Southwick trip report

In the tradition of “Motodrive” I figured that I should do a report of my trip to Southwick.

I had an early morning flight to Hartford and was hoping to get to the track to catch a good part of practice. My hotel was right near the Hartford airport and the drive to the track was only about 20-25 minutes. The first thing that I noticed is that Southwick really isn’t a bad area. I figured that it would be in the boonies, but it’s very close to “civilization” as they say. It’s right in the middle of a residential neighborhood for the most part.

Once I got to the track I picked up my pass and I was ready to roll. I got there during the next to last 250 practice session (I believe). Even though it is a sand track, it’s not like I thought it would be. I understand what Hambone was talking about when he was comparing Southwick to a Euro track (in a thread last week). It does get rough though, real rough.

Track before the races on Sunday.


Track during the women’s race on Sunday morning. The berm walls are HUGE!


After practice and consolation races on Saturday there was a break and then they were going to hold the pit bike races. I didn’t even go to the pits; I was just going to watch the pit bikes just to see what it was about and then head back to the hotel. As I’m standing there I notice a couple of kids walking the track and figured they were locals. The I realized that one was Blake Wharton. I’m not sure who was with him though. He had what looked like a two gallon jug of water that he was drinking. I thought to myself, he’s doing his homework. Not long after Dungey and RD came by as well. It was good to see them that focused on doing well on Sunday.

After the pit bike races I went back to my hotel. As I walked in the lobby there were about 10 people out front with Speed TV logos on their shirts drinking beer. I felt like saying “look muthafuckas, don’t take the camera off of James Stewart on the first lap that’s your best footage of the weekend!”

Either way, I got to the race on Sunday right before practice was suppose to start to scope out a spot to watch the race. Southwick is a really nice track, but the viewing can be challenging at times. I watched practice from a few different points and made sure to watch the guys that I thought might contend for the win and a few things caught my eye. Josh Grant was really on it Sunday. Even before I saw the lap times I could tell that he would be fast. I also happened to see his crash and it looked like he had fallen in behind RV and was looking to either test his speed or mess with his head a bit. Right after that “boom” he hit the deck hard. I thought to myself, he should have taken his “fastest lap time” to the pits and saved it for the race.

I also watched James and De Reuver. James did a scrub off the jump that had the Monster hay bales under it and it was another “daaaaaaaaamn” moment. I never say him do it during the race, but he put it down in practice. No matter what anyone says De Reuver has skills. If he can get his endurance up he will be a serious title contender if he races here next year (not sure if that is in the plans).

Another guy that impressed me was Kyle Cunningham. He rode practice HARD. I was thinking to myself that he might want to save some of that energy for the race. He did well though.

In the women’s race Patterson pretty much crushed the field, but Fiolek did look good. This girl really impressed me though. She is really small too, but she takes care of business.


I eventually made it to the pits and ran into Homey and GuyB during the day. I also saw SH 105, but I didn’t get a chance to say hi though. He did put in a good ride, but what was up with that last lap pass in the first moto?

Speaking of SH 105 I know that Cody Cooper says “damn” every time that he walks by the Yamaha pits!



I ended up kicking around the pits after the race for about an hour or so to let the traffic die down and just took in the sights. I know this was long, but there were a ton of things that I actually wish I had time to tell you all about. I will say that if you can make it to a National Southwick should be on your short list.

Take it easy.


P