How often do you get invited to go out and ride a new private track that is only accessible if you know somebody or if you are a pro? Those are the rules I swear! In my case, I know somebody, so even without a bike at the moment I figured I could shoot some photos of this new private Shangri-La and do a few hot laps on my buddy's bike. It took us about an hour and a half to get there which is the furthest I have had to go to ride, but it was well worth the drive. For the moment the owner would like to keep the locale and the name hush-hush as his home is also on the property and I don't think he has any intentions of opening the place to the public anytime soon, sorry about that.

The first thing I noticed as we neared the end of the mile-long driveway was a lot of trees. As we pulled through the gate I saw beautifully groomed dirt getting some water from a sprinkler system and for the parts they couldn't reach he had not one, but two watering trucks. Add to that a couple of dozers and he has more equipment than most of the big tracks. We pulled over a hill to find even more track that couldn't be seen from the entrance. I guess the average lap time for a decent pro is about 2 minutes so needless to say the place isn't small.

What was the best part of the day? As I was shooting photos of Scott Champion laying it flat over and over up a 4th gear tapped uphill triple, a big fat #2 Honda went flying by! Yeah, The King Jeremy McGrath had entered the building and left no doubt in my mind why he was The King. I could watch his effortless style for hours, and as you can see if you look at his eyes in some of the photos, he is always looking ahead like a Champ always does. He did lay it out just above my head, hooting and hollering as he flew by. After all these years you can sense that he still loves to ride. Along with The King, "Factory" Phil Lawrence was on the gas riding a #101 Honda. Not to be outdone, Ron Lechien was out there hauling ass, and when Jeff Matiasevich showed up, he showed he still had speed too.

Take a look at the photos and let me know what you think!

--BDW