Posts
4204
Joined
12/23/2009
Location
Riverside, CA
US
Edited Date/Time
1/24/2012 7:05am
The wife and I were at Pala this weekend doing a black powder long range shooting match and after the sat. event we went over to Pala raceway as she had never seen moto in real life (only on TV). She was impressed. I was too. Great track(s) and was really busy. Moto is alive and well in SoCal. The next step it to get her there during a National when the gods come out.
RIP oldest track in socal
"Alive and well?" Three tracks have closed in a few months... Not my definition of alive and well.
I expect Perris to open back up though..
"And should you plan on attending the Pala series finale, make sure to give yourself a two day head start, because the two lane road going to the track gets congested quickly."
The Shop
I'm not sure Perris is completely done. Same goes for Elsinore. From what I understand, there are people interested in keeping Perris alive, but apparently it comes with a past debt load.
And on a positive note, my friends who were stuck in the 3-hours of traffic and kept in touch during the entire episode, are already making plans for Pala in 2011.
Let's see.... my steps through a fan's year
For a lot of us out here in the metro area, the Motocross mothership touches down at High Point. The long standing Hangtown race serves as a TV introduction to the new series and it's players, then it's down the highways we go the following weekend to High Point.
The track is a true Motocross holy place, and as soon as you see it you know immediately why someone built a track there in the lush soil of those hills. You think, "Wow, this place just begged to have that uphill triple on the slope up toward the starting area, and the "Staircase" down to and over the infield spectator tunnel!" Then, there's all the off cambers and that big Elevator/Double up out of the valley directly across from the infield spectator area... This place would be an incredible track even if it was just marked out with stakes over the natural lay of the land, but it's even better than that of course. It was a great place for a track and somebody knew it, so a track was born and it makes for great racing.
Then it's off to Budds Creek. As soon as you see it, you know why someone chose to build a track there. The track swoops up out of the valley past the announcer's tower, then goes through that off camber sweeper on top of the hill and then dives back down to the valley floor in one huge flight off that drop away triple! And that's all before it even goes up the other side of the valley where it runs through that extreme downhill/off camber 180/uphill and the "Henry Hill" tunnel jump.... You hang out under the high canopy of shade trees and think to yourself, "What a great place for a track! And what a job they've done with the trees trimmed up to the canopy so you can see through them!" It was a great place for a track and somebody knew it, so a track was born and it makes for great racing. Once again, people made an excellent natural track even better and that was no small feat on land like Budds!
This year we also made the trek out to Red Bud.... I'll break my rhythm here because a person would have to be more dull than 30 Minutes+2 laps on a Fooper to have any problem with the quality of the track at Red Bud!
Then there's the sand gauntlet at MX338 with it's berms, and it's John Dowd, and it's stressed out connecting rods.
And after that of course there's the old church, Unadilla.... This is probably the place, and the track, that a lot of the guys who started those other great tracks I've mentioned were thinking of when they broke ground on their land. I doubt I'm alone in thinking that anyone who would even consider leaving Unadilla out of the MX series needs to mainline a Red Energy Monster Bullmilk into a vein under their flat bill, while trying not to wrinkle their head to toe "We All Ride" clothing ensemble. That idea's more stupid than $3000 cash for a used 250f!
Last stop Steel City! What better place to see Motocross than a Motocross Track where you can see almost everything? I'll venture a guess that this is the last round to attend live for most of us out east, and that's if you've been willing to drive to all those leading up to that point.
Now let's say you're considering a flight out to Cali for the last round, after having just seen those other rounds...
Time was, the destination for that last round would have been Glen Helen. I've never seen the place with my own eyes I freely admit. However, I suspect that the amplitude of the Glen Helen course in the San Beranadino mountains is more than figment of the camera eye. The "Talladega turn" is legendary, and the STEEP uphills and downhills on the winding track are wild and almost random. Glen Helen would be a frightening track even if it was simply marked out over the land it traverses with stakes and banners like a trials course, but of course it's better than that. It's a place that presents the kind of obstacles which fully reveal the poetry of riding skill that only the finest riders in the world can display for us... on the proper stage that is.
You see the place, in person or on TV and you can't help but think it looks like a cross between a dirtbike track and a rollercoaster. The track's profile is so extreme in places that if you didn't know better, you'd think it might collapse if there was an earthquake! It is a great place for a track and somebody knew it, so a track was born and it makes for great racing.
So to answer your question, I haven't been there but I will surely come out one day. Maybe to see the USGP since they know how to pick a track, even from all the way over there!
Skip through a year, and whatever happened kind of shady-like behind the scenes and you find yourself deciding whether or not to catch the last round at Pala.... I've never seen the place with my own eyes I freely admit. However, I don't think the flatness of the track, other than that one short climb up to a little plateau and then back down, and a couple little lumpy mounds and some jumps, were a figment of the camera eye. If you marked this track out over the land it traverses with stakes and banners and didn't fire up a whole fleet of Caterpillars, you'd have something like a slot car track set up on a dusty floor. Pala Raceway looks like the end result of a huge amount of hard work, but all that hard work is necessary if you want to try building a motocross track to replace Glen Helen on land that looks more suited to land speed record attempts. You're just not going to end up with anything remotely interesting for motocross at Pala without all that hard Dozer work, because the site has nothing going on naturally. You see it on TV and you're thinking "That land must have been really cheap!"
I don't mean to insult all that effort, but if a person is blind enough to seriously compare Pala Raceway with Glen Helen, as a motocross track, then I believe they missed their calling because each of their palms could probably have starred in the movie "Tangled"
Pala was a great place to set up a Ferris wheel during a National, and it was a great place to see Erin Bates bobbing around on that suspension truss thing during a National, but it's not on the same page with Glen Helen as a motocross track and most likely never will be, because it's located on an arid, table flat dirt plane.
Thanks,
Jim
but a pretty jaded opinion from a monday morning quarterback.
I have raced all the tracks mentioned. All in nationals, except Pala which was the national track in a crossover race the day before the national.
Anyways, the track was superb. All the tracks offer something a little different and a picky person can find faults in all of them. Just because Pala doesn't have elevation changes as drastic as others doesn't mean it isn't a good track, from a riders or fans perspective as I am both.
so when you say "because it's located on an arid, table flat dirt plane" , does that mean you think SX whoops are small as well? Because, on TV they look easy!
The place is cool, it was packed, and the racing was good.
But I would still like to see GH back on the schedule also...maybe as the opener.
My take? While it may not have been as pleasing to your eye from the comfort of your couch, it was a worthy season finale. I doubt anyone riding would complain that the track was too easy.
Yes, Glen Helen has a cool course, and if you want to catch it, be there for the GP next year.
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