Inland Motorsport Speedway... June 18, 2010

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.

Industry Speedway June 16, 2009

This Wednesday was the third night of racing at the Grand this season and the third time I tried leaving early to beat the afternoon traffic. I guess everybody else had the same idea and as soon as I got to the 5 freeway it halted. Well the freeway didn't actually halt but traveling on it did. Trying surface streets would only make sense if you were riding a bicycle and I wasn't on one plus I was towing a trailer with my lay-down on it. Taking the bike off the trailer and riding it in the car pool lane wouldn't get me very far with the small fuel tank and I don't think laying it down to avoid a stopped car would work either.

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The bad traffic Wednesday afternoon wasn't a local mishap but seemed to be everywhere. The Butterfly Effect whereas small items can change the outcome at a great distance could be the problem but I like to think of it as the Snail Effect where one fender bender at Green River in the Santa Ana canyon backs up northbound  travel on the other side of the mountain.

Well, when I got to the track the place was still quite empty as the majority of riders were still on their way. The races are held in The Grand Arena which is in the Industry Hills Expo Center which is located in the City of Industry, California, a large commercial suburb in Los Angeles County. The city has very few residents and the last census listed only 777 living there but over 80,000 work there in the over 2,000 businesses.

Every week the track surface is new and different. The Expo Center has it own staff to prepare the surface and do not lack in the equipment department as there are several other horse arenas outdoors that surround the large stables there. They also have plenty of water and use it before the races start which makes the early races more of a mud slip and slide testing the riders in each corners. The program usually has a half-dozen races with the lower division riders racing before the riders introduction and the national anthem.

The program is printed in advance based on the previous week's sign up sheet and call ins and was set to have two races each in Division 2 and 3. But of course that was scrapped and seven riders were placed in a single race in each division putting two riders back on the ten yard line at the start. In my first race I was set on the ten yard line which has an advantage and a disadvantage. In the back I can watch everybody fall down in the slick muddy corner but I get coated by the mud flying off there tires but I have to still get around those who have managed to stay up.

I am not sure of the reasoning for putting be back. I often dwell on that, am I faster than the rest or do they just want be out of the way. The water seemed to be doing a good job of keeping the dust down and several riders too. After several races and the rider's parade was over the first division riders hit the slick track and I am there to testify that Flying Mike Faria was two wheeling in the snot in the corners. Then the ground crew came out worked on the track.

My second race was before the slime was removed and I was placed at the tapes instead of the rear. To every one's surprise I got the hole shot and led the race until the last foot where Kevin Johnson passed be at the finish. Someone said I had a half a lap lead at one time but I blew it. Each time I went into the turn between bends three and four I would go a little wider trying to stay up and kept losing ground to Kevin behind me.

In the main Johnson and I were placed back on the ten to play catch up and in my last two races it was no longer slick and the track was fast. Both Buck Blair and Charlie Venegas were dueling through out the night with Charlie getting the first turn in the main ahead of everyone else and staying there.

In reviewing the pictures on this blog most are easy to understand. The picture of Jeff and Hicks shows a new product Jeff is currently developing that is to be used as a personal flotation device for those riders that who can not swim.

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.