2016-07-16 Grange Motor Circuit

Saturday - July 16, 2016 Grange Motor Circuit Mini Bike Racing

That right, I said RACING.  Not a track day.  Straight up elbow to elbow, wheel to wheel, knee to ground, fried chicken to rice... wait, what am I describing again?  Its lunch time and I'm hungry.

But seriously, this is a really, really cool organization.  The United Mini Racing Association (UMRA -  http://www.raceumra.com/) puts on these events where you can bring your 50 cc up to 125cc motorcyle, which is originally meant for children, out to the track and you race against other people.  Its kinda like the 24 Hours of Lemons except way smaller, in every way.  Naturally, when Giancarlo mentioned this organization, I was intrigued.  Giancarlo is another former SpaceX employee gone rogue and now works at VG.  He is actually one of the founders of the group, soooo yeay Giancarlo, or "GC" as he goes by on the track.  Anyhow, they give you pretty much everything you need to go racing except for a helmet and boots.  Show up, pay the track fee, they give you a FEW bikes to ride AND leathers.  My practice day track fee was $30.  I think to race its $70 for your first race of the season and $20 for every race thereafter.  Pretty stupid cheap.

The organization rotates several tracks for each of their monthly events.  This one was at Grange Motor Circuit.  Its in the middle of BFE Apple Valley, about 1.5 hours from Redondo, no traffic, 4 hours with traffic - no joke.  Its so out of the way that there's 2 miles of dirt road to get to the track!  

Grand Motor Circuit is a tiny track, actually I think it mainly serves as a go kart track.  Its 14 turns with a lap of 0.8 miles.  This means its really tight and twisty, perfect for these teensy bikes, go-karts, and razor scooters.  On the plus side, there's a real bathroom here!

So there are 8 different classes of races that they run here, I believe. They are separated by the types of bikes there.  Of the major ones that I saw, there was a Honda XR100, a Honda Grom 125, and NSR 50's.  I rode all three of these, since they were all free to ride; wow what a difference from bike to bike.  

The XR was a good bike to start on since its power delivery was sluggish and it had drum front brakes, which pretty much means that it had NO front brakes.  I was instructed to downshift into my turns and stomp on the rear brake.  Not super advisable on a normal bike, but super fun to get the back end to dance around. 

Next up was the Honda Grom which is an amazing little thing.  Great power response, awesome disc brakes, it feels like a normal bike, except smaller and more nimble.  I did a dozen or so laps before I started to feel more comfortable and started to lean the bike over more.  Apparently on these small bikes, you have to tweak your inside foot position so that you don't drag toe before you drag knee.  I did not get this memo until I finished this session.  I also didn't realize that I wasn't hanging off the bike as much as I thought I was.  These factors combined put me into a lowside fall in the last harpin turn before start finish.  I was going like 7 mph or something so it wasn't a big deal.  But it was definitely my first time going down on a bike ever.  So yeah, that was an experience.  The organizers were very cool about it.  They were like "We want you to go down!  These bike don't get banged up!"  That's like someone saying, "I want you to hit me in the face!  I love getting hit in the face!"  But they meant it, and the bike really had no damage from my fall, just a readjustment of the handle bars and the next rider was off on it.  

Getting back on the horse, I tried out the NSR 50 last.  Now I was super super excited to ride this bike because I have a NSR 250 at home that I love!  These NSR bikes are legit MotoGP bikes that the pro's ride (when the are like 8 years old).  They are crazy nimble and light but all their power is waaaaay up in the rev range and there is like a 2000 rpm wide band where there is any useful power.  Also, you are basically squatting on the bike its so small.  Yeah, it was a little too much for me the first time out on the track.  

All and all the Grom captured my heart, enough to consider owning one.  But I already have 2 bikes that don't get enough attention.... sooo maybe later?

There were a couple kids out, like pre-teenage, with legit bikes and legit skills.  They made me look like it was my first time on a motorcycle.  Here's one of the bikes,  a replica of Valentino Rossi's (greatest MotoGP Rider of all time) 2004 YZR-M1, kinda.  

These bikes are just picked up, they're so light.

I bet this thing could've beat me out on the track.

Some shots of Giancarlo showing me how its done.

A couple guys who knew how to use the brakes on the XR

This kid had to be 8 years old or something.  He was dragging knee everywhere and was super smooth and fast.

This gal and her husband came out for the practice day with their NSR 50 AND their newborn.  Well maybe it was like 12 months or something.  But still!  HARDCORE.  Even better, they fed their baby a burrito!

I had the opportunity to meet Giancarlo's girlfriend, Christina.  She is equally into racing and has her own Honda Grom 125.  The next sequence is all her and her bike because, she was one of the only people to have some color in their leathers and her bike is super pretty.  Plus, I would look like a creeper taking picture of other people that I hadn't met yet, especially if they are 8 years old.  I'll save that for my HBO special, "Making of a Creeper".  

That's my helmet BTW, its badass.  I have grand aspirations of being able to digitally create graffiti like this and putting it on everything I own, including Miles.  

I ended up just going to the practice day and skipping on the races the next day.  Too tired, too unfocused, too new,  and too chicken.  Next time definitely though.

Thanks GC!