What's your home track memory?

Sawdust and musty smelling dark dirt.  And then nerves on race day.  

Great topic ML!  Cheers 

Saturday races under the lights in Fernwood Mississippi. 

The smell of castor oil.  

Amago, weekend camping and great times with my son

Elsinore, snail snot dirt

Friday nights at Star West, Uber fun

Friday nights at Pala, like having my own personal track!!!!!!!

Lot of good times, pretty much all bonding with my son. Life was very simple back then!

TM

Moto-X Park East in Archer’s Lodge, NC played such a HUGE part in my life from childhood to young adulthood. Built in the rural tobacco county of eastern NC, it was mostly loose sand with a few hardpack areas. 

Run by Ms. Billie Parker (RIP) who was like a grandmother to all of us, & her husband Shorty (RIP) who was about 6’5” and had hands that could palm a watermelon, the track had everything that defined Eastern North Carolina to a kid who had just moved from the burbs of Chicago.  There were liquor stills made from washing machines off the side of the driveway in & pig cookers on trailers smoked whole pigs that would soon become pulled pork barbecue sandwiches. 

The track was tame but got better over the years. We rode there weekly from the time we were on 80cc bikes in 1996 or so until our early 20’s in the mid 2000’s, usually until our hands bled. One of my buddy’s first girlfriends was the flag girl!  For an outlaw local track, some really good riders dropped by quite a bit. Broc (and Colton) Tickle were local and practiced there a lot. Ryan Zimmer hauled butt there on little bikes & probably pulled a rubber band holeshot or two. 

Lost to EPA regulations sometime in the 2010’s?,  and now approaching my mid 40’s, it will forever be the place that made me love motocross. 

Thursday night MX at Hannegan Speedway in WA. Track was outstanding (unlike now) and it was in the early 90s, so the 80s/90s vibe was alive and well. Dad would pick me up from school and we’d head up there. Later, the in-between weeks were a hare scrambles with 45 min motos and were mostly the track, but you’d get off the track into their woods in various sections, then back on. 

Great memories. The best part was when I gave my (near-retirement) English teacher a note to miss class for the 3rd or 4th time. He looked at it, and asked “where do you go every Thursday, if you don’t mind me asking?” I replied “racing motocross.” He smiled, told me he lived near Carlsbad when his sons were growing up, and they both raced there as kids. Then he told me not to worry about bringing a note, as the lessons I learned racing (hard work, etc) were as or more important than those in the classroom. 

Indian Dunes (So Cal) in the mid seventies. The International Track. The track changed every once in a while, but for a while the first turn was a slight uphill right. The second right turn had a big wall berm with a drop off just after. I remember the drop off had me totally haired out for the longest time. Maybe because I blew the next left too many times. Hodaka's didn't have good brakes! Anyone that rode it more than me and has a better memory than me feel free to correct this. Good Times!

Piru mx 2004, I was 14. we had an open trailer, track had just shut down for the day, everyone is gearing down in the pits. my dad decides to ride my rm 125 onto the trailer, frame cases the trailer and he tips over the side of the trailer onto his back, my bike falls over and is upside down idling, I can hear people laughing

Cal City MX practice day somewhere around 2010 or 2011, Kurt Caselli passed me on their back triple. I could hear him coming up behind me so I held my line over the big triple line and the dude scrubbed under me over to the option line. Landed on his back wheel and never set the front end down until he hit the corner. He was amazing to watch in the desert and on the track. I am super glad to have that memory of him. Side note, CCMX is a great track and the Elmes family are some of the best people in the sport! 

The smell of the dirt from Indian Dunes.  When i was 8-10 my brother raced Friday nights, a lot.  I would wake up and check out his bike.  The smell would be noticeable being near it. Also, just riding there, at the Shadow Glenn track, by the Mash set. Such a great time in my life, Ill never forget that place.  Barona Oaks reminds me of Dunes with the trees and park benches.

My first 40 +2 lap moto at SSMX. I got the halfway flag and could not believe it was only halfway my tongue was already cleaning my number plate. 

My most fond racing memories were the Friday night high school races at Corona raceway. 

Leagues were set up in So Cal and each Friday there were 5 schools racing. The schedule would change each week, some of the schools were powerhouses and others were not so stacked. Many National caliber riders were still in HS so we had great racing to watch each week. Good times 

Carlsbad Raceway, the best horrible track in SoCal

RIP 

The smell of two stroke mixed with smell of dirt and aspen trees around small track in a old sand quarry where we used to ride with our 80cc bikes every day after school until it got dark back in the nineties.

 It was the only place where I got to ride before I got my driver's license because my parents didn't care too much about motocross. We just rode there by ourselves with out any adult guidance. There was seven kids who had 80cc bike in our neighborhood and we used to our own races there. 

I still love the place because it has excellent dirt with no rocks. 

When I was younger it was just tracks we made in fields etc. , great times , but once I turned 18 it was Lake Geneva Friday nights under the lights on my beat up 1980 KX 125 .

I remember the first time my local track went from a point and shoot blue groove clay track to being tilled with truck loads of wood chips and that feeling of being able to lay it over pinned in the corners with a fresh set of 756rr’s. 

I've spun a few laps there.

I think my memories would be at Watson - jumping over "The Gulley" and having green marks on my white helmet from brushing the tree branches.....

Since I had to graduate collage and move 2,000 miles away from my mother to have my first moto memory...which, after stupidly buying an 86 CR500, was rolling into Carlsbad and realizing I had absolutely no idea what the "F" I was doing. Ate shit several times, hit the gate, stalled, cartwheeled, I was a yard sale. Frank took pity on me, threw a t-shirt my way and I was hooked.

Getting to Walden MX the day before the race to camp. I could only afford to camp out of my truck and would bring the bare necessities like PB&J sandwiches, cold cuts etc. but the people I would park near were so unbelievably welcoming and would always offer me a hot meal and great conversation around a warm fire. They’d often bring a big pot to boil potatoes in and all the kids would sit around it and cut potatoes for hours so we could make homemade fries. I can still smell the boiling peanut oil and the burning firewood 😋

Hard to beat the early morning sights and smells of race day at the local track. I also have a fond memory of the local sand pit track in the neighborhood that you could count on seeing your buddies there without even calling them to say you'd be there riding.

Mine was back in the 90's , at  226MX near Morganton NC. Todd Bennick ran that track. Saturday night race and my first ever C-class 125 win. It was a 1-1 sweep as I had just learned to blitz a long whoop section after the start. Kid that got 2nd had been winning pretty much every wkd race in that class all summer. He immediately protested me, saying i was a B rider. Todd and the track owner came up to me to investigate. I told him who i was, and that it was my first ever win in that class, and that i had been a mid pack C rider for over a year. They pretty much told that kid, tough chit, Kenny's getting the win. That trophy was over 3 feet tall. Saved that bitch for years!! HAHA! 

Indian Dunes was an hour away.  We'd go race Tuesday nights, Friday nights, Saturday and Sunday.  The lights for night racing at the International track were a little sketchy on the far side of the track, and if a photo guy hit you with a flash back there, you'd be riding the next section half blind.  The pits in the morning smelled like weed and premix.  The GPs that used the International track and crossed the river were epic.  I still miss that place.

From Perris, the 90 footer, fast Freddy’s tri-tip sandwiches and getting biscuits and gravy before Sunday races there. Riding the short practices before the races and wearing a hoodie when it was cold out. Hot summer nights at Perris, Freddy and Donna put a lot back into their prizes and trophies for the end of the seasons. One of my best friends won a Suzuki 110 pit bike in a raffle at the end of one of the hot summer nights series, they just had to pay the taxes on it I think. RIP Freddy

Wednesday practices at SIR (now pacific raceways) after school. The place was a zoo in the late 90s and early 2000’s. The track was full of what seemed like then huge jumps. 

Racing Friday nights in the D class at SIR was insane. always full gates; always people getting hurt. Then watching Lance Smail destroy everyone in the pro class when he came out was always a treat. Sometimes he wouldn’t even sit down the whole race and still win by 30 seconds. Incredible talent.

Thursday night practices and saturday night races at bremen. 

Same track I joined in 1990 I ride today. It’s totally different layout now but all the hills & valleys the same of course. Floater jumps ovr the hills are fun. 200 a yr he talked me into a deal on life time membership usually 500 I think. For 300 bucks it’s a clay track .  Last 3 days the wild fire smoke is Real bad .   Need a driver for a injection later 1 of those bad ones.  I joined when I was what 23 , 58 3/4 now so it’s cool .  It’s tough to get my body right to be able to ride .  Intense  speed is kinda of there yet but it’s 4-5 laps not 10-12. Sprint speed is short lived now but fun  to hv it briefly . I save it for passes I got 3 125 kids sat .  Because of the 04 I hv more fun now than in 1990, it’s a Blast to ride. The 1990 bike had a port job for hill climbs 87 cr125 another quick bike .

I have some great memories riding the “old” E-Street in Marysville. We’d park under the bridge, and carve out a track using some of the old lines from Dave Coupe’s annual race. It had these amazing sand berms. Then usually we’d grab some Carls Jr. and/or Taco Bell on the way home.

I miss those days

You should take your time and write your Mom a letter .  And mail it to her , more of a surprise. Saying what it meant to you then and the fun it was .  Because if your bring it up now . It must hv been a special time.   My mom wouldn’t let me buy a rm 80 when I was 12,13 with my own money . I made working for a dairy farmer , I owned my own cow at 12 yrs old . And bailed hay for a few farmers , that’s where I made my money.  

Barona Oaks, 1985. I had a crappy first race because it was a mud day. Almost decided not to ride the motos after practice, but my dad made me do it and of course I was hooked after the track dried out. I took 11th in 80cc Beginner. 

Later that same year, my dad had gone home to pick up my sister and wasn't back by the time my moto had started. I was winning the 1st moto and down to the last lap when I saw them standing alongside the track, waving me on to my first-ever win. 

1987 - They made a second tabletop jump right after a short one out of a corner. I was standing there when Mike Craig, Cyan-blue JT pants and curly blond mullet waving out of his helmet, decided to pin it WFO and turn those two into a double. My mind was blown.

1999 - After coming back to moto after college, rode for fun but did as well as I could, won the CMMC 125 Championship. 

I love the adobe clay of that place. I can hear the sound of the wind in the trees now. Man, spread my ashes at Barona Oaks.