Industry Speedway June 9, 2010

Well if you leave early you get there early. Confucius didn't say that, I did. Does take a lot of the stress of driving out of the trip leaving early but it does find me napping on the starting line when the tapes go up.

The place is pretty empty at 4:00 O'clock then slowly riders start to show up.

Last week I had problems with my throttle cable in the main and did some readjusting and added a rubber band at the carb to put tension on the cable. It worked a lot better but I didn't.

The drought of riders hit second division and two riders from third moved up. The second division main was a runaway with Tyson Talkington taking charge. When Costa Mesa, IMS and Industry all race the same week something has to give. Last week there were two riders down from Northern California to race here but this week nada. When you add entry, tires, gas money, plus time off your job, if you have one, the expenses really add up.

You will not find any eighteen wheelers in the parking lot here like you see at Super Cross. Sponsorship is hard to obtain and the majority of sponsors support riders because they love the sport. Motorcycles shops don't seem to be interested in speedway as they don't sell any products at their stores. When my son raced speedway he did get help from a parts manager with free clothing and some parts but when the store owner was asked for help with the Honda two stroke we were running it was not available.

Years past you could read the results from Costa Mesa in the newspaper the next day. The Auburn, California newspaper still puts a story about the races there but that is a popular local event and Auburn is still a small town. Even Cycle News does very little to promote the sport and would rather run the results on-line that take up print space.

I have heard riders grouse about having to try an explain to a sponsor why his name didn't appear in Cycle News or why was his name was even mentioned 4 or 5 weeks later.

Wednesday night the crazy sidecars were hard at it. In one race they added a new trick to their bag of getting the fans to scream, "THE FLYING SIDECAR". Then later a demolition derby. We need more sidecars but you just cannot go to your local motorcycle dealer and buy one.

You also can not go to your local dealer and pickup a speedway bike. There is basically only one way to buy a new bike here and that is at Cody's.

Joey Holt destroyed his frame at IMS recently and he wasn't there last night. Beside being a sport that is hard on the frames it is also hard on bodies. Yogi Isgro failed to avoid a down rider and clipped the front wheel and then hit the dirt. He did get good care and attention from the medical team but I am not sure he will be back for a few weeks.