Big Willy’s American Dream Part Three

Posted by Ray | 14 February 2010 | Comment

The final instalment of Big Willy and his US road trip…

Monday

We awoke to beautiful sunshine and headed to Starwest where we were greeted by a nicely groomed track which rutted up loads so got some good practice in the ruts which it’s like back home. The track flowed really well with some big sweeping berms. I met up with James Cottrell who was looking good on the bike after some injury problems he was putting in some laps trying to get ready for the season. Ross was really getting back his old speed from before he quit to ride BMX some 8 years ago. Kye was really getting accustomed to the 450 Kawasaki and really looked comfortable on the track. Lee was putting in the laps on the Kawasaki 250f which he loves. I was really enjoying the 450 had fun flowing around track it felt good and was a lot of fun.

Tuesday

Turned up at Perris Raceway it was the hottest day of the trips so far the track looked awesome, loads of jumps and a massive set of whoops, which looked pretty dam gnarly. The soil was really nice had loads of grip, which allowed you to carry loads of corner speed and make the track, really flow well. Saw quite a few friends from back home who are out here training. Saw James Dunn on his 125 he was hauling ass on that small bike. Everyone enjoyed the day there was no crashes so everyone was pumped.

Wednesday

Started the day with the most boring chore of all we did all our washing and everything got all out stuff ready for the next day, we took a cycle down to local shops and sourced some stuff out for food.

We then went snowboarding at mountain high in the evening, big shout out to Chris from ride California for taking us up there because the snow was amazing and everyone had so much fun….. Fair play to Tucker for going down first time after not skiing for 8 years!! Fair play son. Kye went down hard on the last run on the night, typical 1 more run!! Lee was improving throughout the night he was sore the next day after falling over so much!!

Thursday

Got up super early and headed to the world famous Glen Helen, arriving at the track looked well prepped nice and sandy. This was an awesome day rode with lots of pros, got a look at the new KTM linkage system on the whole range of bikes. Did some super long motos felt really good. The track got really rough, the sand there is really weird it’s like sand on the top for about a foot then it goes down to a hard based sand which makes it really slippy and loose. Kye tried to ride but took a day off because of his crash the night before. Ross rode the best he has all trip he rode for ages and was going really well. Lee is another story he was so excited the whole day he loved it so much we had to pull him off the track after everyone was finished.

Friday

Rode a newly laid out Milestone; track was running the opposite way from usual the dirt was prepped so well, the track flowed well and had some really nice jumps. After a couple hours Lee couldn’t handle it he was so tired from the trip he went into the front of the van and went to sleep. Kye and Ross had a good days riding. I had a massive crash on a jump; high sided on take off and landed on my shoulder and strained my groin. I was in quite a lot of pain, which ended my days riding. So I went out onto the track and became a photographer for the afternoon.

Saturday

We had our first sleep in of the week, chilled out for the morning, packed our bags as we were leaving the next morning. Early afternoon we headed down to San Diego supercross, it rained all the night before so we were expecting a mudder. Arrived at the track and it looked pretty dry. They had the track covered up for the last few days so didn’t get to wet from the rain. The racing was awesome  Max Anstie put on a really good showing catching up Weimer to within striking distance until back markers held him up and then he crashed on the last lap, I was really impressed with him making a good showing for the UK.

Sunday

We got up really early, loaded up the pick-up truck and headed north to Woodward camp, it took us three hours and when we arrived there was snow everywhere around the camp. We checked in and unloaded all our bags. We then went down to the Hanger and sessioned the Massive indoor Skate park. We all hit the Foam pit for some practice, Kye was going massive as normal, I got my Flips dialled but haven’t got the balls to do it to ramp yet. Lee was getting his 360’s down nicely while Ross was being Ross, complaining that the ramps weren’t dirt jumps.

I’d Like to give a Big shout out to Sam & Chris from Ride California for their hospitality and everything they have done for us over the last two weeks.

Also big thanks to Alpinestars for supplying me with Gear for my trip Stateside.

Tags: honda, kawasaki, ktm, Kye Forte, Lee Skinner, motocross, roadtrip, Ross Broughton, supercross, suzuki, usa, Will Worden