Thursday, August 5, 2010

CALISTOGA HALF MILE Instant California Classic

The Calistoga Half Mile is an Instant Classic. First of all it was a packed house with all the grandstand seats full, the rest of the crowd spilled into the beautiful lush green infield where they could walk the whole track from the inside. A wonderful and rare situation. The track is located right in the middle of a quaint historic country town with most of the old buildings dating from 1880. The Speedway facility is first class and the Promoter went out of his way to make it highly entertaining with four past Champions from the 50's and 60's being honored,
a Racing Motorsickle Show that was incredible with its line up of machinery and great food and beer vendors to top thing off. Calistoga is in the very heart of Central California Flat Track Country and not too far from the Flat Track Hot Bed of the North West and So Cal is an easy 450 miles away. Consequently everywhere you went you recognized people from all sides of the large Flat Track family. These shots work their way around the awesome wet and sticky clay half mile. Once again Steve Morehead and crew fine honed the racing surface to perfection. Thats Steve on the trailer spreading calcium which sinks in and absorbs water keeping the track racy all day and night. I certainly hope they have this 1/2 Mile again next year at the same time. I will definitely be back. The racing was incredible in both 450s and Twins. I totally enjoyed the whole Calistoga experience.