MA Track Prep/ Building Track Part 1
Where to begin? Building a track… Maintaining a track… Weather management…
So I had this great idea, move to Central Florida because the weather is so great during the winter, but then kind of slacked on the idea that most of Florida is just sand… Finding clay is not easy, and the Florida clay is not the PA or Carolina clay I grow up riding and how those guys track prep differs from Florida as well.
What I did…. I asked around for clay for 2 years even after buying my property, I drove around looking for anything red I could find, but not much came up, and if it did it wasn’t exactly what I wanted and it was SO expensive for the hauling in enough clay to build a track with a good base with a 6 plus inches of material ( I would want even more). So finally, one day I was over at the Sandbox which is the SX/MX track 2.5 miles away where guys like Roczen and other top moto guys train, when owner and professional track building Jason Baker told me to dig about 8ft down and he bets I have good clay under there.
8ft down… and then some to get the clay out, well thats no easy task, but I trusted his advice and rented a 22 ton excavator and started to dig, and dig. Yup 8ft down we hit clay, but it was like a pottery clay, white-ish/ gray clay. So we dug it out, at times we had 15ft pile of clay around my track layout and a hole that looked 30ft deep and filling with water thanks to Florida low water table. After a week of digging I swore we had enough to build the biggest and baddest track, piles everywhere.. But after we started to spread it I realized how fast a hill goes down once its spread out 40-50ft wide, with a slight banking.
This was around June when we had the track laid out, I began disking the clay with my 6060 Kubota and a 6ft disk, the clay was SO hard already that I bend the disk to shit within the first couple of days and hardly had it broken down into small chunks. After a few more days I got in broken down enough and then started to actually add a little sand back into the track because I felt the clay was going to need some type of texture to it, it was literally like smooth pottery clay. So I added and mixed and mixed, finally got to the point I could use my York Rake and mix it a little more. I then started to drag the track down with a large 8ft by 8ft metal frame ( actually an old camper frame I cut up from next door).
The biggest problem was the weather, by this time of year its the rainy season, goes from hot to downpours within minutes. This cause big issues as I just could not get the base to form at all, no matter how much I tried to rip, air dry, pack, and repeat. So to be honest I quite for the summer. I let it sit from July til about October and I bet that was the best thing for it. Over that time it settled, but then also the chunks of limestone from softball size to basketball plus size stones started to get exposed. So I started to disk again, SLOWLY, but disk, rip/ mixed and then started to expose the stones. Luckily I had a good friend Pete from England over for the month of November into December and he literally followed me lap after lap picking and throwing stones into the pond in the infield we had now.
Now end of November we had a base, we started to wheel pack and rake, it formed well and we had a rideable track. I then knew my next purchase was a blade, I wanted one that could angle side to side, front to back and also make sure I can get the pitch the blade would cut adjustable. Pete and I ran to the local “Royal King” and got the cheapest 7ft wide adjustable blade I could find ( I say that because going back I would have gotten a little better one but its still working ok). This now was the fun part, blading the track. This was little more of process, I have been used to a grader, balanced weight in the front and behind, but with this off the back of the tractor it could really do more damage then good when not used right. I got the hang of how to utilize it pretty well.
One of the coolest feelings is when you build a track, it starts to come together, and then you start to lay rubber for the first time. Pete and now Bobby Lupica where able to ride as I had to go to India for a trip right before Thanksgiving and they kept sending me more and more pictures of the track getting a wider and wider groove, such a cool site to see!
So now I have a track that was literally created from soil on my land but was only 8ft down to start with. The next part was understanding how to manage the track. Let the groove form or rip it up, over used and it was still soft in spots that we had breaking dumps, so now how do we fix and figure out what the best would be considering I run schools that run all day long and I didn’t want to have to do ask much track maintenance like I did at Marion County Speedway where I had to literally water and rake out the track even 30-45 minutes to keep it in good shape throughout an 8 hour training day.
Trial and err, well it also depending on the weather, if it rained I started to get a good understanding of when to go on it or not. If I HAD to get on it, I have it to where I scrap off a few inches with the blade and push to the bottom of the track for that day or so, then take my york rake around to rip slightly and let it air for a little then can ride that day, slight cushion like feel, loose, where I would have to rake a few times back over to smooth out. But then if I let it sit after it gets rained on, I have a few different ways to prep. If I can drive on the track and not put ruts more then 1in with the tire of my van or water truck and trailer empty I will wheel pack top to bottom and firm up the track a little, I then will go and cut with the blade about 1/2 in to 1 in off the top and fill in any rain ruts. I then will pack again, water and then usually its ready to go. Another option like I will share some pictures from is where the top layer of my track was dry ( which was also the sand coming up to the top from the rain ) and then a 1/2 in to 1 in was moist underneath.
In this case, I decided to blade the sand to the top side of the track, to also bring up some of the clay that ran down the track. I got that off, then used my drag to then fill in a few rain ruts and also mix up the clay and sand mixture. I then water, let sit for about 45 minutes, wheel packed, and let sit again for a few hours. I wanted the track to get hard, hard to where it would form a groove, if I would have rode right away it would have been a blast but would have ripped up slightly and been a little bit of a cushion like feel. But my goal like I said was hard packed, start to groove to work with my rider I was training that evening.
I get asked often, “I’m building my own track, where do I begin?”
What type of soil do you have, you heard my story, IDK if it gets much worst then that for a starting point. Most of the time across the country/internationally I have seen soil that could work and does work while but you have to know what you are working with and your goal for it.
do you want it to be hard packed “Groove” like or loose “Cushion” like track
how does it take water, does it sit on top and then gets sticky like clay would, does it soak in and turn to mud right away, or does it soak in and could nearly ride right away?
what equipment do you have or willing to get to work on track, do you want to build it and leave it and not have to do much to it or you plan to rake it every ride and get it fresh as much as you can?
how many people are going to ride at a time.
What size track should I build?
what are you planning to ride? Sunday Motors 187/ KLX140 or 250/450f ?
When building my 1/5th mile track I based my size off the speeds I did or didn’t want riders to get. I wanted a track that was big enough to ride a 450 on with multiple riders but not to big to where speeds where higher then 60mph. My track is a training track, so I wanted it to where riders could ride a KLX140 to its limit in 3rd/4th gear ( stock gearing) and then progress to a 450 in 2nd gear ( stock gearing).
So I base a lot of my sizes of track actually off the gear I run on the bikes ( with stock gearing), another example: my mini bike short track is typically 1st gear for my beginners, then 1st gear off rev limit a little before the corner for my advancing riders, then we will run 2nd gear once feeling good. 2nd gear with a stock KLX140 could use 1 tooth larger sprocket and would be perfect but this also makes the riders have to work a little hard not having the gearing just right once they are at that level :)
What about a shape of a track?
do you want to go around in a circle, have tons of lean angle at all times? make a circle. If you want a more challenging track make an oval with tighter straights and more triangle shape corners from entry to apex to exit, and if you really want to make a track tough, make the corners different and make it a D like shape where one corner entry is tight and then opens up on exit and the other entry is more round getting in and then tightens up on exit. This is how I laid out my tracks, not necessary the most fun at times but remember my track is a training track, I want to have different scenarios to training to make me a better rider.
How much water, when to water?
Well I’m going to leave that for part 2. Along with some video content.
Ask yourself what your goals for a track would be, list them out, get idea on what type of soil you got and share thoughts. I could always be up for a road trip with my track this summer :)
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!