I said this once and I'll say it again. I can close my eyes and still feel the rush of screaming into the first corner at Rancho on a sidehack at 35+ MPH.























Not long ago, we got into a situations were guns were drwan at work and got pretty hairy. Afterwards, one of my team members asked if i was ever scared. I answered "Yes, I raced down Rancho.."

[ December 19, 2006, 04:17 PM: Message edited by: Reilley1 ]

That is friggin' COOL!!! That first photo is magazine worthy for sure!

That's some pretty serious speed, Reilley. Must've blown your false eyelashes right off.

Wow! I don't even remember racing 11 expert at Rancho.

I am lookin at those results and seeing lots of names I recognize: Rioux, Davis, King etc.

Was Rancho open in 83-84? Was there a water hazard? I remember racing somewhere in So Cal in 83-83 that was downhill with a water hazard.

Justin

Last race at Corona had water.

That's so rad. We need to bring back wide open downhill tracks with water hazards...

It'll never happen, but it's fun to dream.

When I was a kid I had a T-shirt w/a Bob Haro drawing of--I think--a Kuwie and a Torker rider. I'm pretty sure it was the commerative shirt for the last race at Corona. I got it from the local Schwinn shop in Redlands (RRS baby!).

Always wanted to race at Corona. You could see it from the I-10, right?

It was off the 91 near Pierce Ave I think

Lee Medlin was alegedly
clocked at 47 mph at Rancho....
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Rancho closed in 1982.
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Rancho never had a waterhole jump.

10 miles away, Lakeside BMX track
had a waterhole jump
and did host a couple of big races.
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Justin,
Ronnie Rioux (GT in 1981) is about to get back into BMX. Right now, my friends Black Jack Kinkaid (with help from HinkDog411) is building Ronnie a race bike.

Doug Davis is running a large scale car dealership and doing great here in San Diego.

Mike King just got a job as a overall manager of all of Avent/ Bombshell's BMX and MTB teams.
He still lives in San Diego too
and occasionally brings his MTB to practice at KearnMoto Park BMX track.

Corona Raceway, never raced there, but I did go to watch a friend race Figure 8, and late model dirt cars, (this was in the late '70s, early '80s). Also caught a few night MX races there.
Never saw a bmx race there...what was I thinking???
The MX course was west of the 91 fwy, just south of Pierce St, which is where the main entrance was. The dirt oval track laid up against the hill, and the MX track used the hill and the oval. There was a lot of acreage, and some Grand Prix race courses extended for miles in the surrounding hills.
The area west of fwy, at McKinley was a popular offroad spot just outside Corona raceway property. In the '70s and '80s, hundreds of people would camp ride there on weekends like Thanksgiving and New Years. Sort of a mini Glamis.

Anyone remember Doug Davis (Diamond Back) crossing the finish line
and getting hit by a car? He bunnyhopped onto the hood and flipped over on his back.
Scary!
He was ok though.

Lakeside? Maybe that was it. I remember going there with Billy Griggs and racing a local race. We also wnt to Azusa, Riverside, Orange Y, Harbor BMX, and a few others. I think we raced just about every day during a 3 week span before heading off for the Summer tour. Any pics of those tracks out there? If so post 'em, I would like to see them.

Justin

I think we raced somewhere near San Diego too. Throw out some names maybe it'll come back to me.

Justin

In the 80's......
The Stadium Track, Kearny (called Clairemont back in the70's)
and the Velodrome were in the main part of San Diego.

Lakeside and Rancho were East San Diego.

Del Mar was slightly North San Diego.