Track Experience

I started racing motocross back in 1995 and stopped in 2001. My father and I raced district 34 which incorporated tracks in New York. Claverack was our favorite track to go race on. It was located way out in the middle of Claverack NY, “cow-town”. We would load the bikes and our gear up the night before, get up real early and get something to eat and hit the road.

We would roll into the track around 730-800 and we were always greeted by some weird dude in a funny costume or wig. After signing the “I won’t sue you form”, we found a spot to set up our pit. Then we walked through the pits to get signed up. Kick over is at 900, you can’t start your bike up before that. Then you go out for a few practice laps, which was always like a race in itself. After that we wait until our class to comes up, go pull a clothes pin with a number on it and hope you get a low number for a better gate pick. Then we line up and wait for the gate to drop.

There are two moto’s for each class. Your gate pick for your second moto depends on how well you did on the first moto. A few times I raced two classes, the 125cc Novice class and the 250cc Novice class, which meant 2 practices and 4 moto’s. I was very sore the next day!

In between the races is great, it’s a bit like camping. You get to hand out with your buddies, cook on the grill, talk about racing and motorcycles in general. Go watch some racing, talk about the track and the best way to attack it in your next moto. There is great friendship at the race track.