Friday night starts at IMS early in the afternoon as the track has to be setup, watered and groomed. I start out at three in the afternoon and head to the canyons going by Cook's Corner on the way to the infamous toll road. 
Cook's is a local watering hole that was once a bikers bar located on a narrow two lane road that went between the City of Orange and El Toro. Now it is surrounded with Orange County hillside housing and on the weekend the parking lot look likes the mega church parking down the street full of shiny bikes. It takes a little longer to go that way but I skip one of the toll road pay stations. The toll road subtracts twice from my flat wallet as I am towing a trailer. 
The road goes by Irvine Lake which is full of water and where parts of the Second Saddleback Motocross track are now under water. The lake is a storage reservoir and in 2002 when the water was low they built a motocross track there. It didn't last very long as neighbors in the nearby community started complaining (some people just hate to see people having fun) and it was closed.
Then after you pass the lake you climb a hill and go by the original site of Saddleback where motocross took off and became a sport here. We drove from Huntington Beach many moons ago to see the first big race and the visiting European riders fly up and down the course. 
There is smooth sailing for a while then I reach the parking lot that is called that a freeway by Caltran in the Santa Ana Canyon. Well it is Friday afternoon and for many it is escape day.
Finally I arrive at the track to see the changes made since last year. The previous two weeks I was not in attendance as we started sailing from San Pedro to San Francisco and got stalled in Santa Barbara because of gale warnings and missed opening night.
The track now has a slight bank to it and sits lower in relationship to the stands. The track gate entrance was also moved. I got on the program after a last minute decision to ride and my gearing selection wasn't made because of the track size but a worn out primary chain that would not allow anymore adjustments without putting a larger primary sprocket on it. So between now and next Wednesday a new chain is required.
There was a shortage of second division riders and not enough third division riders for two separate heats so I wound up on the ten yard line. Having not ridden with some of these guys I am not sure which way they plan on going in the first bend. Some go wide in the first turn and some go for the inside. It is just like figure eight racing.
The younger of Team Fishback aboard a mighty PW50 took on a challenge from a senior team member giving everybody in the stands their monies worth. The little guys is so smooth. I pitted next to Rohn Zellner. Rohn and we met here years ago when Charlie had the show here. Rohn forgot to turn on his fuel in one race but did win the second division main later when his memory was working.
At this point in the blog I am required to make a plug for the track officials and the awesome track conditions.
The red shirts do an outstanding job and the head button pusher said if I said that here I would be allowed to touch the tapes without a penalty which is hard to do when you sit on the ten yard line.
The first division main event had three starts. In the first start Burmeister, Gomez and Fishback came together and all went down. Then Tim and Tyson had to go and recruit different bikes to continue riding. In the second start Mike Faria touched the tapes and was excluded. Then in the final go Fishback took the checkered flag.
But, well there is always next time.
