Last weekend my eyes were opened to the world of flat track. The Stockton fairgrounds hosted their first ever 1/2 mile AMA event, and it was FUCKIN AWESOME! Timmo's wife, Cyndi told me she had bought a pair of tickets to the races and asked if I'd like to be Timmo's chaperone, um...FUCK YES! I get to hang out with my bro AND check out some moto shit? That's a win-win!
Tim came to my place and helped me figure out an issue with the Slayer that ended up being re-tar-ded. It was still early on in the day, so we kicked back in the driveway and had a frosty beverage. A little gardening may have also taken place, as per usual. After the chores were completed, we saddled up and headed to Manny's for a burger. Delicious. Eyes glazed and bellies full, we made our way to the track.
A quick zip through town led us to the fairgrounds, we parked the choppers and headed in. There were a couple racing booths, and a beer truck. What else do you need? After a bit of milling around and sweating our asses off (it was hot as SHIT!), we ran into a couple of Timmo's old pals. We shot the shit for awhile and the heat races started. HOLY HELL!! I'd never been to the races before and seeing the competitors haul ass around that track made me excited, something awful! Damn, that shit was so awesome!
The heat races ended and Tim's buddies, John and Steve invited us out to the pickup for a few beers before the main events. Uh..hells yeah! We braved the elements, the searing heat of the sun beat down on us relentlessly. It was extremely hot, you get it. We got to the truck and popped a beer, did a J, and then....yeah, I'm about to pass out. I don't know if it was the heat..dehydration..me being a pussy.. I don't know, but I seriously almost fell down.. So anyhow, there I sat, sweating in the sun like a Tijuana hooker. I was actually in the shade, but sweaty and nauseous, nonetheless. Terrible. As I sat there, fading in and out of consciousness, a few racing fans came up and bullshitted for awhile. These dudes had driven serious miles to come watch the 1/2 mile in Stockton. One fella was from Santa Barbara, making the drive that morning. Crazy.. The fans we met were EXTREMELY serious about flat track and shared stories about other races they had been to, or certain riders they had been following and what have you. Pretty damn cool.
I regained some sort of composure right before the main events and we headed back to the track. We found our seats and aimed our heads at the racetrack. HO-LY-SHIT! The heat races were nothing..these guys are going FULL ON, the roar of the bikes ripping down the straights seriously left me with a wide eyed, mouth open stare. It was bad ass. Dirty Joe from Manteca (hey bud!), met us at our seats with his woman in tow. We exchanged hello's and talked a little shit as the races continued, bikes ROARING by, jockeying for position.
As the races came to a close, we walked through the pits and got to check out all of the race bikes. A bunch of WAY cool machines, perfectly tuned specifically to whip ass. There were a shitload of 750 sportsters that I will be taking inspiration from when I rebuild my ironhead.
We said our goodbyes and split off on our own ways, Timmo to lodi, Joe to Manteca, myself, further into the shithole known as Stockton. The flat track races were fuckin rad. The fans were awesome, no bullshit attitudes, just very passionate about racing. I got to spend some time with some good friends, and the actual races were amazing. You can't beat that. Needless to say, I will try to make every flat track race in Stockton. Thanks for the ticket, Cyndi!
•End transmission•
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