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Notice any form difference from jojo to me
Some of those pics show just how rough Southwick used to get with big huge rollers and whoops. It was intentionally left that way to create a tougher track. Those were the good old days!!!!
Thank you for this, because i had zero reference points to know where a lot of things were. I just knew it was different (never been there only seen races on tv)
I wish we had more of these to see the changes to all the different tracks on the circuit through the years. I know they have such a history for car tracks.
Amazing how many shops were advertised in that magazine from the local area; the golden age of Mom & Pop shops!
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
https://youtu.be/-ZmxjoSZoPw?si=q1CqwYVlbx4Sot3k
This is a good video from the 1977 250 national at Southwick.
Heres the track when it was at its best it ever was with the old layout, the last year it was ran 2002. The announcers do a good job and mention when the guys are in the frog pond or buckley berm. There was a good track map at the beginning of the race too that labelled the frog pond.
Another thing thats changed is after buckley berm used to be the camel humps. The finish line used to be at that spectator jump with the bleachers and then youd have that left turn, go downhill, then that super deep right around the tree, back up and around the other tree and buckley berm, then down over the camel humps. That was the deepest section on the track with the frog pond. The camel humps have been gone for at least 10 years now too, but one time about 5 years ago they added in rollers there. Now that buckley berm is gone and its a straight away they really should add back in the camel humps instead of just having a straight away.
Heres the 2026 track map compared to the 2002 track map.
Camel humps, high route and low route. Would be nice to see them added back to the new Buckley Blvd
Finally someone else remembers lol and even has pics! These things are like the ghost of christmas past the section they were on stayed (until this year) but they quietly disappeared like a decade ago and nobody ever talked about them since. Ive been trying to find some pictures of them but havent been able to.
I think I’m gonna have to send a message on the 338 facebook or something and ask why they went away and if they can at least come back now that buckley berm is gone, because Ive never got an answer. Its not like the section was removed, theres no reason I can think of why they were taken away. Now that buckley berm is gone itd be the perfect time to add them back to take a little bit of the sting out from losing buckley berm. I also dont get why they added rollers there 1 year and then those never came back either. I wish one of the locals like kj, dowdy, or henry were on here so we could ask some questions.
Some fuzzy pics from June 1977 Southwick NESC expert class:
Southwick 1978 May NESC expert class
Here's a video I edited. My friends Dad took the video back in 2005 and I edited it a couple years ago. I did the "announcing" and did it in a single take, it was maybe the 4th or 5th video I had ever edited and I'm not super proud of it. But it's some racing from back in 2005 with the camel humps. Please go easy on my announcing abilities and the video edit. I have a few other older races on that same Youtube channel. The video quality is worse since it was 8MM and this was the first digital camcorder that we ever had. I've gotta edit more of that old footage someday. It has to be edited to get rid of the parts the camera moves so much that it would make You sick otherwise. But there are some older races that show the expertand B classes from between 1999 and 2003 on that Youtube channel too . Middleboro, Jolly Rogers, and some pits and practice stuff.
I was hanging out with a lot of those guys back then and Jeff Bryant and Danny Pepoon are good friends. So I might say something trying to be funny about somebody I knew most of the guys racing back then. It was also the first time Jeff Bryant lead a 450 class moto . That year at the National he had the second fastest average lap time in practice. Got a start in 4th place and wanted to lead a lap. He passed 3rd place and cartwheeled off the track shortly after. Crashed a few more times and finished the moto 21st or 22nd. Then was worn out by the second moto. That year he was one of a handful of racers that did not get an IV after the 2nd moto. It was one of the hotter races . Then in early 2006 he had a bad practice crash at a local track. His throttle stuck wide-open in 4th or 5th gear and he over jumped a jump by about 100'. was the worst crash I've ever seen. He wasn't the same after that. Still fast but lost the aggression and stopped riding as much.
Love it! My buddies and I were there that day racing in the novice class.
Another great Southwick racer was Mark Robillard.
And the Hannah/Howerton duel there was just as good as the Saddleback Massacre, just no one talks about it.
Love the flashback photos above. Those guys hauled the mail. I raced 125 expert that day in 1978. In fact I piled into Bob Maihos at the start...lol
Had to do a double take on the sign on the tower hahaha
Awesome pics btw
Open am winner Dwight Roy, his dad invented the backward falling starting gate. 2nd in 250 expert Dave Clemence was just part of the NESC reunion at the national last month.
You know whats funny? My profile pic on this board (and facebook) is me crashing my brains out on the Camel Humps, circa 2005, and when you used to be able to double them. I got crossed up on the take off, cased the landing and high sided. Pierre Catilier (or however you spell it) got the shot and it was an epic one! knocked myself silly that day.
It was the only double (or sorta triple depending on the year) on the whole track, everything else was a tabletop or huge single. Recently theyve turned the finish line into a double now so if it came back it would be the second double on the track. I wanna see it return though!
-Also as I was typing I realized I dont know or maybe theres no name for a few of the jumps here. The huge single/tabletop after the first turn, and the huge single where sacha passed levi. The first one is like a really tall and long single thats so big you leave the ground at the top then land on the long downside on the back side. Normally thatd be a tabletop but this isnt shaped like one. Then theres the one where sacha passed levi, thats a single jump you come up out of a hole and then the backside is a long downhill where you can land anywhere…. So are these singles, tabletops, or something else? Maybe the sacha one is a ski jump?
Pit Row
Fotopete! He got a few epic wrecks of mine throughout the years too 😂
And because I have nowhere else to post this, in the past two weeks I’ve gone from Southwick, past Honda Hills, past Moriarty MX in NM, past Glen Helen, through Temecula and El Cajon, past Glamis, past Area 51 MX in NY, down to Binghamton, back up past Unadilla and then back to Southwick. I’ve always enjoyed the blend between trucking and moto.
I entered the Tony D motocross school the day after the national in 1994. The whoops and rollers were the size of VW bugs and were best treated as double jumps. It was so rough your teeth hurt!!!
That section that still exists is known as "the sandbar". That, and the old mechanics uphill are about the only parts left. And of course the start gate and straight.
Post a reply to: Any Southwick historians/locals?