Walton Racing

I had never been to the Motorcross Races at Walton until today.  It was a great few hours, and something I enjoyed quite a lot.

This is just one of many heavy, heavy duty rigs that was representing.  Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, etc., all had rigs this size accompanying.  And you know what?  You know what all the rigs were having done to them?  They were all being washed!  3, 4, 5 fellers power washing and scrubbing.  It was a bit unusual, but I understand.  And the amateur contraptions were all fifth wheeled trailers with sleeping quarters and 4, 5, 6 bikes and various parts within.  This is way more $$$ (investment) then some AAA hockey tournament in Toronto....

I went with an unlikely fellow, Jeff Thuss and his son, and he assured me this was going to be quite exciting.  He had been there the previous day or two watching different classes of races and classifications of bikes and such.  He had to return for the mayhem, and indicated that I might enjoy it too. 

As soon as we got there we went straight to the starting line.  A more senior race was starting.  I was a bit confused because some of the bikes were stickered 450cc, and some were 250cc.  So in the end I am still not even too sure what I was watching at what time.  The program didn't list the size of the engine displacement, rather terms such as MX1 or MX2A and so on.  I also want to say some of the races were 4 stroke engines, then the others were 2.  So to be honest I was quite out of my schema of knowledge, despite having logged well over 50,000km of riding across both directions in Canada and down into the United States.  But it is different.  The similarities end at 2 wheels and a helmet whilst comparing what I do, and what I watched.

The track is about 3km in length.  There are countless ups and downs, twists, and technical corners that a skilled motorcross rider must take into consideration.  The start is challenging because of the close proximity to each other rider, but usually out of the course many riders find their pace and there wasn't many tightly packed packs during the 5 loop circuit.  What was also of note, was the deep gauged ruts in the corners.  Ruts that would have been 80cm deep!  I guess the benefit is that once you get your wheels in them it isn't very likely you'll pop out.  But man were they deep.

The other big thing I noticed, which was also very similar to the mountain biking I did last summer out in Rossland, was you have to let the bikes do their thing.  Keep speed up too!  Let the suspension handle the bumps and crevices.  Look ahead...  Look ahead.  You have to completely trust that the bike will roll over what it is supposed to roll over - and don't fight the bike, let it just do what it is meant to do.  I may not be explaining correctly, or as clearly as I would like, but you can't fight and try to muscle out on the course, rather be smooth and have a nice touch.  I really think or thought it was like mountain biking in that regard.

I would definitely try to get back.  On Sunday afternoon the real show begins. The fellers who make their living, so to speak, at this thing take on Walton and I can't help but think it will be much louder and much more exciting then I already witnessed.

To finish off the day the family and I walked down to the beach for a swim.  The lake was quite cool actually.  I jumped in first and made like it was no big deal....  Shelly and Molly got quite the chill.  I do it all the time - fool them like that, and they always seem to fall for it....  Great picture taking Shelly!