Wildcat regional

Mcaupp22

Mcaupp22

PR Addict
So I raced the regional this weekend at wildcat and I thought I would let you know how it went. I rode horrible all weekend never once felt comfortable on the track. Best I felt all weekend was my last two motos. My first moto I was running top 10 and flipped over the bars a good one and the second first moto I got taken out in the second corner and stuck under the bike so my chances of qualifying were over then. Still raced it out though. Struggled bad with the bike beating me up. Ended up stiffening my suspension for my last two motos for the sand and I rode the best all weekend in those two motos. No excuses though just couldn’t get it done

Track: place is not a regional track. It has little to no passing. They added a ton of sand over the hard pack and you had 1/4 of the track nice good clay, then you hit one jump and the other 3/4 of the track is a sand track. They had it prepped in the morning and after that they didn’t touch it all. Not a single corner or straightaway or anything. Only thing they did was fixed two jump faces and water throughout both days. Track was clapped out both days and had a ton of injuries. Track just isn’t regional potential needed to be a regional at redbud.

injuries: I have never once in my life been to a track that has had so many ambulance runs in one weekend. Neighbor or us in the pits had to go to the hospital and they told them that there was 40 ambulance rides to their hospital. Along with the one careflight and two others going to bigger trauma centers to assess their injuries. One kid landed in the back of a side by side and another kid had a rock impalled in his eye. Just gets worse and worse. Multiple collarbones and other broken bones. Track was so gnarly and blown out that people were going down hard left and right all weekend long including myself.

overall not impressed at all with wildcat. Can’t say I would go back unless I had to.
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i left this weekend looking a little rough with multiple scratches and bruises on my back and legs. Very disappointing weekend for me personally but is what it is. When it’s not your day it just isn’t your day.
 
Mcaupp22 said:
So I raced the regional this weekend at wildcat and I thought I would let you know how it went. I rode horrible all weekend never once felt comfortable on the track. Best I felt all weekend was my last two motos. My first moto I was running top 10 and flipped over the bars a good one and the second first moto I got taken out in the second corner and stuck under the bike so my chances of qualifying were over then. Still raced it out though. Struggled bad with the bike beating me up. Ended up stiffening my suspension for my last two motos for the sand and I rode the best all weekend in those two motos. No excuses though just couldn’t get it done

Track: place is not a regional track. It has little to no passing. They added a ton of sand over the hard pack and you had 1/4 of the track nice good clay, then you hit one jump and the other 3/4 of the track is a sand track. They had it prepped in the morning and after that they didn’t touch it all. Not a single corner or straightaway or anything. Only thing they did was fixed two jump faces and water throughout both days. Track was clapped out both days and had a ton of injuries. Track just isn’t regional potential needed to be a regional at redbud.

injuries: I have never once in my life been to a track that has had so many ambulance runs in one weekend. Neighbor or us in the pits had to go to the hospital and they told them that there was 40 ambulance rides to their hospital. Along with the one careflight and two others going to bigger trauma centers to assess their injuries. One kid landed in the back of a side by side and another kid had a rock impalled in his eye. Just gets worse and worse. Multiple collarbones and other broken bones. Track was so gnarly and blown out that people were going down hard left and right all weekend long including myself.

overall not impressed at all with wildcat. Can’t say I would go back unless I had to. View attachment 75965
i left this weekend looking a little rough with multiple scratches and bruises on my back and legs. Very disappointing weekend for me personally but is what it is. When it’s not your day it just isn’t your day.
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That sucks, hope you heal up quickly!
 
We raced, we got cleaned out Jim the start of race class one and two. In class three he hung back avoided the BS, was in 16th with a pack of five in front of him. The pack went over that down hill tripple deal. He went chasing and him and another kid never came out. Landed on the dude at the bottom of the jump who crashed. No flag to be seen, went home Sunday morning with a concussion. He actually liked the layout for practice fun, it did not race well.
 
I just don't get why every track that has a qualifier or regional insist that it has to be a sand track? Red Bud in the 90s was great, it was a little sandy, but more clay and I thought much nicer than today in my opinion.

Gatorback. When I raced there in the 90s the place was hard pack limestone quarry. Only had sand up on the top side for the most part. That's one track that has benefited from adding the sand.

But my point is, why not race different surfaces? Sand, Kenworthys black river bottom top soil, clay, red clay down south. But nope, let's truck hundreds of loads of sand in and make everything a sand track.
 
I get the benefit of sand. Keeps the soil a little more broken up and less blue groove. Would see that bringing it in before a major race would not be the correct path though. Feel it needs to come in before a few practice days to get worked in, etc. Just my opinion.

I remember last year when Malvern brought it in and first race it was thick on top of the tables. For most 50 riders it was tough because they weren't on the gas as much. A few weeks later, it worked in and seemed to benefit the base soil for prep, reprep, and moisture.

Definitely a different way to ride in it in abundance. Gotta keep that front end light...er.
 
The mud fest regional in 2020 was the worst experience I’ve had at a regional as they just didn’t seem to know what to do with the mud and slop, but I felt like they fully redeemed themselves with last years regional.

There aren’t many tracks to choose from that I would consider a good regional track, but I feel Wildcat most closely resembles what one could expect to encounter at Loretta’s.
The track definitely gets very gnarly and rough, to a degree that I don’t think many people are prepared for, which they should be being a regional event. A groomed track rider is going to have a rough time.
Aside from flagging issues, I couldn’t agree on a tough track alone causing rider injuries, more so the rider(s) themselves. However I did hear of a few unfortunate accidents/injuries some of which may have been preventable.
 
DelBalso28 said:
The mud fest regional in 2020 was the worst experience I’ve had at a regional as they just didn’t seem to know what to do with the mud and slop, but I felt like they fully redeemed themselves with last years regional.

There aren’t many tracks to choose from that I would consider a good regional track, but I feel Wildcat most closely resembles what one could expect to encounter at Loretta’s.
The track definitely gets very gnarly and rough, to a degree that I don’t think many people are prepared for, which they should be being a regional event. A groomed track rider is going to have a rough time.
Aside from flagging issues, I couldn’t agree on a tough track alone causing rider injuries, more so the rider(s) themselves. However I did hear of a few unfortunate accidents/injuries some of which may have been preventable.
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All the races I watched there was zero to no passing. Whoever got a good start just stayed in that spot the whole time. And they said the reason they weren’t pulling out Red Cross flags was because they didn’t have any which is ridiculous. How are you having a regional and don’t have Red Cross flags for every flagger. Rough is okay but there’s a fine line between safe and hot and obviously they can’t get that line. 40 people to the local hospital and 3 to big trauma centers speaks for itself. The sand makes the soil good when it’s mixed in but they threw at leave 3 feet on top of the hard pack and never mixed it in. Just like me I’m sure others struggled with bike setup because I felt good on hard pack but my suspension was beating me up bad in the sand. I stiffened it up in the final motos and it felt way better in the sand but felt more harsh on the hard pack
 
Wild Cat is not a simple track regardless....
With a bunch of similar speed riders, things can get congested quickly.
Thanks for the update - on to the next one
 
jj584 said:
We raced, we got cleaned out Jim the start of race class one and two. In class three he hung back avoided the BS, was in 16th with a pack of five in front of him. The pack went over that down hill tripple deal. He went chasing and him and another kid never came out. Landed on the dude at the bottom of the jump who crashed. No flag to be seen, went home Sunday morning with a concussion. He actually liked the layout for practice fun, it did not race well.
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Getting through "clean" over the hump & out of the third right hand turn heading towards the first big triple along the wood line was priority One at our vet regional a few years back.
If you blew that - your moto was left to playing catch up as best you could.
 
MarctheSharc said:
Getting through "clean" over the hump & out of the third right hand turn heading towards the first big triple along the wood line was priority One at our vet regional a few years back.
If you blew that - your moto was left to playing catch up as best you could.
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MarctheSharc said:
Getting through "clean" over the hump & out of the third right hand turn heading towards the first big triple along the wood line was priority One at our vet regional a few years back.
If you blew that - your moto was left to playing catch up as best you could.
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100% our problem this past weekend
 
i was running top10 and then flipped over the bars in the first moto. Then my second first moto I got a top 5 start and got taken out and stuck under the bike in the second corner. My problem wasn’t starts at all it was just my first motos killed me and bike set up.
 
We specifically held back a bit at the start to make sure.
Then, when the bottlenecks formed he looked for a clear path to that turn.
In that turn, he never waited for the inside line -- they would slow down, line up and go single file.
He was instructed to rail the outside and cockblock em.
It worked well.
 
I was on the outside every moto and the outside is absolutely the better place to start than the inside you can run it in way deeper
 
Mcaupp22 said:
i was running top10 and then flipped over the bars in the first moto. Then my second first moto I got a top 5 start and got taken out and stuck under the bike in the second corner. My problem wasn’t starts at all it was just my first motos killed me and bike set up.
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The transitions from hard dirt to soft dirt caught many by surprise.
We didn't stay off the ground either - Tough track
 
Practice Friday was super nice for my regional two years ago. After that. Oooof. Ha. Pits are nice and level tho.
 
GeorgiePorgie said:
Practice Friday was super nice for my regional two years ago. After that. Oooof. Ha. Pits are nice and level tho.
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I thought the pits were going to be nice and level like you said just I was wrong. You can tell the past races they had there with the big rains and stuff destroyed the parking. Don’t get me wrong it’s a flat area but the tire tracks from people obviously sinking and getting stuck make it really rough in the grass and not as flat as it could be. Definitely one thing they do have going for them is nice grass and no elevation to the parking for sure
 
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