motorcyclelog2004

BEGIN the 2004 LOG!

03.07 Sunday March 7, 2004: A beautiful day at the motorcycle racetrack. The track was still damp from the recent rains and melting snow. Racing started at 11:45 am, and ended abruptly at 5:15 pm when the sky darkened and heavy rain and wind began. Departures were slow due to the sudden bad weather, but everyone was out by 7:00 pm. One very large motor home arrived Friday afternoon, but most of the attendance arrived Sunday morning after 8:00.

03.21 Sunday March 21, 2004: Saturday's race was rescheduled to Sunday because of the wet grounds and threat of more snow Saturday. They say it gave them some extra time to repair what damage the track had received in the past week. They brought up a very large truck of road gravel for the parking area on the other side of the hill. This was a big money race today. Some expensive motor homes arrived Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Not many pick-up trucks with trailers and the like. It was not good weather for racing unless the racers like that kind of thing. The wind was 15 to 20 mph with gusts to 40 mph. There was a threat of rain or something all day, but it didn't start until about the time the races ended. Although there's a traffic sign which prohibits a Right Turn on to Route 696, the only vehicles I saw obey it were the large motor homes that physically couldn't make a right turn there anyway. In general everyone took their chances and made the right turn on 696 toward Shippensburg. Someone will be killed there, but very few people really care. Except for the large motor homes that left after their occupants got rested and cleaned up, maybe dinner even, all the vehicles were out of there by five-thirty.

04.18 Sunday April 18, 2004: Race today. Very few large motor homes. Mostly pick up trucks with enclosed trailer. The usual noise. Everyone out by 6:30 pm.

04.20 Tuesday April 20, 2004: Two or three bikes over there running around all afternoon and early evening. Very noisy. Looked like a few guys arranged to meet and have some fun. On occasion I've heard from reliable sources that someone with a motorcycle to sell will bring the prospective buyer over to the track for a few hours. They didn't get out of there until late.

05.08 Saturday May 8, 2004: Racing isn't until tomorrow, but there's been a lot of noisy activity on the track from 8:00AM this morning until very late tonight. First, a few motorcycles have been running over there all day. Looks like a practice or training session, or it could be just a few people out for a fun day. Then, the owners have been working of the track with heavy equipment until way after dark. It looks like they had more repair work to do than they had expected.

05.09 Sunday May 9, 2004: Today is Mothers Day, and a beautiful day for racing. Some thunder showers were forecast but they didn't happen. This race was sponsored by Honda. Quiet a few of the large expensive motor homes came in late Saturday. The arrivals Sunday morning were late, most of the smaller vehicles towing trailers started arriving after 9:00AM. The races were not back-to-back as so many of them have been. There was a long delay after one ended, and the next one started. The really big bike races were some of the last of the day. They were working on the track Saturday, and part of Sunday morning. The dust that blew over our way was unusually bad. On Monday morning the windshield washers made a bunch of mud. The whole car bodies were covered, and I won't speculate what it did to our lungs and eyes. Don't know why it was so bad. Everyone was out of there by 6:45PM, and as usual, the few I watched entering Route 696 turned right no mater what. The larger motor homes turned left like the sign says, and got a small tour of Newburg if they intended to go South on 696.

05.15 Saturday May 15, 2004: A few bikes are over there since about 08:30 this morning. Sounds like big bikes. They're either practicing or playing, or maybe a dealer demonstration or something. Along about 11:00AM more racers arrived, and racing really started. That went on until late in the afternoon. Today the owners started replacing dirt or top soil on the property. A number of very large construction type dump trucks were first hauling their loads of dirt off the property, and then the same or other trucks of similar size were hauling a different kind of dirt back on to the property. They were dumping the dirt over to the left side of the road that goes up the hill. Have no idea what that's all about.

06.04 Friday June 4, 2004: There's a few bikes running around over there in the afternoon and early evening. Maybe a training class. Mixed nuisance. Miserable weather. The hill behind the track was pretty well loaded with campers well before twilight. The most I've ever seen over there on a Friday night.

06.05 Saturday June 5, 2004: This is a major racing day but the weather is not helping one bit. Medium to heavy rain most of the morning. Slacking off to scattered showers in the afternoon. Racing started on schedule, but the loudspeaker started about 10:00am. Racing continued until about 6:00pm. It appeared that a majority of the campers and mobile homes stayed there for the night. A few more arrived during the evening, even as late as 11:00pm. They have a really big crowd there. The track is muddy, and I know racers who like it that way.

06.06 Sunday June 6, 2004: This was a big day. There were more large vehicles there than I'd ever seen there before. There weren't many of the cheap red-neck pickups there. It was a racing day to put in the record books. The loudspeaker began at 10:00am, and called every race. It was loud and obnoxious, and never shut up. Racing started at 11:00, and continued until 7:30pm, which the first time I've seen them start that early, or run that late. Perhaps they are free to do whatever they want to do. The weather was better. No rain, but it's cold here for June. Some of the vehicles started leaving at about 4:00pm, and they were all out by 8:30pm.

06.25 Friday June 25, 2004:    This was a big money three-day affair, and the only time I can remember they raced on a Friday. The back lot was about full of large motor homes by late Thursday evening. The owners worked on the track late Thursday, and also on each evening of the race. They were running from 10:15am until about 5:15pm today.

06.26 Saturday June 26, 2004: Racing today from 8:30am to 7:45pm. The races were running back to back with not much time wasted between races. These races are continued from yesterday. Someone said it was a make-up of a previous date.

06.27 Sunday June 27, 2004: Lot of very large bikes out there today, the third day of the meet. Racing from 11:30am up until 4:15pm, so they must have caught up with their schedule. It took over an hour for the big motor homes to all get out of there. There were not a lot of pickup trucks.

08.15    Sunday August 15, 2004: This was not a big money race day. There was a full eight plus hours of racing, from 11:15am until 7:30pm. Mostly pick up trucks and their trailers. A few stayed over Saturday night, but not enough to notice. Weather was good, no complaints from the contestants.

08.29 Sunday August 29, 2004: This was another pick-up truck day. They ran from 11:30 in the morning until 7:15 in the evening. There were delays up to 40 minutes between some of the races. Late in the afternoon when it appeared they had quit, they would start up again. Very uneventful. Weather was cloudy, no rain.

09.11 Saturday September 11, 2004: My Birthday. There's a lone motorcycle operator running around the Doublin Gap Motocross Track near my back yard and he's making so much noise that some of my rowdy friends who are over here drinking beer with me want to get a Snipe Bag large enough to catch him in and tie it up and drop it off the bridge at Harrisburg but Charlie Wiggle says he only has two Snipe Bags of that size and he's damn well not going to let us have one if it means he has to get up and go get it before he has to go get another case of beer because he's the only one that had truck that's on the road.

09.12 Sunday September 12, 2004: Racing today was steady from 11:30am until 7:00pm with very good weather. They didn't waste any time getting as many races in as possible. They were all sizes of bikes there today, most were were large and very loud. There were not a great many mobile homes and house trailers, and not many small pick-up trucks, so it was a mixed crowd of medium size vehicles. It was not a large crowd.

11.07 Sunday November 7, 2004: This may have been a make-up race today. There weren't many in attendance, but there were races all day. Mostly very large bikes, but there were a few small bikes of about 100 cc or less. The weather was good. The leaves are off the trees so the loudspeakers are much louder.

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