The sun is shining and the pits are buzzing here in Oakland as riders and team personnel prepare for practice. It’s pretty breezy in the pit area, but since the stadium floor is sunk well below ground level, we should be able to avoid most of the wind tonight.
The dirt is nothing like the soil that was used to construct the track one year ago. Last year, the track was very sandy, but today’s track consists of nice loamy dirt, and is quite dry. During the track walk, Kevin Windham said that the dirt “looks really good.”
The jumps and obstacles look well sculpted as well. In fact, while this morning report was being written, Ricky Carmichael was standing on a triple, helping a tractor operator shape the face of the jump to perfection. The first turn is extra wide this week, and two turns in, there is a cool step-on, step-on, step-off section right out of a left-hander. A set of ten whoops follows. The rhythm lanes look pretty straight forward with obvious jump sequences.
Chad Reed and the whole TwoTwo Motorsports team seem to be in high spirits this morning, and during the track walk they kept things light, laughing and making jokes as they surveyed the track.
Make sure to keep it locked here on Racer X Online, and follow us on twitter, @racerxonline, for updates on the action from Oakland, all day long.
