Loretta Lynns Track thoughts??

John250

John250

PR Founding Father
It has been years since I raced Loretta Lynns. Watching the race on TV it made me kind of think about the track and the things that are posted on pitracer all the time about todays tracks. I know LL gets extremely rough with ruts and breaking bumps. But put that track on the local level with a normal local crowd and what are your thoughts? Everyone is always talking about the tracks around here having too many do or die type jumps, too SX like, etc. Lorettas really looks like it has no real do or die type jumps and yet it is a great track for racing. I guess what I am getting at, is if LL is such a great track that provides such great racing, why are there not more tracks kind of designed after it. Looking at the jumps they all look to be pretty safe, and nothing too crazy. Just a thought. I would like to hear others thoughts that have rode it in the last few years. Remember I know it is super tough because of the ruts and breaking bumps. I am really just referring to the actual track design.
 
Is Loretta's a great track for racing, or is racing just great at Loretta's? I imagine if you put 40 of the best riders in the world on a fair amount of different styles of tracks the racing would be equally as exciting. Another thing to consider is that Loretta's needs to be safe and competitive for all levels of riders. That is very tough to do while also considering the safety of the riders.
 
John250 said:
It has been years since I raced Loretta Lynns. Watching the race on TV it made me kind of think about the track and the things that are posted on pitracer all the time about todays tracks. I know LL gets extremely rough with ruts and breaking bumps. But put that track on the local level with a normal local crowd and what are your thoughts? Everyone is always talking about the tracks around here having too many do or die type jumps, too SX like, etc. Lorettas really looks like it has no real do or die type jumps and yet it is a great track for racing. I guess what I am getting at, is if LL is such a great track that provides such great racing, why are there not more tracks kind of designed after it. Looking at the jumps they all look to be pretty safe, and nothing too crazy. Just a thought. I would like to hear others thoughts that have rode it in the last few years. Remember I know it is super tough because of the ruts and breaking bumps. I am really just referring to the actual track design.
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What unique about the design of it, other than smaller jumps?
 
Shouldn't every track that the general public Race at be Safe and competitve for all levels of riders? I hate seeing racers get hurt riding above their skill level and hurt themselves or another trying to do some big jump just because its there.
 
mx834 said:
Shouldn't every track that the general public Race at be Safe and competitve for all levels of riders? I hate seeing racers get hurt riding above their skill level and hurt themselves or another trying to do some big jump just because its there.
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I am an advocate of speed reduction. Case and point yesterday, we had over 200 riders, not one squad run. We have jumps, our tracks are littered with them. So how does work? The key is speed. Keep the speed low, keep the risk of serious injury lower than it could be.
 
ddmx488 said:
Is Loretta's a great track for racing, or is racing just great at Loretta's? I imagine if you put 40 of the best riders in the world on a fair amount of different styles of tracks the racing would be equally as exciting...
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Bingo. LL is actually an easy track. It is the depth of talent that produces good racing "down there".

Regarding BC, I cannot think of one big, gnarly "do or die" (as mentioned above) launch. Lower groundspeed gives the rider more time to plan the next obstacle AND gives the rider more time to react when the poop hits the fan. The strength needed to correct a bike at 35 mph are much greater than the strength needed to correct at 25mph. Lower impact speeds if things go REALLY wrong.
 
My thoughts are it is more of the road to getting there that is a challenge, both financial, but also time and talent. The tracks you get to ride for qualifiers and regionals are awesome, with many being the tracks the big boys run. Once down there, it is a week of fun fun fun. Swimming, golf-carting, networking, camping, and yes even racing.

As far the as the track goes. Yes, it is not the most technical, but I think that is what makes it so fun. I also agree, if you started building big jumps and such, you would never get all the races in. You would spend to much time carting people out, as most, once there, hang it all out there and leave it all on the table. Many times, probably riding over their normal talent level and conditioning level.

Here is one lap on board with me this year in the Vet B/C. Don't mind the poor start...that is my usual..something I need to improve on. I worked back to 17th of the 42 bike gate by moto end with starting toward the back. Couple things though. For those that don't ride many full gates or never have, you get a good idea of the chaos of it, particularly when everyone is going for it.

Secondly, How CMoist #27 (on my left), smokes me off the gate on his 2 stroker Zook! Fun times....see you at the races.

 
After going there for the first time this year (quad national) I was really disapointed with the track jump wise, there was nothing to worry about at all. But the jumps aren't what makes great racing, the multiple (wide) corner lines and roughness is what made the track fun to RACE. It was easy to choose a different line and make a pass in a bunch of different areas of the track.
 
HA! We were just talking about the same thing in the truck on our way down to BC yesterday John. Great observation!
IMO. There are two key elements to the track 1) the start 2) the rolling straights.
The track is set up much like MC Motosports was. The entire track rolls. There are large g-outs down every straight, long uphill or downhill. Loretta’s is the same way.
You can never get any momentum going because as soon as you do, the extra speed starts throwing ya off the roller into the next one.
<O:p
<O:p
 
ddmx488 said:
Is Loretta's a great track for racing, or is racing just great at Loretta's? I imagine if you put 40 of the best riders in the world on a fair amount of different styles of tracks the racing would be equally as exciting. Another thing to consider is that Loretta's needs to be safe and competitive for all levels of riders. That is very tough to do while also considering the safety of the riders.
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Couple things I take from your comments. It does not take a difficult track to produce great racing. If Loretta's needs to be safe and competitive for ALL levels of riders, then more so than Loretta's, doesnt the local track need to be safe? I hear guys complain all the time on here, that one of the reasons they no longer race competitively is that too many tracks have big doubles, etc on them no days. I am just trying to make a point I suppose to back up what many have said on here. I like a big double still as many do. But I have noticed it in the Lorettas video and many videos of west coast tracks, that they are designing them, that some jumps can be aired out still with no harsh reprecussion to coming up short. I just question that if Loretta's can be that safe, than why arent most tracks?

JO, your track in my opinion has two doubles (that I jump), that may have some rolling them, but for the most part, your track is built quite well. I can think of some though that are nothing but double, double, whoop, double, and that does not always make for great racing.

Just trying to get some thoughts on Loretta's after watching it.
 
As many times as I've ridden at Loretta's I have never been a big proponent of the LL Track itself. The racing is intense and often produces good battles, but that is the nature of the game when you have all of the top riders from all over the country in one place. You put those same riders in almost anyplace and great racing is going to take place. The thing that the track does have going for it is constant prep throughout the entire day, they water, disc, smooth, etc a little bit of the track between every moto and have 2 planned breaks throughout the day to re prep the track. They don't flatten all the turns and take away all the ruts when prepping, but the keep the moisture up, dust down, and section by section maintained throughout the day. Of course there are always items you can hurt yourself on at any track, but the jumps / obstacles are "do or die" at Loretta's and the 65's do almost exactly the same things that the 450A class does down there. There isn't a LaRocco's leap type thing that only a few can make.... it's set up to test your skill while keeping your top speed down...... the heat, the humidity, the chaos of 41 other riders on the gate, the 100% effort that everyone is putting out, all of those things add up to the great racing that you can see on TV. I like it even when riding back in the high 20's or low 30's place in +40 class because I'm having a battle of death with someone that is my speed and I don't care if it's for 1st or last, the battle for 20 minutes is the fun of it for me.
 
...and this is one of the starts at Tomahawk last Spring...obvioulsy, I did not get to my regional to advance to LL's with this start, but really had nothing to do with speed or jumps. It was very unfortunate when I had to bench press a CRF450 off of me after this.

 
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