Your local track prep

Worst thing ever. Idk why this trend started but riding the first 3 hours of the day in straight MUD sucks. By the time the track is dry it’s a 2pm slot car track

In California they have pro prep days & regular (vet prep) days. Not really advertised but pretty well known. Also, all of these tracks have vet tracks open as well. So can always go ride those. They seem to be VERY popular. 

Monday & Tuesday’s at pala are pro prep, pretty gnarly too. 

Wednesday’s was Perris but they just stopped doing those. 

Thursday’s at GH, although that’s slowing down a tad since the series is moving east. Make no mistake GH on a Thursday is always gnarly. 

Weekends at all those places are usually a vet friendly prep. 
 

Same here, ripped to China and water boarded. If you slow down for one second in the first practice, you're going over the bars because the front gets sucked down. By mid morning its a slot car track. Seems to be everyone is trying to mimic Loretta Lynn's. Back in the 2010's our local tracks would peak the jumps out when the season got close to Redbud for the local pro's to practice and that was about it. Now a lot of the mid pack tracks have trucked in a crap ton of sand and loam and are ripping them to kingdom come. Super deep ruts with a rock hard base. You're almost forced to run a scoop tire because of how deep it is. 

Our local club has the process down! Ripped the perfect depth, watered and smoothed out the night before. It’s like riding on chocolate cake in the morning! It gets rutted but not terribly. Just enough to inspire those of us who suck at ruts to go out mid-week and practice just ruts. Don’t like the ruts? Just take the outside corners. 

Actually, the track I race most often is probably one of the deepest and gnarliest in the whole country.  Us vets all bitch about it, but the mini bike parents (who spend way more than we do) want it like that to prep their kids for Loretta’s.  The promoters say that keeping it that gnarly actually reduces injuries because it slows the track down so much.  

LTM?

Most tracks I grew up on never even saw a bulldozer or any type of equipment.  Race tracks were only open for races and not practice. Practice tracks were just sand whoop-filled back lots where you would probably be ticketed for tresspass..

Core award. 

I used to make the 5-6 hour trip from Tennessee to race at Casey, but the prep sucks now. I haven’t been in a couple of years now because the last time I rode the classic track, it was banner to banner ruts. I’ve been to Loretta’s several times racing and don’t even remember it being that rutted unless we had our usual T-storm. Yeah if you say anything the chest thumping mini-dads want to call you a puss and they don’t even know how to ride themselves. 

Funny, I always wished our local tracks ripped deeper. The closest track(now closed) refused to rip the track deeper because the regulars(mostly vets) would bitch and not come back. 

Very few actually rip it to the point the track actually gets rough. 

Move to California . 😆

Noticing this as well…one track has has a metric crapload of sawdust spread out lately, to the point I feel like I should put on a paddle and a flag. Another started ripping just the insides of turns, leaving the outside beat to hell from the day before (I guess trying to piss everyone off instead of just half?). Bizarre.

And I am sick of tracks catering to parents living through their kids, “preparing for Loretta’s”…the amount of parents with mini riders that I have heard bragging about Johnnie/susie “training at such and such facility” etc is ridiculous. A dead giveaway is when they lead every claim or boast with “we”…a bunch of has-been that never were, using their kid to replace missed glory.

I much prefer deeper rougher tracks. My local tracks are pretty different from one another in terms of dirt, but I would much prefer the deeper and rougher stuff over the fast highways. Yes there’s a higher chance of going down, but the consequences compared to the fast wide open tracks feel like so much less.

This is coming from a very untalented rider so it’s not coming from someone that’s very good in those conditions😂

Local track is clay with a little sand in the back. . This yr there’s a race once a month . So it gets worked then but that’s it.  Square holes , rough with a thick clay powder on top makes it technical.  So it’s a Great place to practice & ride. It’s Great if you get a little rain too much & you hv to find a sand track . Used to work wood chips in for that perfect loam that’s a blast too.  . We had 3 hrs of rain earlier then not supposed to rain.  Of course a thunder storm has to hit when I,m working on bikes.  Totally soaked ah.  A sand track 2 exits north of town I don’t think it ever gets worked . So that’s perfect too.  I started on little beater tracks around town that never got worked . I think it’s the best riding. The sand tracks r deep but the clay or loam tracks don’t get worked deep in Wi.  

I’m just an old guy that hits local tracks during the week for the most part.  With exception of MX. 20 which I hit on the weekends sometimes.  I’m not hitting any tracks right now with torn groin and tendon in my hip!

The track closest to me, Ultimate MX is Vet friendly and not deep disc/race prepped.  I can’t do the deep cut tracks anymore.  The owner of MX2.0 cuts the inside line somewhat deep sometimes but leaves outside line Vet and kid friendly.  I think he calls it a factory prep.

I pretty much got stuck in the mud at Rio Bravo on the day track once.  It was cut crazy deep and watered.  I got my old ass off the day track and back on the night track lol.   Night track way easier to ride for this old guy. 

I can’t blame track owners that have a bunch of fast riders that like the race prepped type tracks and deep prep.   

NorCal track prep is usually pretty solid and consistent. I generally prefer to hit the track the back half of practice as the track is generally worked in and also rougher which is better race practice and less people on the track. The first hour or two on the tracks out here are not my cup of tea, but it's needed to have good riding till the end of the day. 

Maybe y'all should start letting quads on your tracks?   They get all that loose stuff off the top and pack down the base so it can't get rutted.  Bonus; they are happy to help you change out of your gear at the end of the day.

Deep and rutty is 1000000000000000% better than ice smooth and sun baked. 

I’m in the make track rutted and rough and make jumps safer crowd. Dudes getting carted off are happening on jumps 99% of the time it seems around me. 

Yup.  Any of you that are on Facebook and want to see what a gnarly amateur track looks like, click this link.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16PV5PoEy6/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I must be the minority. I like it ripped deep and a good soak, but most are doing the light till and a good watering then again, I'm just a slow 40 something nobody. lol 

Here in N Texas, practice at most tracks starts by 9 am in the summer, with some as early as 8 am. If its not ripped deep and heavily watered its dry by 10:30 because its already 93 degrees. So I prefer heavy watering down here. Some tracks don't want to re-water and its too dusty and the lines are getting blown out because its gotten so dried out. 

I can see living in WA oe OR or a midwest state and not having to deal with the conditions we face in N TX. 

I was at HIS956 Saturday (Masterpools) and the ruts were un-freaking-real! Rough as hell too. But you know what you're gonna get when you go there, and riding places like that makes you a way better rider when you go to a place like River Valley, its like riding an interstate.

Field of Dreams in NJ rips pretty deep on weekends. It gets super rutted, but there are enough people on the track you get 3-6 lines in each corner. I prefer to ride towards the end of the day when it’s broke in and there are less riders. It does seem to minimize speeds and dust. 

OCA is great until they turn off the water for the season which seems to get earlier and earlier

This was right when I started riding again in 2023, the last braking bump on the far right ended several people's day. I didn't mind the bomber track being so rough, I feel like there's room for it, and the throttle goes the other way.

The classic though, I really wish they'd not prep it the same. I feel like the layout is technical enough without knee deep ruts across the whole track. This weekend was my first race there in 12 years and the classic track was unrecognizable, I wish they'd at least prep them differently just to have more variety, I don't like racing on it anymore.

No problem with the deep rip & heavy watering occasionally…don’t want to ride it all the time…ultimately we should try to ride as many varieties of track conditions as possible….many track owners here in the northeast feel deep ruts around the entire track, along with deep mud, creates the modern Pro….what I do know is….the track owner or person in charge of prep……knows more about their prep than any rider….and you’re opinion will be discounted immediately…..

Rage bait.......   can any core riders name the track? Hint: It's super Local and the smallest jump is ~70ft

Exactly. 👍 you must be from New England. That’s all we rode was pits. Yea some people had private tracks but no one had equipment. Our track in town didn’t get groomed for close to 10 years. 

Tomahawk MX looks like this even when it’s not prepped super deep. I’d say these conditions self-limit most people into riding at a safer speed. Rode a rock hard track this weekend and it sucked.

Tomahawk can get really rough. Seems that way to me anyway.