Posts
125
Joined
12/3/2014
Location
San Luis Obispo, CA, USA
Yesterday I was out shooting at Honda and snagged a cool photo of all the test tracks in Corona (except Yamaha which is just to the bottom left of the frame.) Made me curious on the history of how all those tracks found their way there on that Quarry property. Anyone know the story, not sure I have heard it before? 
My understanding is moto-friendly land-owner + a comfortable business relationship.
If I remember correctly Jeff Ward's father-in-law owns the property
This...
Here's the official story from Racer X: https://racerxonline.com/issue/february-2018/factory-landlord
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
And just like that, it all makes sense now.
It could be really interesting to do a deep dive test tracks in general. When did the first manufacturer or team truly set one up, be it MX or SX? Where? I've heard little stories about the test tracks in the 80's, but would love to learn more.
They sort of look on different elevation levels. Do the guys on the higher levels spy on the guys riding on the lower test tracks? Who's track is the highest elevation up? Pretty wild they are all smashed into one place like that. Lots of cool inside moto stories/ history from that section of land I bet.
Some guy named GuyB shot a cool drone video that shows the relation of all the tracks, Suzuki is on top of the hill:
https://www.vitalmx.com/videos/features/Over-the-Supercross-Factory,12515/GuyB,64
Cool thanks! I'd never seen that. Suzuki is up there king of the hill kickstarting their bikes like savages
Probably asked for the top of the hill so they could coast downhill and bumpstart them.
I Miss Jerry a lot...he was a great man. I'm very fortunate to have known him/spend time with him almost as far back as I can remember.
My father did some business with and around Jerry about as long as I've been alive and my pops' equipment yard was right across the canyon from the Yamaha SX track.
After I got a driver's license, I use to take him a bottle of wine every so often as payment for some space my family kept later machines on.
His handshake was gnarly...you can tell he worked with his hands his whole life.
Yamaha still has their two on the North pads, the one in the canyon is still Honda's, and the one on the top of the hill to the south of Honda used to be Suzuki's, now it's Kawasaki's. The nickname is K4. Directly below that track is K2 (also Kawasaki's) and below that used to be TLD's but now it's not in use. And around the hillside to the south, by the little RC airport are two tracks that used to be KTM and Husqvarna's. The one closer to the road is now TLD's and the one behind it is K3 (Kawasaki's again). Out by the 15 freeway, next to the Volvo dealership is K1, Kawasaki's original test track.
Bought a bike from a guy just past K1 a block. A Sunday morning the skid steer was grooming the track. The irony the guy knew nothing about SX.
I'm going to bitch about it until ML fixes it: playing ads before EVERY SINGLE VIDEO is just insanely annoying. Vital loses "views" because of it. I can't be the only one. Damn - make it 1 in 5 vids or something. In other news, cool video.
Damn you for making money for your employers, Michael!
(I watched it, and it went straight into the video...)
Do you have Adblock?
Videos ads are programmed to play on every single video posted.
"Do you have Adblock?"
um...no?
Pit Row
I'm a small biz owner and am ALL about them making money on the site. Aggravating the shit out of your customers isn't the way to do it, and Mav confirmed it's set to play a full 15s video before EVERY video.
Not my biz, I get it. But there's better ways.
Is the RC airport still active?
I’ve taken a ride up there. Pretty cool to see after 40 ish years of magazine photos and about 2000 miles.
He loved his merlot. Great guy.
That’s freaking funny!
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