If this is accurate...

I wouldn't be happy if I just paid for that pavement

 

We tried to race AFM 2 times and both were rained out. Once at buttonwillow and once at Thunderhill. I agree the racers are nice at AFM, I personally didn’t like the fact they wouldn’t race in the rain at those two tracks.

You spend a lot of money getting there and California kids don’t get many opportunities to ride on the rain, so it was frustrating. They had a rule. at the time, once 3-5 drops of rain hit the asphalt in an area the size of a brick, all racing stops.

I understand no rain racing at Sonoma.

 

I uh - well, that'll ruin old pavement, too.

 

Motoamerica's Facebook page has an on board lap with Joe Robert's from the tire test if you want to see what the track looks like for yourself

 

Is Sonoma the track that was still on the MA schedule like 3-6 years back that had a really crappy surface? There was somewhere (and I was brand new to MC racing and had just started watching) that had pretty bad cracks everywhere and just looked pretty bad, and I thought myself why is a pro series racing in this crappy track. I think they dropped it from the schedule as I don't remember seeing it since then.

Edit: I think it was Sonoma 2019

 

You are right, MA did Sonoma August 10-11, 2019 but not in 2020

 

Could be? I know we ran it in 2012 on a 600 with AMA Ty got to ride it with MotoAmerica, in 2017 when John Ulrich was helping with Junior Cup. He and KTM offered different riders a 390 at certain rounds. That was a real fun experience for the entire family.

I don’t remember complaints about the pavement, only excitement at the huge elevation changes and technical nature of the track.

 

MA raced at Sonoma 2017-2019, then replaced Sonoma with Ridge in 2020. 2017 was awesome for me because they had one AFM support race and they picked one of my classes, Formula IV. So much fun, and set my personal best lap time on my SV which I've never seen since. The track was pretty good then, a little worse now. Not nearly as bad as some folks seem to think IMO, but it sure could use a repave.

All the MA riders I talked to loved Sonoma because it was so technical.

That first year at Ridge was the no spectators due to covid event. Since then I've been riding up to attend Ridge the last 3 years. 2021 it was still pretty rough as far as the spectator facilities, that was their first big spectator event and they had trouble getting enough workers etc. Plus it was like 110 degrees all weekend long! It keeps getting better every year.

Sonoma aka Sears Point is 30 minutes from my door. The way I roll, takes me 4 days to get to Ridge but that's the fun way with all the bumpy backroads and goat trails. On the way back it might take a week or so.

I'll spend half a day riding to Laguna, all packed up and ready to roll in the morning, woohoo!

 

I’ll be there under the Wrench canopy with Brenden

 

So the track has a lot of patches like this but they aren't an issue. There is a prominent seam all around the center of the track but it's also not an issue. There are a few areas where the track has been ground but the grooves aren't deep and they don't run across the track so no problem. Track surface is now completely devoid of bumps. It's green, not much rubber laid down today. Only consideration is the track surface is now about 1.5cm or so higher than the curbing in many places.

Supersport fast guys I talked to got about 8-10 laps out of an R7 rear. Tire strategy for them in the extended race will be interesting. Twins allocation is 2 R7 rears and 3 R8 rears, not ideal at all.

 

Thanks for the update. Cool and breezy isn’t going to help. Gonna be interesting!

 

Is the fog rolling in every morning, this weekend?

 

It's a marvelous day for qualifying.

 

Why yes it is.
View from the front window, in the "last minute knucklehead camping" area. LOL.

 

The good news is the fog may not be rolling in each day.
The bad news is that’s because it may never be rolling out!

 

Hopefully it isn’t too thick to race.

From that picture on my phone, I can’t even see the fog. I remember a Yamaha school, you couldn’t see turn 11 while standing on the straight. I don’t remember how far visibility was, but it was bad enough we waited a few hours to ride.

 

You peeps from the land of fruit and nuts typically won't race MX if it rained or is raining.

 

Yeah that one time it never lifted all day. Corner workers couldn’t see from one station to the next. Races ran on Monday!

 

Yeah not really foggy like you described and I have seen here. Low clouds and mist but predicted to break up at around 10 or 11 each day.
Should be wonderful.

 

Last year I watched the fog roll in just before practice. I was parked at pit out, the front straight disappeared. We weren't going to be able to ride in that.