"Michigan's Grattan Raceway up for sale"

Oh man.. you gotta drive through Kansas then. There’s no more of an empty state with less scenery that that one… I swear you could fall asleep for 2 hours on 70, wake up and feel like your in the same place.

 

Sounds like you’ve never traversed I-80 through Nebraska.

 

Same view for sure…

 

It’s a good thing you took the southern trek… and Iowa is all continuous rolling hills it seems… but yeah once you come down the west side of Appalachia even hills seem flat… until Denver at least


And I can relate and thought it was just the mountains but now I know it’s more… I think that some of us are more in tune to the magnetic fields that we are subjected to and pre programmed to feel that comfort of “home” our history said our people were born in Kituwa who knows maybe we were…

because I’ve been to 40 countries and have way more favorite geographic areas than the Smokey’s but feel at home more there than anywhere… when I returned and first spent months at a time on the Qualla Boundary I hated that the sun came up so late and set so early, Cherokee is in a valley, but I still felt at home… my kin moved out of the valley to the west side of Appalachia last generation but it feels the same to me…

interesting stuff

 

Do they even run the motocross track that much?

 

Put airfence there and seriously how many bikes have hit the wall at 1 over the years? Or shorten the front straight and redo the transition to 2, there should be enough room.
And while you're at it add airfence to the last corner coming on the straight? Or reverse track direction permanently?

 

It was super busy for a while but i think that they lost interest

 

Justin Wilson speaks Oxford English compared to a deep swamp dwelling Cajun, though. My grandmother re-married when I was ~12, had lived in Louisiana all 12. When we went to the Soileau compound, I couldn't understand half the folks there.

Damn good eatin' though!

 

Not like it couldn't be done. Throw enough money at the county and they'd do it. I seem to recall a bike or two making it over the berm on to Lessiter, so it's not a bad idea.

I still think Grattan is one of the best track layouts in the country.

 

Reverse the direction permanently????? Blasphemer!! For me, NATTARG was never as fun as the RIGHT way. Fixing T1 without buying the road is possible, but would ruin that corner for me. I love the width of it, and all the different lines you could use. Last corner onto the straight is a tough fix, though you could change the uphill right to allow for a better angle onto the straight.

 

I like Grattan better CCW, I was slightly faster that way.

 

there is a lurker on here, that was a fast guy, that had a brake caliper fall off when his mechanic didn’t tighten it… or wire it obviously… I think his bike made it onto Lessiter iirc… scary stuff for sure…

I’ve probably crashed in every corner at Grattan… both directions…. Twice each way yet I’ve never thought any corner was dangerous… probably blinded from how much I like the place…

I’ve only hit two guardrails in the decades I raced… one in turn 3 at Barber in 04, and one in turn 4 at Grattan in 98… I followed the bike at Barber and luckily didn’t get too hurt… I was nowhere close to it at Grattan as it ghost rode/slid into it … I had to buy another GSXR600 at Grattan that day and made enough on it Sunday to pay for it… 04 I had to rebuild R6 all beat up and sore and won the endurance class that day and 2nd overall… made way more than triple the repair cost in the endurance…. Man I miss the great contingency paying years…

 

Folks are mostly decent in Des Moines, but the best people in Iowa live out in the country, for the most part. You'll definitely experience some 'Iowa nice' in the smaller communities.

 

I can't say I've crashed at every corner there. After my first season, I think I only crashed 1 or 2 more times in all the years I went there. My rider's school was there, and we came up the day before for an open track day, and I crashed right after the jump. Almost crashed at a pretty high speed coming through the kink...juuuuusst managed to miss the trees and got back on track at the hairpin. T4....I've seen quite a few bikes hit that guardrail. And of course the aforementioned berm shot at T1.

 

I've spent the past couple of days walking around as do a fair amount of people. The weather is good at the moment. As far as cities go it's not bad, doesn't appear crowded, there are some nice things to see and there is a great variety of places to eat. I've been pleasantly surprised.