out rides around and hits a two foot berm and backflips it. Then eyes up the finish line jump and backflips that. I will post photo later. He had some great rides just came up a little short in his quest to make the main.
Because the track had multiple lines and was tight, it made for close racing action. It was great to see Wharton get his first win in the 250 class. Izzi had his best chance I thought to get his first win but just couldn't close the deal and ended up 3rd.
Kevin Windham also between motos drew a section number out of box and that whole section got free dinner from Jack in the Box. He yelled 142 and low and behold I was sitting in Section 142 Row L seat 16. Free Jack Burger for the ride home. haha.
Went down to the pits and saw lots of cool stuff. Talked to Hepler and Hill at Yamaha, got autos and pixs. Then saw Grant and Ramsey over at JGR, more autos and pixs. Ordered jumbo corn dogs for the four of us. $24 later haha. Washed down with a $7.75 Bud Light.
Kevin Windham was also trying his hardest to please all his fans by signing as much as he could. They were literally pulling him away from the table to go but he just kept signing.
The main event was epic. The main players got out front and the battle was on. James pushed hard early as he always does and pulled into the lead on lap 4 with Reed hot on his tail. This time though, Reed had the track dialed, jumped to the same line as James and stayed tight with the pressure on. James could have kept it there but just kept pushing and it bit him. We watched the battle for 4th between Short and Lawrence and JLaw stayed within 1/2 second the entire race but Shorty never exceeded his limit and that is what James should have done. When Stewy went down the place went crazy and the celebration was on for Team Suzuki.
We stuck around until the end. Got out to our car and turned Lola on in hopes of finding our hotel 11 miles away in the dark with a lot of streets closed off do to the Dome traffic. Lola kept saying she had to recalibrate but by then we were in East St Louis and in a very dark neighbor by the crack houses. Lola eventually got us back to the dome and then on the right I70 to our hotel.
Had a good ride home today and seemed like only a couple hours as we all were chatting cathy's on the way about last nights great racing. Jordan and Brian are hooked and want to know if we are going to Toronto this weekend. haha
PS. I saw the bossman too but he was busy taking photos and didn't want to interrupt him.
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