Our New Facility in 2018
Hey everyone, Johnny Lewis here. I wanted to share a little update on what has been going on in the world of Johnny Lewis and the new 10 Training Facility that I have been posting about on social media, and talking about in interviews. This summer my wife Alysha and I purchased a 16 acre piece of property a hour south of our old location we leased that was in Ocala, FL.
At first I didn't know if it was going to be the right property for us when Alysha found it one night online, we had been looking for land for years, and even put a down payment on one last winter to find out afterwards the driveway floods often. But finally we decided to go check it out, once we got there I was like no way, the place was covered in old rusty tractors/equipment, a huge orange grove cleaning/waxing machine, cows, random sheds filled with trash, and more trash everywhere. Then I walked out back where I saw the 3 acre blueberry farm, big well tank with a 4" well that is used to water the berries. Beyond that was a huge flat field, a wooded section, a dug out but empty pond, and my mind starting going full track mode. All Alysha saw was big beautiful Live Oak trees and she was in love.
We purchased the property beginning of June then went through the process with the county to make sure we got the zoning/special use permits we needed to do what we wanted to do. After a few weeks and a couple of meetings we had a board meeting and were granted our wish! But then a long summer of traveling, racing, schools, and more pushed us back on getting the facility ready. Finally finished up for the season, we have been back to the property full time and have been non-stop.
From the track side of things, we got the mini short track laid in with limestone and also a water system installed! Cut in a minute-plus moto track where I mixed up some of the sand with some clay I was able to find a few feet below ground level, and also some mulch from the county tree crew. I began to layout and build up an endurocross section that cuts through some woods, around the pond, and in the infield of the moto track. Dropped some logs, tire section, wall jump, and more! The main track though has been some work and is still a big process! Ever try to calculate how much soil you'd need for a 1/5th mile short track? Well we have and it turns out it's a lot! Luckily we tracked down some "Florida Clay" about 2 miles from us that a lot of the Pro Supercross facilities use on their Supercross tracks. Did I mention we are surrounded by supercross facilities? Well we are only 2.5 miles from both Baker's Factory (where Jason Anderson, Marvin Musquin train) and the Nest (where Ken Roczen, Cole Seely, and others train) and 7 miles from the huge facility Blake Baggett has built for himself!
We are planning to start trucking in the clay at the end of this month after Thanksgiving and start getting it worked in!
Around the facility it has been non-stop clean up, luckily I have had some help from Andy Wallace who is a local pro and also a tree wizard! We have cut down trees, ripped out stumps, trimmed trees, chipped for days, and recently Andy has been bush hogging! Then just last week Michigan native Chris Liesen, who recently moved to Florida about 40 minutes north is the man when it comes to concrete so we began pouring some pads. Added a side porch to the pole barn that we are turning into a house/gym/shop and also a 20x40ft pad back by the tracks and the blueberry field to drop a few containers on.
This week I'm finishing up the all new septic system that I installed to get its final inspection (it passed the first inspection, now just the sand mount inspection- I should pass because I'm pretty good at building jumps ;) ). We have Alysha's mother, step father, and Uncle John (AKA Crash) in town helping us with more brush clean up along the fence lines, installing the first beds in what will eventually be a huge organic garden, and playing with the kids. Wednesday we move the containers to the back pad and start finishing them up, we have some neat plans with these containers including a roof top deck over-looking the tracks and blueberry field, bunk house, mini race shop, and a locker room for our riders.
I'm getting pretty excited seeing how everything is coming together here, our vision is starting to come alive! We announced the 2018 dates a couple weeks ago and the response has been amazing with our SIX scheduled 4 day programs nearly 50% booked already from January to April. We also posted 2 and 3 day programs for riders looking for a different type of program along with a local program for riders that live local that can have multiple training sessions spread out over a 3 months period this winter.
I have to say thank you to everyone that has helped us get to this point with 10 Training, we are building it for people to come love the experience and take home some of our knowledge we want to share to everyone from riding, to lifestyle habits. It's truly a racers/riders facility being built by racers which is so cool and we want to thank everyone who has lent a hand or an ear or advice throughout the process thus far!
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