WHAT RAINS MEANS TO THE MOTOCROSS ECONOMY OF SOCAL

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The mountain in the background atre 10,000 feet tall. Rain up there, means a swollen river running across the road to Glen Helen.

After six years of drought, the sudden shift from arid to rainy weather in Southern California is a welcome relief    . The grass grows, reseroirs fill up (sometimes a little too much) and all the hand wringing about global warming causing the drought has been turned in global warming is causing the rain. But, the motocross business relies on people riding their bikes, buying parts, going to tracks, wearing out tires and, even blowing things up on occasion. Because of the uniqueness of thr SoCal landscape, the common places to ride are often in the worst places when it rains.

This is especially true of the famous Glen Helen Raceway. Everyone has seen photos of the USGP and Nationals track with it’s massive downhills and the canyon valley below that forms an amphitheater. The problem is that when it rains, massive amounts of water flow down the hills and cascades through the valley to create incredibly muddy conditions. Even worse, the road into Glen Helen crosses a river that for 350 days a year doesn’t have a drop of water in it — but when it rains, the water pour off the 10,000-foot-high mountains on the horizon and, a few hours later, that water turns the dry sand bed into a raging torrent of water. Dirt and boulders cross the two-lane road into the track, and even though the road is only one mile long, it becomes impassable.

You can’t open a race track, if you can’t get to it.  If you can’t open the track, you don’t make any money…and neither do the race promoters who have scheduled events for that rainy weekend (before they knew it was going to be rainy). Take this weekend for example. Glen Helen had three big races scheduled.

(1) REM: Frank Thomason’s REM motocross was scheduled to run on their own track high above the Glen Helen National track on Saturday. The REM track is less prone to both wind or rain damage because of its higher elevation, but it isn’t immune to them. REM canceled three races for weather issues since the first of year—and they canceled this weekends race as well—rescheduling it for next weekend, February 25.

(2) SRA Grand Prix. The popular cross-country promoter has been forced to cancel his Sunday GP offroad race and move it to next Sunday, February 26. It is not the first race that SRA has had to reschedule in 2017.

(3) Lucas Oil Offroad Truck race: Glen Helen has an Lucas Oil Offroad Truck track at the end of the AMA National pits. It is a giant truck racing track with seats for 10,000 spectators. Lucas was scheduled to race at Glen Helen on Saturday. They have canceled this week’s race and will reschedule it for a later date.

Once the rain stops it leaves the racetracks in tatters with ruts big enough to swallow a man.

Apart from the economic effects on the racetrack and its three promoting groups scheduled for this weekend, the typical motocross racer wants to ride his bike. Glen Helen vows to open its National track for practice this weekend—assuming the road doesn’t get closed. You can find out the fate of this weekend at Glen Helen by going to www.glenhelen.com or to their facebook page at www.facebook.com/glenhelenraceway/