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Practice

Back to The Mile start page.

Mid-morning as track "ironing" continued I went looking for a corn dog and a Coke.

The folks milling around outside the grandstand were dressed in jeans or leathers and boots. The men wore hats and beards. Lots of smokers and chewers. Big silver buckles under lavish bellies. This was not a young crowd, looking mostly like old hippies or retired professionals. Their clothes and motorcycles represented major money. The bikes ranged from big Hondas with trailers to Harleys and H-D copies to water-cooled superbike café racers. Has to be a hard-core bunch because the race was postponed and it looks like they all stayed over the extra day.

One of the more colorfull motorcycles was this one covered with a buffalo hide complete with a head. I have no idea what kind of machine is under all that. Some people will do anything for attention.

I found an open seat up in the grandstand and people watched until just before noon when the riders first took to the dirt. The track is a fat, flat oval with long turns and short straights. Several layers of haybales lined the turns. At the end of each straight riders drafted past each other sometimes gaining several places. The lap times were mid 34 seconds, almost 105 mph average.

Here's a view of the grandstands from the paddock.

In between sessions I went back to the paddock. Jay Springsteen, a long-time fan favorite was talking to Chris about track conditions. "It's good," Chris told me. "It's soft in a couple of places, but I did a 34.1 and that's under the track record."

Heat races started at 2 pm. Springsteen won his heat in an exciting race. On the last lap he drafted past two guys into Turn 3 and held the lead to Start/Finish.

Chris at the start of a heat race. He's on bike # 1. He won his heat.

Back in the paddock I told Chris, "That had to be more difficult than it looked."

He grinned and said, "You have to be thinking out there. It's all about positioning and out-thinking the other guy. It's a lot of fun."

"I see guys doing wheelies off the start line," I said. "Is the dirt always that grippy?"

"This is the best dirt in the country," Chris came back. "The winged sprint cars do 24 second laps here. The track is weird right now. It's changing a lot. We're making a lot of changes to the bike."

Alan Eadie rides an H-D Sportster bike. He's driven his van by himself from Bedford, Texas. I chatted with him as he got his gear together. "I love this track," he told me. "I really look forward to coming up here."