Ducati Monster Forum

http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_1012_ama_pro_road_racing_releases_2011_schedule/index.html (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_1012_ama_pro_road_racing_releases_2011_schedule/index.html)

It's preliminary, but so far no Fontana and no Road Atlanta! Holy Jeebuz!
Laguna MotoGP weekend and Miller WSBK get races (whew) but no Fontana...

They said there was little attendance and very little vendor support at Fontana. They aint lying about that. I wrote about how sad the attendance was and especially the dearth of vendors at Fontana last year:
 http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=36538.msg641261#msg641261 (http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=36538.msg641261#msg641261)

I can understand the decision business-wise, but it still sucks for us SoCal fans. I guess more roadtrips are in order.

That does suck. One of the few times a year I'm willing to go to Fontuckey and that just went out the window.

fontana was a horrible track to race at and a horrible track to spectate at.

i don't remember what attendance was like at willow, but the spectating was much, much better. twice the distance as fontana (from downtown), but a "real" racetrack vs a roval...

Still, there are a lot of trackdays (though not cheap) at Fontucky, and the garages are sweet. It's also fun to watch guys race where you just did last week.
At least until you compare lap times...
 :o

honestly, i prefer riding streets of willow and buttonwillow...

ridiculously so

 [thumbsup]


tho the surface at buttonwillow leaves a lot to be desired.

I really want to hit roadamerica to watch ama some time.  i think im gonna do a supermoto round there this year pending budget fitment[bacon]

But is driving the extra distance to Willow springs worth the  savings vice Fontana? I know Willow usually has some pretty good weekend packages, but it's out there.

autoclub/fontana with fastrack: $249
willow streets/big track with trackdaz: $125

i live "near lax" and i'm 99 miles from willow and 66 miles from fontana.

is 30 minutes worth $125 to you? either way, i can do twice as many trackdays at willow for the same event cost.

even when i was driving from the westside/Santa Monica, willow has never really felt 'out there'.  6am on the 14 is rather nice.

or, the savings + a real track makes it a no-brainer.  plus, there's Coach's.   [beer]

Wow, that's a cheap trackday.  [thumbsup]  Wish we had that around here.  Sears/Laguna are around $270-320/day.  T-hill is 130 miles from SF and is $170-200/weekday and around $220/weekend day.  They're all great/good tracks, but they're a bunch more $.

 [evil]  ;D

I can see the advantage for you guys that live in the LA area, but I live down in southern Riverside county, so Fontana is a 45-60 min drive and Willow is a few hours. From what I've seen though, Willow Springs always has weekend packages that are usually cheaper then one day at Fontana.

I wonder why they dropped Road Atlanta. I know that the track was a bit messed up when they reconfigured it, but still.

I can only dream of a track 130 miles away.  My "home" track is 350 miles away and closed for the winter :(

One of few reasons you'll ever hear to move to Southern California.

there are a boatload of tracks, 'tis true.  and they keep building more.

You guys are killing me.

My wife and I toyed with the idea of moving to SLC, but decided we didn't like the city much.  Portland would be an easy sell, but all the rain--yuck.  I broached the idea of NorCal, but that went over like a lead ballon.

Our "home" track is Sears Point, which is a great track and about 45 min away from where I live in SF.  The downsides are cost and that there are not a shit-ton of trackdays available during the good weather months (but there are enough that you can just do trackdays there if you want).  OTOH, if you race with the AFM, it's the home track and you get a bunch of mid-summer weekends there, which is just f'n awesome.    [thumbsup]

Yes, I'm gloating a wee bit, but that's only cuz I haven't received my property tax bill yet.    :'(

lots of tracks (and trackdays) in texas, too... austin is a wonderful place to live.

Where are these "more" you speak of? Always curious how close they're getting to my place of residence.

there's supposedly another track being built east of willow springs raceway.

as of right now there's:

buttonwillow
chuckwalla
fontana
streets of willow
willow springs

these are all within 3 hours of LAX

then if you are amenable to a couple more hours you can include LVMS, Laguna, and Sears.  they aren't "so cal" but they're reachable.

...it's not all track days all the time in SoCal however.  once every 20 years this may happen:

(http://7mzdt.com/images/010211snow_sm.jpg)

 ;D

I seem to recall some pictures of pre-season testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and they were running around the track in a snow flurry condition...

this was on sunday.  did accumulate obviously but it was gone by monday afternoon.

The one in the striped shirt is trouble bro.... :P

Now that nascar is involved they be running ovals in a couple years. I live 30 miles from road america and have been going the last 20 years, this year were not taken the kids just going down 1 day. I was lucky enough to go to indy gp last year so i'll be takin the family on a 7 hour road trip

[laugh]...  trust me, they both are