The great outdoors are here! The Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship makes its triumphant return, kicking off at Hangtown. A staple of the series, Hangtown lies just outside Sacramento, California, the pride of NorCal moto. While it’s true that the first two rounds of the series have California addresses, they couldn’t be more different. Hangtown has its own unique identity even if the track has changed significantly over the years.

The fan base is pure moto and they turn out in droves on Thursday and Friday for the amateur event. I have spent a lot of time in this area both in my racing years and since, always leaving there with a reverence for the local riding contingent and the Dirt Diggers that put the event on.

The track is a tricky one. The base is rock hard. Go back and watch events from decades ago and you’ll see just how much work the track crew puts in to create a nice racetrack in modern times. Tons and tons of dirt is hauled in to soften up the concrete like base. That dirt is difficult to mix in, though, making for tricky areas where soft meets hard. One section of muddy ruts can lead into wet, icy hard pack. It’s tough for riders to find the right setting, tough for tire choice, and tough for suspension and chassis experts to interpret data and feedback. On one hand, the rider will want a soft setting to allow for traction in those icy areas. Softer settings give a better feel and more grip. The flip side of that are the fast downhills and deep sections. Those downhills beg for stiffer forks, creating more confidence and preventing a huge endo if things go wrong. It’s a balancing act and honestly, never feels just right. This track forces compromise, and compromise will always have riders complaining. My best advice is to find the most comfortable setup possible and then put it out of your mind. I was never able to find a “perfect” setting at this race, so it was a waste of energy chasing it. I put my focus on adjusting my riding to the track instead of chasing a magical setting that in 16 years was unable to find anyway.

A big factor looming could be the weather. Forecasts have steadily deteriorated in recent days, calling for rain leading up to and through the weekend. We have seen mud here before, most notably the 1991 deluge. I don’t think we will see anything of Biblical proportions but if it does rain, we could have another 2002 version on our hands. The hard base of Hangtown doesn’t do much in the way of water absorption so if the rain does come, it accumulates quickly. It would be more of a water laden track than mud, wreaking havoc on eyes and engines. The soft dirt would get scraped off by track crews in hopes of salvaging the track, leaving nothing but rock-hard earth below. That hard base will repel the water, then flowing downhill and pooling into low spots. That’s not much fun for racing and very hard on engines as it splashes into air-boxes. None of this sounds like a good Saturday to open the series. Let’s hope the forecast changes as it’s known to do in northern California.