Ducati Monster Forum

Anyone get Road Racer X.  I can't find the article.  It was a q & a with Nicky Hayden.

They ask Nicky Hayden what was the toughest track you raced on in the US.

His response was Loudon.  Refereed to it as all-around nasty, filthy, dirty and tough little track.  It had every nasty element you could put on a track.

Fun place. ;D

I'm getting the feeling other tracks don't have 9 different asphalt surfaces (all of the different samples in every turn) and transitions an old Cadillac owner would avoid.     ;D

You've been to Grattan.

He would have liked Loudon better in the 70's.

It had a downhill off camber back then.

did that corner have an oil slick too?  maybe some kids throwing rocks at you?

Is that a DuHamel reference? Racing is dangerous ya know...and his father had no problem with the track. ;D

Back then Loudon was a pretty nice track. The asphalt was pretty smooth, and it ran clockwise.

There was no nascar oval cutting the track into bits with all the pavement transitions. There were far fewer concrete walls and fences and lots more runoff. There was a dirt oval in the middle for the Saturday night race car guys with a pond in the center of that. More than one bike was hauled out of the pond after running off track.

There was also a lot more elevation than now. TZ 350s would crest the hill in the air all set up for the little kink when you landed. If you looked straight ahead going through the bowl all you saw was sky and then the bottom dropped out and you were in said hairpin.

This is all just reminiscing. Things change and when the nascar oval went in the track did become more dangerous I guess. The weekend warriors still race there, LRRS/CCS and we still do track days. If you can ride fast at Loudon you can ride anywhere.

Everyone should try it at least once.

that's what colin edwards (and nicky, iirc) said about oak hill raceway in henderson, tx...

that track wasn't a high-speed course like loudon, but it was tight, rough, and technical.

Loudon has a bit of everything except high speed. The fast guys might hit 150 at the end of the straight.

The other thing is you can go pretty fast on a smaller bike there because of the lack of a long straight.

That was my biggest issue when I got to Grattan on the 996 after the 750.

The straight, which is almost a half mile long was terrifying by the 2/3 point on the 996. [laugh]

Oak Hill is history, it's toast. :P No longer used by the CMRA (former-CRRC). It was like a go cart track for motorcycles. Lots of future stars grew up on that funky little track. [thumbsup]

My initial reactions was "is the track really that bad?  I didn't think is was even compared to Grattan."  I haven't read the article so I was wondering what his exact words were.

I wonder why they don't run it race reverse? 

Can you imagine the carnage at the end of the straight in reverse with that chicane?

It's bad enough as is. ;D

Particularly when Triumphs beg to get run over.

yeah... those recent "management issues" really put the nail in its coffin... i wouldn't be surprised if the family finally sells that land to the mine operator across the steet.

You are a funny man.    ;D 

I guess you're right.

Coming into turn 10 and 9 would be a hoot also, go as close to the padded wall as possible at 10, just enough to miss with your shoulder and then straight at a concrete wall. 

Yep, that's where my CMRA buddies say it's going to end up. Sad.

I took my CRRC race license course there in the spring of 1989. I sucked. All I wanted to do was what now exists as track days. I just wanted to ride on a track, go fast (for me) and not get a ticket. I raced MX for years but wasn't sure about road racing. I had an '89 FZR400 for D Production. Figured I could do less damage that way. [bang] A hotshot in the class liked what I did with my bike and bought it. It was the right thing to do. I'm still alive because of that! [laugh] [laugh]

pay no attention to the wall...

keep telling yourself that, ;)

i was about 8-9 years behind you.

kids... :-*

Kids? Hell, we're official old farts now! [laugh] We need carbon dating to remember our birthdays! Another good year above ground. [bacon]

That makes me a veritable dinosaur. ;)

I never noticed any walls...

???

all i see are nascar walls, tire walls, trees, a treehouse, fences and pavement transitions.  is there even a track?  [drink]

If you keep looking up in the air you're gonna get hurt. ;)

At least we don't have to go to New Jersey to ride. ;D

And me 21 years after that :P. Getting it in the spring :D

Rode it back in '86.

I'd say it was a scary track, but it was my first track experience and I was 21 at the time so it was awesome  ;D

Was there a paved oval involved then?

I forget.

I was there and I forget  [laugh]

I vaguely remember a semi-banked section past the start-finish and some weird concrete bowl at some point.