Well I have to say, the Oatfield track is impressive the first time you see it. We rolled into the track at about 6:30AM on Saturday morning and it was still dark, but as the sun started to come up and the track became visible, all I can say is WOW, does that dirt look good. We took a track walk and you would sink over your shoes in many places, and it wasn’t mud, just deep loamy dirt. There is a bit of an odd smell around, but you get used to it. The track is layed out well. The start is a gentle uphill with a big right handed sweeper that funnels you into a hairpin right. Out of that turn you begin a long left handed sweeper into the first of many jumps on the track. Nearly all of the jumps are good sized. The first one is a triple of sorts, it’s more of a tabletop with a big lip and two landings depending on how far you want go. After you land you hit a sharp 90 degree turn that got big breakers coming into it. This turn spits you out into a right handed sweeper turn that gets ROUGH, huge ruts and bumps form. Your next jump is good sized triple, (70-80 foot range), it looked easy and safe to double or triple it. The next couple of corners were easy 90 degree turns with short but fast straights with small step up leading into a right hander that dumped you out into a small whoop section. Pros and Inters would quad in and skim out; most Novice riders would triple in the either skim out or double through the rest. The whoops were followed by a left hander into a downhill that had a big 180 degree flat turn at the bottom, which got 4 or 5 deep ruts. This turn shot you into a tall step jump that is really skinny for some reason. The next turn was flat and left handed. Then came the big downhill triple. Not many people jump it, mostly intermediates, pros and faster novices. Then another flat 180 turn with big ruts and lots of lines followed by the finish line triple. A couple of small turns and a rhythm section and you are connected back to the main track.
This was the 4th Round of the AMP/GFI Fall series and the 3rd Round of the E Street Fall series. Lots of Norcal members were in attendance.
The racing was super good. The first pro moto put rookie Pro Justin Posey against the sophomore Pro Brad Kelly side by side down the start straight and into the first two turns. They were bar to bar. Brad took the early lead with Posey in tow, until Posey bobbled a few laps later and went down.
Dylan Lane and Gared Steinke battled all day long. In one of the second motos near the end of the day, Lane followed Steinke around until the last lap and made a hard pass and pushed Steinke up into the cheap seats and took the win.
The standout of the day was Novice rider Keith Knight. He didn’t lose a moto all day. He won the 250 Novice class aboard his new Honda 450 and looked smooth every time he took the track.
All in all it was a great day with fun racing. If you are thinking about making the trip, I highly recommend it.
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