Posts
4045
Joined
8/16/2006
Location
Mission Viejo, CA
US
Edited Date/Time
1/4/2014 1:32am
Someone posted on Proride.com that there is a track opening up by the old Saddleback Park (closer to Irvine Lake), private non Irvine Ranch land and they supposedly got their use permit...we will see !!
S
S
I live about ten minutes from there.
I think it would be cheaper and easier to rebuild the original, though.
It's still there.
The Shop
Saddleback - Part 3 - would open up a new generation of MX riders ( from OC, LA, SD, IE ) for the future and keep the riders from the past very happy. And if we can request the track to have an up hill starting line to be like the Saddleback from the past ( 6th gear, WFO - the world's best dyno ), it would be mega. Bring back the hard packed, blue-groove tracks...
But not too sound negative...in this day in age where So Cal is not the So Cal we grew up in ( too PC correct, can't do anything with out 16 permits, offending the neighbors who want too invision So Cal to be the next NYC high rise development project, etc...) I feel it's going to be a long up-hill battle.
But I will keep my fingers crossed for all.
SMP was so much fun.
I don’t know if you are aware but the very “Rocket” Rex Staten spent 3 years on the South African motocross circuit winning the Camel 1982 500cm2 title that year and winning the Camel 250m2 cm2 title in 1983 as a member of the BP Yamaha Factory Team. Fellow American riders Jim Tarantino ( 1982 250cm2 AMA Rookie of the year and King of Saddleback Park ) and Larry Wosick ( 1979 AMA Rookie of the year ) also joined the South African motocross circuit in the early eighties. Jim Tarantino beat Rex to the 1984 250cm2 outdoor title that year as a member of Team Suzuki with Larry Wosick taking the same title in 1985 on a Works Honda CR 250 . Larry came out of retirement a few years later winning the 1996 Vets title as a member of Jim Tarantino’s Factory Honda racing team. Both Jim and Larry were signed up by local factory teams after representing the United States against South Africa at the annual Camel International test series at the conclusion on the 1983 season and impressing with their skills.
Larry remained in South Africa and continued racing as a privateer on /off until returning to the USA in 1998, Jim Tarantino remained in South Africa after retiring at the conclusion of the 1984 season to start an import / export business. Jim Tarantino has now been a permanent resident in South Africa for the past 28 years, he is the official distributor for Bridgestone Tyres in SA and is the official importer for FMF and Thor products in South Africa through his company Promotion Products and TRP Racing.
Good times, good times....
Sorry to hear about your brother Sid.
My condolences.
Pit Row
Getting old is really pretty cool...beats the alternative (death). The memory goes...still get wood, but can't remember what to do with it.
Jimi J
If this place "happens"...I'm goin' to the Opening Day...on a YELLOW YAMAHA!
I'm jus' sayin'...
There was a Saddleback III that was by Irvine Lake that lasted a year or so, but it came and went before Sondy's post.
I was there opening day, riding all day in my 1977 "Rising Sun" Suzuki jersey.
Went there just about every weekend 'til it closed.
On closing day, the line was so long to get in, we turned around and went home.
You'll either get some booby picks, or she'll kick your ass.
I'd bet on the latter.
Bummer it never went through it would've been a gold mine for anyone that owned it I know I would've spent every dime I had to ride there.......just like I did at Saddleback2
Post a reply to: For those of you who raced Saddleback Park...